What Drivers Said: Darlington Raceway
Joey Logano - No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford - WINNER:
Describe the last few laps of the race? “Just an incredible race there at the end with William. I don’t know if he meant to get into me and fence me, but he did and at that point I felt like it was game on and was able to get back to him there the last few laps, pushing really hard, and just knew that was my shot to win the thing and I had to take it. Man, I’m so proud of this team. It’s so cool to win in this car. This is my first quarter midget. This is the beginning and to see it in Victory Lane, I’m just so proud. My family is here. My mom, my dad. Happy Mother’s Day. My sister is here. Everybody is here. My wife is not here, unfortunately, and my kids, but this is a very special day to be able to get this one in Victory Lane and celebrate with a few of us here.”
How important was to bounce back after the sub par week? “Such a huge recovery. Last week was the lowest of lows and the week before that we wrecked at Talladega, so to come out of here and get the pole, get a stage win and then ultimately win the race at the end, I couldn’t be more excited about what we just did. The guys did an amazing job back here. The pit crew was great. The pit stall helped a lot. I tell you, winning at Darlington means so much. This is one that’s come very close to me a few times and have never been able to get it done, so proud to get it.”
This is a track every driver wants to win at. What does it mean to you? “Oh, man. You kind can kind of look at it as Throwback Weekend and there’s so much footage that everybody plays throughout the weekend of all the old races, all the legends that have raced here and say they’ve won here. It’s nice to put your name on that list. This is where a lot of it started for NASCAR, so to get one here and, like I said, this quarter midget. I said it on the frontstretch, but it just goes to show all the young kids racing, whether its quarter midgets, Bandeleros, Legends cars, Outlaw cars, whatever it may be, stick to your dreams. That was the advice that Mario Andretti gave me when I was a kid. He gave me a signed poster and it said Never Stop Chasing Your Dreams, and this is what can happen, so pretty cool.”
Tyler Reddick - No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet - Finished Second:
Talk to me about those closing laps on the final restart. “William (Byron) did a really good job on the restart to get by Joey (Logano). There was a little bit of contact there, so I don’t know if that’s why Joey got back to William. It also kind of looked like Joey was going under and William kind of faded down. I was hoping they were going to blow their momentum a little bit more than they did, but it didn’t turn out that way. All-in-all, it was a good rebound for our No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet team. We pitted for a vibration pretty early in the race that could have derailed our whole day, but we were able to bounce back from it.”
We saw a lot of issues in Turn 2. How treacherous was corner all day? “I didn’t think turn two was honestly that bad. It’s just so gripped up over there with it being repaved. But when you’re in dirty air, it makes it really unpredictable and really narrows up. These cars are a little bit wider than the old cars and they do not like the bump transitioning from the new asphalt to the old asphalt. It was definitely pretty rough from the start.”
Do you like racing at Darlington? “Yeah, Darlington (Raceway) is fun. It’s a frustrating place. You let your guard down for one second and your whole day can change. It’s one of the most difficult tracks that we go to, especially trying to manage the dirty air; trying to manage your right side and not tearing it off. A lot of options when you go into each corner here, so it makes it really fun, but also pretty frustrating until you figure it out.”
Justin Haley - No. 31 LeafGuard Gutter Protection Chevrolet - Finished Third: “This isn’t the best car we’ve brought to the race track unloading after practice. But we just kept after it all day. Some great strategy from this No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevy team. We had a good restart there at the end and we just kind of hung on. We didn’t have a fourth-place car, but it’s a great finish. This was my best Cup finish besides that win. To do it here at Darlington (Raceway), to get a fourth, it’s pretty special. It was a good run. We’ll take this to next week and see what we can do at Kansas (Speedway).”
Kevin Harvick - No. 4 Rheem Ford - Finished Fourth: “I felt like we finished probably better than we should have, but I think the guys did a good job on pit road with our Rheem Ford Mustang and just kind of one side or the other. The last run was probably the best that we were, just being able to hold on. We just couldn’t hold on once it started getting cooler, but we wound up with a good call there and got the caution and wound up in the right spot and then were able to capitalize on it.”
Chase Elliott - No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet - Finished Fifth: “We just kind of survived, really. It wasn’t anything spectacular by any means. I thought we had our No. 9 NAPA Chevy in a pretty good spot there on a couple occasions. It was just kind of a matter of how you restarted; whether you had a fortunate set of circumstances that your lane went forward and you were able to get a couple of spots here and a couple spots there. And then you ride around pretty much the rest of the time, unless it gets messed up and then you might be able to pass somebody in the last five laps or so in a run. And then you hope your pit stops are really fast and then hope you do a good job on the next restart.”
Christopher Bell - No. 20 Sirius/XM Toyota - Finished Sixth:
How were you able to recover from the final pit stop to a top-10 finish? “This SiriusXM Camry was excellent as these No. 20 cars are every time we go to the race track. Last week at Dover, it felt like we had a car capable of winning and had unfortunate circumstances take us out of it. And then you know kind of the same thing today. That yellow was the big unfortunate moment whenever the yellow came out and kind of flipped the strategy. Overall, really proud to be at Joe Gibbs Racing and proud for all of our partners on this 20 car. Maybe one of these days we’ll be up there.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - No. 47 Kroger/Nature Valley Chevrolet - Finished Eighth: “It was a battle. We weren’t very good to start. I think the track conditions got a little better for us as it cooled off. But we battled all day. My No. 47 Kroger / Nature Valley Chevrolet team made good adjustments and the cautions fell the right way. I felt like we had really good strategy on that last long run, which put us in the top-five when the caution came out. I felt like we were in a really good spot to run top-five; and then the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) got us in the fence there and I was really tight after that. Two top-10’s in a row is nothing to be too bummed about. That was a battle. We weren’t very good, but we made something out of it.”
Austin Dillon - No. 3 Huk Performance Fishing Chevrolet - Finished Ninth: “What an unbelievable day at Darlington Raceway. We faced so much as a team so it feels really good to get a ninth-place finish in the Huk Chevrolet. We had to make a green-flag stop in Stage 1 but fought back to take the wave-around and get back on the lead lap. Our Chevy was really good on the long run, but we struggled on the short run, especially in dirty air. I was starting to wonder how many times I could hit the wall without having issues. We overcame two speeding penalties today, so it says a lot about our team to be able to overcome those and finish in the top-10.”
Daniel Suarez - No. 99 Coca-Cola Chevrolet - Finished Tenth: “It was a good day for our No. 99 Coca-Cola Chevrolet team. I feel like we did a good job making adjustments. Track position was huge and the pit crew did an amazing job all day. We only had one issue there, but there’s nothing we can do about that. It’s not 100 percent under our control. We have to keep working and keep building. I feel like we can be better and come back stronger.”
William Bryon - No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet - Finished 13th:
We just heard from Joey Logano and it sounded like it was almost a retaliation thing. Did you guys have something happen before that? “No, I mean, we were really close off of (turn) two and I think it spooked him and got him tight; and he was right against the wall and I got the lead. He does this stuff all the time. I've seen it with other guys. He drove in there 10 mph too fast, and with these Next Gen cars, he slammed me so hard it knocked the whole right side off the car and there was no way to make the corner. He can't win a race, so it does it that way. I don't know. It was close racing on the restart. We were faster than him. Obviously at the end, the right rear started to go away; and yeah, he didn't even make it a contest.”
Austin Cindric - No. 2 Menards/Libman Ford - Finished 18th: “We had an up and down day and kind of felt like it was a missed opportunity for our Menards/Libman Ford Mustang. We got way too loose in the middle of the race. We got the car driving really well and then about halfway we started having some engine problems and were really down on power that really prevented us from moving our way back forward through the field once we got back on the lead lap. It definitely was not meant to be. Every single caution that would have hurt our strategy came out exactly when it didn’t need to so just not ideal, but we certainly learned a lot as a team today and got our car driving well again in stage three, which I think there’s a lot to learn from that.”
Erik Jones - No. 43 FOCUSFactor Chevrolet - Finished 25th: “A tough end to our day. Our FOCUSFactor Chevrolet Camaro was a little on the tight side, but we stayed after it and I thought we had a shot at another top-10 finish. We’ll go back to the shop and refocus on next week at Kansas.”
Bubba Wallace - No. 23 MoneyLion Toyota - Finished 27th:
What happened that took you out of the race? “Just checked up in front of me and didn’t have enough time. You’re in the wood off of (turn) two there. Just trying to figure out what I did to piss off the racing gods. Another great car and another great finish that was going to be there and a disappointing result. Just frustrating. Thanks to MoneyLion. For sure, was going to have a top-10 car. That’s what we’ll put on the debrief, but the results don’t show that.”
Kurt Busch - No. 45 McDonald’s Toyota - Finished 28th:
What happened that took you out of the race? “I saw smoke and a car sideways. I thought I was through on the top side and got hit from behind. Everybody’s just ripping and gouging. It’s almost the last set of tires. We just had no luck today. No luck on pit road. The short run speed wasn’t there, but we were good on the long run, but just didn’t make it happen with the McDonald’s Toyota.”
Alex Bowman - No. 48 Ally Chevrolet - Finished 29th:
Quite a big fire, any idea what led to that? “I don’t know. Obviously, a pretty miserable day for our Ally Camaro. Greg (Ives) and the guys were working hard on it. I was just really out of the racetrack; didn’t make any grip and we could be super tight or super loose. Either way, we were really slow. And then something broke and it just went straight. We hit the wall and then whatever is on fire now. Bummed for the guys. It was a pretty miserable day.”
Ross Chastain - No. 1 Coca-Cola Chevrolet - Finished 30th: “We had a super strong day for our No. 1 Coca-Cola Chevy Camaro. We were fighting the balance all day. We were racing with those guys for the lead. I just thought I could run the bottom there off of turn two and the exit of the patch. I just got loose on the transition and spun out. Aside from that, it was a perfect day on the track and on pit road. I’m proud of the effort; proud of the grip that our car had. We’ll come back here in the fall and give ourselves another shot.”
Kyle Busch - No. 18 M&M’s Toyota - Finished 33rd:
What happened that took you out of the race? “Just the 6 (Brad Keselowski) blew a right-front tire coming off of turn two. I had nowhere to go and just got collected up in something not of our doing. It’s frustrating. We had a good M&M’s Camry and it was nice to be able to run in the top-five and lead some laps there. Just felt like we were trying to debate on the setup there between the short run versus the long run and where we wanted to be good and what all was going to pay dividends at the end of the day.”
Why did you leave the race car on pit road rather than driving to the garage? “I just couldn’t make it turn.”
Brad Keselowski - No. 6 Socios Ford - Finished 34th: “I just blew a tire. I’m pretty sure I ran over debris off of two. There had been debris there for about 25 laps and I think I finally got it. I just blew a tire and went straight. That’s part of it.”
Do you feel any worse for wear after that? “I mean, it doesn’t feel good, but it could be a lot worse.”
Kyle Larson - No. 5 hendrickcars.com Chevrolet - Finished 36th:
The guys in the booth were saying you spun, they wondered if that had anything to do with what happened here: “I was thinking that, as well. With these cars, you don’t want to lock the tires up because you’ll get a flat and it really tears your car up. I definitely rolled backwards some. That was my concern with why we blew up, but they said that probably didn’t have anything to do with it. Bummer. Our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was super good today, so that’s promising. I feel like maybe we hit on something here this weekend. I hate that we’re not going to get the finish that we deserve, but I’m proud of my team for the car they brought today.”