What Drivers Said: Viva Las Vegas edition
Want to know what your favorite driver had to say about Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: Check it out:
Alex Bowman – No. 48 Ally Chevrolet – Winner: “I just can't thank Ally and Chevrolet, everybody from Hendrick Motorsports enough. This thing was so fast all day. Never had the track position we needed to show it. Man, what a call by Greg Ives (crew chief) and the guys to take two (tires) there. Obviously it paid off. Racing Kyle (Larson) is always fun. Got to race him for a couple wins. We've always raced each other super clean and super respectfully. Just can't say enough about these guys. It's been a pretty awful start to the year, so to come out here and get a win on a last restart deal is pretty special.”
Kyle Larson – No. 5 Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet – Finished 2nd: “I was happy we made that call. It’s kind of what I wanted to do and when I heard them say we were taking two tires, I was pleased by it. The grip was surprising. I had good grip there on two tires. I just got a little too focused on side-drafting him into (turn) three. Maybe if I could play it back again, I would try and just get a better arc and angle into three because when I got in there next to him, I just got really tight and had to lift out of the throttle. Congrats to Alex (Bowman) and their team. They were really fast all day. We had our moments where we were good and we just fought really hard. I’m happy with the effort from our team and look forward to Phoenix (Raceway).”
Ross Chastain – No. 1 ACM Awards Chevrolet – Finished 3rd: “Yeah, it's dream come true. This is what all the work is for. This is why we train and try to build our whole lives and careers once we realize we can race at this level, is to have race cars like that. I couldn’t be more proud of Trackhouse, and thankful for Justin Marks and Chevrolet. To have the ACM’s (Academy of Country Music Awards, to be aired Monday) on the car, be able to go over and hang out now tomorrow night is really cool. It took a lot of patience inside the car. It’s tough for me to not get too aggressive and a lot of neutral thinking. Josh Wise and a book by Trevor Moawad really helped me today. That’s progress.”
Kyle Busch – No. 18 Ethel M Chocolates Toyota – Finished 4th: “True testament to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Really appreciate my guys on the 18, but also the 11, 19 and 20 – all of them for coming over and pitching in. Everybody had a hand in being able to make us go today. So really appreciate that. Great Ethel M Chocolates Toyota Camry TRD Today. I mean, I was fast at the end and trying just to do what I could to hold the lead there with (Martin) Truex (Jr.). Felt like I inched away finally and we were coming to the white or something, I don’t know what it was, but anyways, it wasn’t meant to be. Not our day. See you next week.”
William Byron – No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet – Finished 5th: “Yeah, you know we had a good run. Congrats to Alex (Bowman). You know we needed a good run. We’ve had a rough couple weeks. We’ve had speed everywhere, but just not the finishes. Thanks to Axalta, Chevrolet, Liberty University, everybody on this car. Great to get a top five, obviously we want a win and I felt like there were times in this race that we had potential, but we just have to clean up some of the little things. We’ve got to clean up some of those things on pit road and get a little better and I think we will have a shot to win.”
Aric Almirola – No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford – Finished 6th: “We fight. That’s the beauty of this race team. We’re still learning this car. There’s a lot to learn about it and we’re still trying to figure a lot of things out. Practice is great, but we’ve got to make adjustments throughout the race and I feel like every race we’re learning more and more and more and we’re building a notebook. We’re making adjustments throughout the race and trying to figure it out. This team has so much fight in it and so much grit that it’s a lot of fun to race with these guys. We’ll keep digging and try and keep this streak alive of all these top 10 finishes. It’s a lot of fun when you run upfront. Drew (crew chief Drew Blickensderfer) has been doing a great job of making good adjustments throughout the race and just getting the car better and better. We take the first half of the race and it’s really about learning. We make adjustments. If they’re no good, we go back on them and just keep fine-tuning on the car to get it to where we need to get it and, usually, the last few weeks we’ve gotten the car where we needed to have it at the end of the race. It’s been nice. It’s so much fun to race with this group of guys and everybody that supports us – Mobil 1. Our Ford Mustang was fast. We’ve got some work to do to keep up with some of the other manufacturers. We’ve got to continue to do our homework, but, nonetheless, this is a great start to our season and a lot of fun.”
Christopher Bell – No. 20 DeWalt Toyota – Finished 10th: “I don’t know, I was able to get a decent finish out of it so that’s good to get a top-10. The DeWalt Camry was fast and I felt like we were capable of racing for the win. The 18 and the 19 looked like they had it before the yellow came out and I was every bit as good as them. Just have to put it all together. I feel good. Our stuff is obviously really fast. I enjoy the racing product that we have. It seems NASCAR is really heavy on the high drag stuff and we still get draft runs and it’s low downforce. I think it’s good, we just have to put it all together as drivers.”
Austin Dillon – No. 3 Breztri Chevrolet – Finished 11th: “I’m proud of everyone … for fighting hard all day long at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The racing was intense today, and even though we fell behind early with a on-track incident we never gave up. We thought strategically to save tires when we got behind, and the team made great calls in the pits today. We were loose in Stage 1 but ended up pretty decent in Stage 2. We were tight by the end of the day and couldn’t keep rotating after a couple of laps. I’m not sure if it was a heat thing, or what, but we really struggled in the air in traffic today. We made the best of the day and finished 11th, so I am incredibly proud of everyone on the team for never giving up. It’s on to Phoenix Raceway to continue this West Coast swing.”
Joey Logano – No. 22 Pennzoil Ford – Finished 14th: “We were tight and at the start we just weren’t very good. We made some adjustments and got better to where we were a sixth or seventh-place car, which would have been a decent recovery all things considered and then we just gave up a bunch at the end.”
Harrison Burton – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford – Finished 16th: “I felt like we had a real up-and-down day. We ended up in the wall trying to miss a crash and then ended up hitting somebody trying to miss a crash. Every time we would get any track position we seemed to lose it. It’s a track position race and lots of challenges trying to pass, but overall it was a pretty decent day for us. The finish at least was better than where we had been at times and worse than what we had been quick enough to run at times, but at the end of the day we’re building, so this is a step. We actually finished the race and got some points and we’re just trying to build towards the right direction as a group and try to make our group better as quick as we can.”
Justin Haley – No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet – Finished 17th: “Overall, it was a pretty good day for us. We were able to repair the No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet from California, so to come away with a top 20, I think, is a win for us. We made some great gains, but there’s still some things we have to work on as a team to capitalize on the effort.”
Austin Cindric – No. 2 Discount Tire Ford – Finished 19th: “Obviously not an ideal day for our Discount Tire Ford. We really struggled being tight early on in the race and lost a little bit of our track position. I felt like we were hanging tough in the top 15 and had a lot of potential to make the car a little bit better. We decided to go off strategy and keep scuffs on the car and unfortunately that played out and had us getting fenced for some position outside the top 20. Then we had a right-rear tire come apart and had to pit right before the yellow came out, which trapped us two down. Recovering for a top 20 is I guess a decent recovery, but definitely not what we were wanting or hoping for today, but definitely learned a lot and hopefully it’s something we can carry forward.”
Daniel Hemric – No. 16 South Point Chevrolet – Finished 22nd: “We fought some adversity again this week with some brake issues and sustaining some damage to the nose of the car. That’s not how we drew it up, but I’m really proud of the effort everyone at Kaulig Racing made today. Sometimes 22nd feels like a win, and that’s what today felt like in this No. 16 South Point Camaro ZL1.”
Denny Hamlin – No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota – Finished 32nd: “We broke the transaxle. Just killed every gear when I left pit road. We had the best car today. Just got back there and was working our way forward and made mistakes.”
Cole Custer – No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford – Finished 33rd: “Something happened under the hood. I’m not sure what it was. It was a very eventful day for sure. We started in the back and then we started making progress, but had to go to the back again. Then we spun and had to go to the back one more time, so it was just an eventful day and didn’t end very well. We’ll just move onto the next one. I think we had a solid car. We finally got running good at the end and it was shaping up to be a solid day, but it didn’t work out.”
Chase Briscoe – No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford – Finished 35th: “I don’t know (what happened). We were running really good and then the 34 stayed out that one time on tires and kind of just messed us up. We lost a lot of track position and then he got loose and I was so sideways. I came across and got the 99. I don’t know if that damaged it or what, but I would say the last 5-10 laps before I finally spun out the rear was bouncing really, really bad and I think it broke something or the tire went down. I don’t know. I just went in the corner and the thing spun out. It’s just really unfortunate. I thought we were gonna be really, really good. We’ve had good speed all year long, so we’ll just try to dig out of a hole next week.”
Ryan Blaney – No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford – Finished 36th: “The 6 (Brad Keselowski) spun out on his own right in front of me and I plowed into him. I’m not happy about anything and I don’t mean to be happy about anything when someone loses it right in front of you and ends our day. I won’t call it bad luck, but when someone just spins out in front of you and wipes you out, there’s nothing to be happy about. We had a pretty fast car and nothing to show for it.”
Daniel Suarez – No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet – Finished 37th: “I haven’t seen the replay yet, so I’m not sure what happened. I do know that the No. 14 (Chase Briscoe) clipped me in the right rear. The reason why, I don’t know. I don’t know what to say. He got loose and he clipped me. He didn’t do it intentionally, but it was unfortunate."
Follow Brian Eberly on Twitter @BEberly18.