Chase Briscoe — winner: “At the end, that was way harder than it needed to be. Man, what an incredible Toyota. It was fun to finally be behind the wheel of it. So cool to win two Southern 500s in a row. This is my favorite race of the year. Just because every time we come here, the place is sold out, the atmosphere here is like nowhere else.A great way to start our Playoffs. That was a lot of fun. I think this is definitely what we’re capable of doing. We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that. The potential has been there from Day One.”
Tyler Reddick — second: “The one time we got ahead of (Briscoe), we were just a little too tight, and he was able to get back by us. I think he were better than he was on long runs, he could just fire off a lot better. That was the difference tonight. I could get close. It unfortunately seemed that last run, the balance wasn’t quite as good as it’s been. Overall a really solid night for points in the playoffs. But man, yeah, I really want to win here. It’s frustrating to finish second going for it. I wish I could have been just a little bit closer.”
Reddick laments loss despite strong points day
Tyler Reddick feels he was better on the long run than Chase Briscoe, but he ultimately falls short in the Southern 500 despite pocketing a solid points day for the playoffs.
Erik Jones — third: “I felt like we were probably a little bit better than both of them. I just couldn’t get the run. I thought I had (Reddick) there with five to go, there was a little bit of a hole, and he filled it. It’s hard to be that close. Would have liked to have had another (Southern 500). We were right there all day, good speed. We just need more of that. Hopefully we keep these cars rolling and get one soon.”
John Hunter Nemechek — fourth: “I wish we more laps. The more that I ran, the better that I was. I hated to see that caution there at the end, because I felt like we were in a really good spot, long run speed wise with the green flag cycle coming and everything else. Just not a lot of short run speed but we made the most of it. Proud of the effort from everyone at Legacy Motor Club. We continue to get better. It is pretty cool to have (Erik Jones) to finish in third and fourth at the Southern 500. I know I’m proud of the drive for myself. I’m proud of the effort. I’m proud of Travis (Mack, crew chief), and everyone that has been putting a lot into our Toyotas and making them faster. It feels good to come home fourth. I think that is my career-best finish in the Cup Series. Hats off to Pye Barker, everyone that has supported me through my career. Thank you to Jimmie (Johnson) and Toyota for taking a chance on me to kind of revamp my career and getting me back to the Cup Series.”
Jones ‘couldn’t get the run’ on leaders late
Erik Jones recaps the final laps racing with Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick at Darlington and what more he needed to challenge for his third win at the track.
AJ Allmendinger — fifth: ““It feels awesome to get a top-five finish with our No. 16 Chevrolet. Darlington has owned me, and I’ve worked hard trying to study this place. Our Chevy was awesome all night. Trent Owens (crew chief) did a phenomenal job on the adjustments. We just kept fighting all race long. I’m constantly trying to learn around this place. My pit crew were absolutely phenomenal and that’s what got us near the front, and then we could just hold the track position. I’m just so proud of everyone on this team. It was a well-executed night all around. It just feels good to get around this place decent and come out with a strong finish.”
Bubba Wallace — sixth: “I was doing my best not to overdrive the croners the last couple of laps. Good day for our team. Great playoff run and just solid execution. We had a couple of mistakes on pit road, I had a couple of mistakes on the track, and we were able to rebound really well. Hats off to Toyota. I was really happy with the car to start. Obviously drove up there to the lead. When we got back in traffic, I just didn’t do a good job of relaying the right info. Midway through the race, I was having a conversation with myself that I was giving the wrong info, just needed to regroup. We were so far down chasing one side of the balance. All in all we didn’t oversail it. Hit base hits all day. I was counting down the laps one by one. Limit the mistakes. I seen a lot of people had bad days. I didn’t want to add to that factor. It’s what it’s all about, is just keeping the aggression levels in check, keeping the big picture in check, enjoying the moment. Here we are top six at Darlington.”
Bubba proud of rebound for sixth at Darlington
Bubba Wallace believes he and his team rebounded well at Darlington to secure a sixth-place finish and strong start to the Cup Series playoffs.
Denny Hamlin — seventh: “It’s just an execution type of race, and we’ve seen how difficult passing can be with this car at this track. It’s a monumental task going from 23rd in Stage 2 with that bad stop to come back with a top 10. It just took the entire time to get back there. I would have loved our shot with a clean day, but that’s the difference between winning and losing in NASCAR.”
Hamlin: Darlington is such an ‘execution race’
Denny Hamlin has mixed emotions about his day at Darlington and stresses the importance of execution at this race track.
Kyle Busch — eighth: “The No. 8 Chevrolet was a strong car tonight in Darlington. We got caught up in the wreck on the initial lap of the race, but thanks to the hard work of our pit crew, they got us back on track, and we raced our way towards the front of the field. We struggled on restarts, but our adjustments on pit stops kept us competitive and let us leave with a top-10 finish.”
Ross Chastain — 11th: “We were the best Chevrolet for a lot of the night. We were racing around the No. 5 (Kyle Larson), which we haven’t been doing much this year, so that was step one if we want to do anything this year in the playoffs. We had to be faster and we were. I was proud to be up there fighting with him and racing around him because he and the No. 24 (William Byron) have been the benchmark a lot of the year. To carry the flag for Chevrolet a lot tonight is something to be proud of. We just had a fueling issue there at the end and it took us back.”
Austin Cindric — 12th: “We had a decent start to the evening but got behind a little bit in Stage 2. We had a bad stop and kind of got ping-ponged around on a few of the restarts. Brian and the guys made some good adjustments, called great strategy throughout the whole race and had the car rolling pretty well at the end. It’s a solid finish. We were able to get some stage points, and obviously, others had a lot of issues, so I’m proud of the effort, but it’s still nothing to make you feel safe. You’ve still got to go execute like this for two more races. It’s easier said than done. We’re hoping to have a bit more contending speed next week. I thought we were super solid and properly executed the finish today, but we’re gonna keep needing to get more if we want to keep advancing forward.”
Brad Keselowski — 15th: “We had really good long run speed. Our short run was just kind of eh. We needed all 500 miles today, that’s for sure. We passed some cars there towards the end and got ourselves a solid finish, but we want to be a little better.”
Chase Elliott — 17th: “It was a really long night. Yeah, we had clawed our way up to the top 10 and tried to run really long on that one run. Everyone was being real aggressive with short-pitting so we tried to run long. And then yeah, as soon as we did that, the caution came out. It was honestly laughable at that juncture. Just came in and had an issue on pit road, had to put our heads down and grind out a top last. Just keep pushing at it. It’s been a long night for sure. We’ve got to put our heads together to try to figure out how to be better at Gateway and how to go faster.”
Darlington was ‘a really long night’ for Elliott
Chase Elliott could not find his rhythm at Darlington in what turned out to be “a really long night” for the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Ryan Blaney — 18th: “There were multiple instances, one on pit road. We had to start in the back and then getting spun off Turn 4 killed the splitter, and then we came from the back to 19th and then the caution came out as soon as we got to pit road and sent us all the way back again. Just about everything that could go wrong tonight went wrong. At least we recovered to where we did, which is OK. It just wasn’t a smooth night. I have no idea. Everything that happened to us tonight was somebody else’s fault, so I don’t know. Maybe they’ve got to figure it out a little better.”
Kyle Larson — 19th: “It was a good thing we were able to get those stage points early. I felt pretty average all night. We had a lot of stack-ups on the restarts. I’m not sure why, but we had a big one there in the final stage and we just struggled after that. I’m not sure if the splitter got bent up or what happened, but it just took all my problems and made it all worse. We also had radio issues and all sorts of other problems, so to have a bad race and still gain on the cutline is rewarding. Obviously, we want more on this No. 5 Chevrolet team. It’s typically a good track for us, so I’m not sure, but we’ll regroup and hopefully rebound in the next two races.”
Joey Logano — 20th: “We just didn’t go fast. Just couldn’t get a handle on the car. Either the front was plowing or the rear was loose and sometimes I had both at the same time. It’s not what we were expecting. This has been a good track for us over the last 10 years. We just missed it. It was surprising. I thought we’d be able to run in the top 10 just off of history, but everyone got better, and we didn’t.”
William Byron — 21st: “We just struggled all night. I thought the short run was a struggle. I was hoping we’d be able to pay on the backend and have some long run pace, but we would just fall off a cliff. A lot of the time, the pit cycles would kind of save us where we could just pit right when we started to struggle, but the last run was really long. As good as we normally are here, it’s definitely a bummer. Appreciate Chevrolet and everyone on this No. 24 team. We’ve definitely got some work to do. We’ll go to Gateway and try to be better there.”
Austin Dillon — 23rd: “We started OK, and then we just had issues throughout the race tonight at Darlington Raceway. Still, proud of everyone’s fight. We got too tight in that one run and just couldn’t overcome it. We got it back going the other direction, made some passes and got up to around 18th. We hit pit road and the caution came out. It was just unfortunate. We struggled with our No. 3 Chevrolet and didn’t execute like we needed to. We just have to do better. It wasn’t our best day, but we’re not that far behind the NASCAR playoffs cutoff line after all that. I’m looking forward to the next two races in this round at World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway. We’ll focus on gaining maximum points and executing like we need to.”
Shane van Gisbergen — 32nd: ““It was a tough day for the No. 88 Chevrolet team. Our car was very different from yesterday. Stephen (Doran, crew chief) didn’t give up on tuning on it, but we just couldn’t make it better. We tried something different with strategy but got a caution at the wrong time and couldn’t rebound from it.”
Michael McDowell — 33rd: ““Not the day we were hoping for with our Chevrolet; we had some decent pace during Stage 2 but just couldn’t put it all together and fell a lap down. After that we had an issue with one of our tires and just didn’t have enough race left to earn those laps back. We have some things to look into so we can figure out exactly what happened, but just not our day here in Darlington.”
Josh Berry — 38th: “We just took off there. Obviously, it’s the first corner, you’re just getting up to speed. The car bottomed out five or six times and just wrecked. It was definitely unexpected. We didn’t really fight that too bad in practice. I saw a replay of it when I was sitting in the car while they were fixing it from the 1, and you could tell that it bottomed out four or five times and you can’t save them when they’re like that. … It’s just disappointing. It looked like a lot of people had a bad night, which we know how this goes. We just need to avoid a bad night. I obviously haven’t seen it yet, but I feel like we’re still within striking distance that if we just go have two good weeks, we’ll at least be in the mix once we get to Bristol.”
