What Drivers Said: Talladega
Graphic courtesy Dylan Bauerle Racing
Ross Chastain - No. 1 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet - WINNER:
You were a lap down at one point in this race. Take me through the crazy last lap. You stayed on the bottom. Things just opened up for you: “Holy cow. I'm always the one going to the top too early, making the mistake. There at the end it was like eight to go, I was like, I'm not going up there again. I did that a couple times today. I was like, I'll just ride on the bottom. If it works, I'm not going to lose the race for us, I'll just let them. .. They kept going up, kept moving out of the way.”
You come to Trackhouse Racing this season. Could you ever imagine this amount of success this early on in your tenure here? “No. Are you kidding me? You know me. I've wrecked myself so many times and gotten into it with guys. I've probably got a watermelon seed. This is a true seedless.
"Justin Marks (Trackhouse Racing majority owner) and what he laid out for us was ambitious. ... We started the year with a lot of races open (lacked sponsorship). We're almost full now. It's because of the vision of Justin Marks and Pitbull (Armando Perez). Armando, we won, yeah!”
Austin Dillon - No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Chevrolet - Finished Second: "We came from eighth there on that last lap, just kind of rode the bottom and got people baited off the top. We had a good push there at the end. I think I was actually the one to push the one to the win. I gave him a good shove off of four and he kind of just drove away."
Kyle Busch - No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota - Finished Third: “It was just hard to pass all day. Really there at the end if two lanes were formed and they were pushing, there wasn’t really enough for a third lane to form to get any speed going. It was just kind of a stuck in line, if you will, in the first few lanes, but overall, the Interstate Batteries Camry performed to the best we could. We got up front there and we got shucked out of line. Every time we got up front, we got shucked out of line. That was frustrating. Thankfully we were able to salvage and get back some of those guys that were getting a little bit squirrely at the end and get ourselves a P3, so we will take it and go on.”
Kyle Larson - No. 5 hendrickcars.com Chevrolet - Finished Fourth:
When you got out of the car, you said, I made a mistake. What would you have done differently? "I feel like I did a pretty near perfect job for me at a superspeedway until the last lap there. ... I think I just kind of faked going high, then went back low. I had that run. Ross helped me with that run. It kind of baited me into going to the outside. Just a little inexperience probably there.
"But really proud of my team. We did a great job executing all race long. The car was great. I felt like we could push people great. I felt like we could receive pushes well. Yeah, like I said, really proud of them.
"Honestly, (this is) the first time I've had a legit shot at winning a plate race in the Cup Series. I'm happy about that. When you're close, I was in the exact position I wanted to be in, I didn't want to be leading. I felt like I did a good job with patience and stuff. Made one small mistake there and it cost me the win."
Martin Truex, Jr. - No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet - Finished Fifth:
What was it like there at the end? “It got a little hairy there at the end. Guys just made bonsai moves, coming from everywhere, but we were able to put our Bass Pro Shops Camry in a pretty good spot there. We ran up front all day. We are just outnumbered. We get outnumbered. You get up there and run with 10 Chevys and you are the lone Toyota, you can’t do anything. You are stuck. You just have to ride in line. It was a tough day from that standpoint, but overall, it was a good day. Top-fives in both stages, I think, and the race. We have had a tough couple of weeks, so we needed that, but you always want to win.
Erik Jones - No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet - Finished Sixth: Such a strong run today. Where did it go wrong? I mean, just the last lap, right? It's typical here. Been close here so many times, in this race and the fall race. U.S. Air Force Chevy had good speed, felt good to be up front.
"Coming there that last lap, we were single file. I felt pretty good about it. They kind of doubled up behind us. That top lane was getting some momentum. Looking back, I wish I would have stayed at the bottom and let the 1 push me. I didn't realize they were coming with that much speed.
"But try to defend on the 5, you're too far ahead already right here. Obviously a defense on the 5 kind of gives the door to the 1. It is what it is. You're trying to just win the race. You can only see how much is going on from the seat. You're trying to make the best decision you can the last 1500 feet.
"Happy to run up front, lead laps. Would really love to get the 43 in Victory Lane. I thought today might be the day. All day long we were fast and had speed. Especially being up front there at the end, the last 10, I knew we had a shot, but just couldn't quite close it out."
Michael McDowell - No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford - Finished Eighth: “Unfortunately it wasn’t a great day for us but we salvaged a good finish out of it. We really struggled with just handling today which you wouldn’t think at Talladega. But at the same time, we got ourselves in position there at the end when it counted. I thought with three to go that something was going to happen so I repositioned myself and built a run and was able to weave through there on the last lap. It is just so hard to pass today. It was hard to make moves from sixth or seventh to the lead. In the front row, everybody was just kind of jammed up. It is just a different style of racing even more so here than it was at Daytona with this NextGen car. I have a lot to study and go back and learn and figure out how to make the moves. I am proud of everyone. Coming out of here with a top-10 is a great day. I wish we could have had a shot at it but we just weren’t there at the end.”
Kevin Harvick - No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford - Finished 10th: “We had a good Ford Mustang. We just got a little behind on that last pit sequence and lost some track position. I just would kind of get up halfway and fall back, get up, and fell back. That was just kind of how the day went for us and we made it to the finish.”
Ryan Blaney - No. 12 Wurth Ford - Finished 11th: “You can’t pass anybody here anymore. It is hard to pass everywhere but it is the same thing at speedways now. You can’t really make a third lane. I don't know what the problem is with it. I thought we had a decent shot at going but we got stuck when someone jammed it in there three-wide and shuffled us out toward the end and we just couldn’t get it back up there.”
Justin Haley - No. 31 Leaffilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet - Finished 12th: “It was a good day in our No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL1. We stayed clean, we just didn’t execute at the end. I’m proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing for working hard and helping us to be able to stay up front and have an opportunity to contend for the win.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr - No. 47 Kroger/Sunny D Chevrolet - Finished 30th:
Some of the guys said they could kind of see (the wreck he was involved in) coming. Could you, just with the way the energy of the pack was going? “I thought it was fairly smooth, really. I didn’t even see what happened, so I’ve got really no clue what actually happened. You wouldn’t think on a restart that you would have any issues, but apparently someone didn’t push in the right spot I guess. Again, I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know. I thought it was pretty calm, really, the whole race. Just kind of two-by-two. We really couldn’t get the third lane going.
I felt like our No. 47 Kroger/SunnyD Camaro was really good. I really wanted to get up and lead one of the lines. I felt like we had a car capable of pulling up and leading. I felt really fast and it drove really good. Just a bummer that we didn’t really get that opportunity.”
Were you close to being able to get it fixed? “No, I was just riding around so we could beat a few of the people that were already in the garage. It destroyed the right-front. So, not close at all.”
Daniel Suarez - No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet - FInished 31st:
You led some laps today and had a shot at a win. “Our Camaro was fast. I was really happy with how the car was driving. I wasn’t good in traffic. I felt like we needed to make an adjustment or two. We made an adjustment and the car was much better by the end of the run. We just needed a little track position.
I felt like we were being patient, just trying to wait for the right time to try and get aggressive and get in the right position. I don’t even know what happened. I just saw the No. 22 (Joey Logano) sideways, wrecking, in the top lane. Unfortunately, we were just in a bad position.”
No way to avoid it? “No, there was nothing I could have done, unfortunately. I wish there was something I could have done different, but unfortunately not.
The team was trying to repair it, but was there just too much damage? “Yeah, I couldn’t keep the car straight. I don’t know, something broke in the steering. The car was going left and right by itself. I wasn’t going to be able to stay on track.”
Joey Logano - No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford - Finished 32nd:
What did you feel behind the wheel? “I felt a lot of things that didn’t feel good, I will tell you that much. The car got banged up pretty good there. We were getting pushed back and forth and I was the one that got shuffled to the right and hit the wall and came back in front of the field. That is superspeedway racing.”
What was the intensity like as far as the pushing? “Yeah, it is going to happen again. It keeps happening every week and every time we come to a superspeedway and it is going to happen again here in a little bit. Hopefully everyone stays okay.”
Ty Dillon - No. 42 Black Rifle Coffee Company Chevrolet - Finished 33rd:
You had a good race going. You were just an innocent bystander. What did you feel there? “Yeah, that was tough. I felt like I shifted to fifth gear to get in high gear and then all of a sudden, I saw the 22 and there was no where I could go. Just a bystander. As soon as Stage Two started, I could feel the energy just wasn’t the same and it had ramped up for whatever reason with way too many laps to go. Every year we come back; you have to finish the race to have a chance. So, we are bump drafting doing silly things with way too many laps to go. I’m bummed for our guys at Black Rifle Coffee and our guys at Petty GMS. We had a fast, fast Camaro and couldn’t keep it outside the top 15 and just kind of doing my thing that I’d been successful doing here at these speedways. Trying to be smart and stay out of trouble and manage the race. It’s a chess match and you’ve got to use your brain a little bit at these races to have a shot and some people don’t ever realize that every time we come back.”
Harrison Burton - No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford - Finished 34th: “Unfortunately we were just kind of a victim there. I tried to be smart all race and bailed out of a pack for like the first time in my superspeedway career but still found a way to crash. That is frustrating because I always want to try to learn to get better but I don't know what I could have done differently there.”
How different was this from Daytona? “Quite a bit different. The top wasn’t quite as fast as it was at Daytona. I felt like when I got out in front at Daytona I wanted to maintain the outside. Here it was like the bottom was chugging along pretty good. It was hard to get runs. The bottom had about 10-15 cars lined up and it was hard to leapfrog all those guys. It was pretty different but at the end, I think it is going to be pretty racey for these guys.”
Daniel Hemric - No. 16 Majestic Steel Chevrolet - Finished 36th: “We were up there mixing it up, pushing and getting a little more aggressive. That had nothing to do with us getting crashed. We were simply riding in the bottom lane. We had been flirting on temperatures the whole run. I was able to poke my nose in and out enough to cool it down. It definitely got probably 10 to 15 degrees hotter than it had been all race. I tried to make a valid effort there to get it halfway lower on the back straightaway to get clean air to the motor. I had a tone change in the engine. We didn’t lose power, so I assumed it was just myself getting my car in clean air. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, then I lost a cylinder and the engine blew up. I ran out of time to get my hand out. To slow down at such a rapid pace, the No. 3 (Austin Dillon) got into me and I was just trying to catch it from there on. I hate it for everybody that got caught up in that. There were a couple of big hits it looked like; it felt like anyways. I’m disappointed, for sure. I’m super thankful for the opportunity with Kaulig Racing. Just not the way you want it to go.”
You tried to correct it. What was it like just trying to keep it off the banking? “These cars, in general, are very, very sensitive to sitting back on the left rear. That’s just naturally the way all teams go about trying to make speed with them. I couldn’t get it off the left rear enough and it steered right. When that happens, you know whatever comes next is not going to be good. I’m glad everyone is OK.”
Chase Briscoe - No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford - Finished 37th: “Just towards the end of the stage and we were trying to get stage points because at the end of this deal you never know what can happen. That is not normally the mentality I would go with. I normally try to ride around and wait until the end. It seems like we always get so desperate towards the end of the stages. I felt like if I could ge to the bottom I could get to eighth or ninth if I was lucky. Looking back that obviously wasn’t the right decision. The 16, I don't know what happened to him. I know I got into the back of somebody and then the 16, I saw him on the apron and he kind of landed in my lap when I came back across the race track. It was a hard hit but I feel a lot better than I thought I was going to when I saw the hit coming. All good. Unfortunate to kind of have a huge hole points-wise now. I guess we go to Dover next week and see if we can have a better result.”
It looked like a “giddy-up” racetrack out there. “Yeah, it was going to be fun I thought. I felt like the cars were way more stable than Daytona so you could get way more aggressive. It was weird, you couldn’t build runs. I was hitting the rev limiter anytime I had a run at all. It was going to be really hard to develop a huge run.”
Chris Buscher - No. 17 Fastenal Ford - Finished 38th: “That is speedway racing I guess. We were running there at the tail end of that lead group and it felt like we had time to react. I saw a car hit the apron and I am not exactly sure what happened. The last I saw they were straight and I didn’t expect anything. I don't really know what happened as we were going by. Someone got clipped and I think we hit the 14 really hard. I am glad to see him out here walking. I am not even sure who the other car was. That is a bummer to be out that early for something as goofy as that.”
How was the stability for you guys? “The car bounced a little bit and the ride qualifying is a little rough but our group did a really good job of getting a good balance in the race car. We had a lot of speed, we were just trying to find a way to go and trying to be patient and trying to work with Brad some and some of the other Fords to try to find our way and learn. We weren’t being aggressive at all yet, so it is definitely a bummer.”