Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday night’s Cup race at Richmond Raceway.
Austin Dillon — Winner: “That is a first, but it feels good when you get a win. After the season we had, the good Lord above just blessed us today. We had a fast No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy, and I hated to see that caution come out. I knew it was going to be wild and coming to the last corner, I just had to go for it. It was our opportunity; you don’t get many of those and that is what our partners, my family and RCR wants us to do, is to go and try to get a win. So, I just had to send it.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 2nd: “It’s obviously foul, but it is fair in NASCAR. It is a different league. There are no penalties for rough driving or anything like that, so it opens up the opportunity for Austin (Dillon) to just do whatever he wants. The problem that I have is I got hooked in the right rear again. I’m just minding my own business, and he turned left, and he hooked me in the right rear and blew my damn shoulder out. I don’t know. The record book won’t care about what happened. He is going to be credited with a win. He is just not going to go far because you have to pay your dues back on stuff like that, but it is worth it because they jumped 20 positions in points, so I understand all that. There is no ill will there. I get it. I just hate that I was a part of it. It would have been fun if I was not one of the two guys that got taken out on the last corner, but I understand it. It doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. We will talk about it tomorrow.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 3rd: “Yeah, Joey (Logano) stole the words right from me. That’s exactly what that move is. Unbelievable. I understand the first one, I guess, on Joey, trying to win the race. I’ve been threatened to be suspended for right hooking people and they’ve always taken a pretty hard stand on that. I don’t know. Racing hard for the win is one thing. Just plainly right hooking somebody is another. That sounds pretty biased coming from me about my boss, but if I was in his spot, I would be pretty upset about it too. They put so much emphasis on winning races, people are going to lose their minds and just do ridiculous stuff. I’m happy for his team. A lot of great people on his team. That was pretty crazy.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished 4th: “We knew we had to work coming in here, obviously being below and our team did just that. We fought hard. We did not have the best day on pit road. Not from a lack of effort. I appreciate them getting better all night. They showed up when it mattered on the last stop – kept us in it. Just execution. Our Leidos Toyota Camry was way too loose. I tried to bite my tongue from the start of practice. It was a handful, and it definitely bit us in the race, but we kept making it better and better – trying to give the best feedback that I could. Just executed all night. I appreciate the effort from my team. Nice to walk out of here with a top-five finish. We have a long way to go. We just have to keep fighting. I guess you can dump somebody and right rear somebody and be okay. It’s funny how that works.”
Carson Hocevar — Finished 8th: “The No. 77 Delaware Life Camaro ZL1 was pretty good. We didn’t qualify great, but we were able to get to the top 15 and then top 10 there on the long run. From where we were in the spring and where we have been on short tracks, this is huge for us. To run top 10 is pretty big and just to have a really good turnaround from almost high 20s to a single digit finish here is really big for the Delaware Life/Spire Chevrolet team.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 10th: “That was a fun race! These option tires, if NASCAR and the fans didn’t like it, I don’t know what they would like because they were amazing. The strategy played a huge role in what everyone was doing; what we were doing and everyone’s different agenda. It was fun. I enjoyed it and the No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevy was fast. The guys did an amazing job with the strategy. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out at the end, but we gave it a shot and we ended up with a 10th place finish.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 11th: “I actually thought it was a good night for us. We had a terrible pit stop and lost seven seconds and it really hurt us. We were able to fight back to get in the top 10 before the last caution and ended up 11th. Overall, it was a good night. I definitely think it could have been better, but not bad.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 12th: “All in all, we had a respectable night in our Cheddar’s Patriotic Camaro at Richmond Raceway. The way the race played out there at the end we were able to unlap ourselves and pick up a few positions when the race went into overtime. Crew chief Randall Burnett and everyone on the Cheddar’s team did a good job with the strategy tonight and making the car better. It was a handful early on, but by the end of the race we were much better. Congrats to my teammate Austin Dillon on the victory. He was really good all weekend and took advantage of being in position to win tonight.”
Josh Berry — Finished 14: “It was fine. We struggle a little bit more than we thought we were going to, but, all in all, we executed a good race. We stayed on the lead lap and got a solid finish, so we’ll just build off of that and go to Michigan.”
Michael McDowell — Finished 15th: “I am proud of everyone on the Love’s RV Stop Ford Dark Horse team. The run before the caution I had to race the 24 and 77 really hard for a top-10. We were then too loose. We tried two tires at the end and got a top 15. Travis made a great call in the beginning to take reds. We went from free pass to seventh. That changed our night and put us in contention.”
Joey Logano — Finished 19: “Apparently, it’s OK. What do you want me to say? Apparently, he can come from five car lengths back and completely wreck someone and then wreck another one to the line and we’re gonna call that racing. … When you get that far ahead that’s three to four car lengths ahead into three. I even backed up the entry. I was like, ‘I’ll just wrap the bottom here. I’m good.’ And he just drives in so hard. Obviously, he didn’t make the turn because he hit me and (Hamlin) was gonna win the race, so he had no intention to race. I beat him fair and square on the restart and he just pulls a chickensh*t move. He’s a piece of crap. He sucks. He’s sucked his whole career and now he’s gonna be in the playoffs. Good for him, I guess.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 20th: “We just kind of struggled all weekend, just needed forward drive, but still super proud of our group. We got the car better, just kind of got behind all day. We’re super excited for next weekend at Michigan and we’ll keep going.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 21st: “For what we’ve kind of had here at Richmond from just a racing standpoint – you know, it’s kind of been hard to pass – I don’t know what it looked like outside of the car, but inside the car it looked like there were a lot of guys going forward, going backward. It definitely added a new complexion and strategy to the race. I’d be interested to see what we’d all look like if we ran the soft tire the whole time. I thought it was OK.”
Ty Dillon — Finished 26th: “Not exactly the race we wanted tonight, but we did everything in our power over a long race with no cautions. I’m really proud of our effort and feel like we executed where we needed to. I’m getting better every time I race with Kaulig Racing. P26, and we are on to the next.”
Justin Haley — Finished 27th: “Richmond is such a tough track, but our Pinnacle Home Improvement Ford Mustang Dark Horse was good enough to do what it needed to do.”
Daniel Hemric — Finished 30th: “Tough night at Richmond. Congrats to Austin (Dillon) and RCR on the win; it’s huge for alliance. We definitely need to regroup, but hopefully what we saw here tonight with the No. 3 car is going to help us in the future short tracks.”
Riley Herbst — Finished 33rd: “I’ve always enjoyed racing at Richmond in the Xfinity Series, but the Cup Series is a whole different game. It took a while for me to really get a good idea of how the track was changing and what that was doing to the car. Things happen so quick that it’s hard to come back from a couple of laps down, but we ran every lap and that’s exactly what I needed to do in my first Cup race here.”
Martin Truex Jr. — Finished 37th: “It hiccupped once going down the backstretch, and then it started missing. It’s like it broke a valve spring or something and then it kind of self-disintegrated, self-destructed really quickly. I don’t know. One of those them days.”
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