What the drivers said Monday during and after the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway:
Martin Truex Jr. – WINNER: “Man, it feels incredible. I felt like we got close a few times, we gave some, that’s for sure. Today thought, man, belated caution, what’s going to happen here? But just a great call from James (crew chief James Small) to take Two then managed to get a good restart and get (Dave) Blaney in there. He raced me hard but clean. I can’t breathe, I’m breathing so much Goodyear rubber. Thank you to everyone who stuck with us, all our fans, Bass Pro Shops, car owners, and Reser’s, Toyota’s, TRD’s, all my personal sponsors. We know we can do it. We’ve shown it. We’ve driven laps. We’ve dominated the races, they’ll never come together. I kept saying we have to keep doing what we’re doing and not overthink Tough day today with a few stops early on and then obviously the guys got it going at the end, so they were really excited and happy for everyone. Just a thanks to everyone at JGR as well. Great job.”
Ross Chastain – Finished 2nd: Whoever got the lead would have got their shot. First off, I want to say so sorry to Brennan Paul and everyone at Rick Ware Racing. I owe them a huge apology and more. I’ll head out there tomorrow and talk to these guys, and make some of that right. We were so close again with Team Jockey’s #1 Chevy and everyone at Trackhouse Racing Advent Health Moose Fraternity Worldwide Express It’s my fantasy to keep doing that and racing against my champions I think I told him (Martin Truex Jr) a lot of my secrets last year After we went hunting.”
MORE: Brennan Paul says Ross Chastain ‘probably needs his ass’
MORE: Dover Cup Results, Driver Points
Ryan Blaney – Finished 3rd: “Either (two tyres) or we stayed out was the call, and we came in and took two. It got us on the front row. I think if we had taken four, we’d have been fourth. So it wasn’t much different. But being on the front row gave us a chance to win. I tried to send him in.” To (turn) 3 to clear the 19, he did the same thing and managed to get around us. It was a really smooth day for us, honestly. We ran third all day. Just didn’t have enough pace for those quality guys at the end there. Overall “A really big effort – especially how we’ve been here in the past. It’s been a bit of a struggle for us, and I’m proud of the gains we’ve made.”
William Byron – finished in fourth place: “Middle section—I don’t know, maybe I need to do a little better on the feedback and then we just communicate the adjustments there. We took off, we had fresh air and the car was so loose. I couldn’t load the rear tires, and we were just hanging on. Obviously that run It was really bad – we fell from 1st to 7th. We just had to work our way from there. Proud of the effort. Getting in the top 5 is great. The No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevy was really good today. We definitely need more, but we have Speed on all kinds of different tracks. In our history, it wasn’t our best track. We came up with something a little bit different to try and help with that. I think it was like that for the majority of the race, but it lost way too much.”
Denny Hamlin – Finished 5th: “Our car was really fast. The long run was very good. I’m proud of this FedEx team because they brought me a car that can win today, but sometimes you just can’t get those last few points. It’s what it is. We’ll work hard and try to improve.”
Brad Keselowski – Finished 8th: “We recovered really well. We had a top five on the first stage, we had a pit road problem, and we recovered from that. Solid top 10 day-drive thru. We’re not far here. Just looking for more, and I felt like we were really close.” Excited about it, proud of our day – especially Chris (Buescher) doing well. Just a solid showing. It was just a great day for us. We’re just grinding. The whole company is just grinding and committed to taking us to the next level to get those two cars in the playoffs.”
Chris Bucher – Finished 9th: “It was a solid day. I’m really proud of our group. The Fastenal Mustang had good pace all day – fifth to tenth is probably where we’ll be. We ended up ninth with a late restart and we had a rolling car that raced hard. There, but at the end of the day it was solid. Everyone did a good job on pit road, kept their position, worked hard on the track, solid work. I just wanted to be a bit more free to restart the last race and see if we can go A little bit more feet, but it was nice to be out there all day and in contention. That was a really good day. Especially when it’s eight or nine cars on the first lap at the end. We stayed in it the whole time. That’s strong. I think that was the time we went Our step last year. I feel like we had a slightly stronger start to the season, but not always results. But we have pace, we were able to work consistently today and be solid. We got the result we deserved and we worked for it.”
Josh Perry – finished in 10th place: “Happy to get into the top 10. I think it was a really strong day for the #48 Ally Chevy team. We needed a little bit more to be a little bit better, but overall with the amount of experience I have in Cup cars I feel like running around where we did it was strong Really. Just proud of Blake (Harris, crew chief) and everyone on this team for doing an amazing job.”
Eric Jones – finished in 16th place: “It’s a good day for our club No. 43 Allegiant Chevy, you know, we’ve been kind of going back and forth on the scale all day just trying to improve a few things, but we’ve come a long way from where we’ve been in practice. We’ve obviously been in good shape since we unloaded The load, but we got a little bit better, a little bit closer, but we just needed to balance it. We missed one lap and kind of sank back and lost a lap, so we couldn’t come back from it late in the race. We’ll take it, step up and learn from it, and take it to Kansas next week! “
Justin Haley – 23rd place: “We showed a lot of promise early on in the No. 31 Camaro ZL1 for filter gutter protection. We shot really well and had a lot of speed. Unfortunately, because the rubber had piled up on the track and got into sloppy air, we couldn’t find the grip we needed. We would be good for the first five laps on the tyres, but then we would lose grip and get very loose. By the end of the race I felt like we had improved and learned a lot – we just couldn’t regain track position. We’ll continue to focus on getting back to where we need to start next week in Kansas.”
Joey Logano – Finished 31st: “There was a fire, so something started. Something happened a long time ago, like halfway through a race. We were too slow and the car didn’t turn. Whatever it was, it broke down at the end.”
Brennan Paul – Finished 33rd:“I’m not quite sure, but I feel like I just got run over. As soon as he hit me, he got pushed into a corner, like way too deep, and then I immediately turned around. So, I guess it was No. 1? Go figure it out. I mean, just a joke… eighty Something going into a race? For no reason. I was side by side with the number 3 (Austin Dillon), I just got on the outside and it’s not like I could go anywhere or give him more room than I had. He just ran over me. So he Kind of pathetic. I don’t know. Seems like something he’s been doing a lot lately. Just gratuitous. It was my first time in a new Cup car, and I’m out 80 laps…for what? I wasn’t using much brakes at all. You’re kind of out of the gas. Maybe if you got in too hot in the dirty air it would brake, but no. I drove alongside the number 3, ran out of gas and just ran over. It may have been before I needed to let the gas out. I don’t know. I’ll have to look at the replay. I just feel it’s not necessary. It’s annoying to rip a car off when you get the chance to be here on a Sunday. I am grateful for this opportunity, grateful to be here. I got another chance next week to prove myself again, and I hope it turns into more.”
Noah Gragson – 34th place: “I don’t know what happened. I tried to get to the top and look for fresh air. It was a mistake on my part. The air was hard at the back of the pack. It was tight and it came loose. I don’t know. I’ll have to go back and look at it. It’s only been a year.” Disappointing overall. I am grateful for all the efforts of the guys at the #42 Legacy Motor Club team. We’re taking our Sunseeker Resorts Chevy to Kansas next week and moving on from here.”
Daniel Suarez – Finished 35th: “The conditions were perfect. I don’t think it has anything to do with the track. The track was good, and the car was really good. For how quickly I lost the car, I’m guessing a tire went flat or something because it happened instantly. My car wasn’t loose, I had no warning or anything. It’s a pity to be out of the race this early at a racecourse where we usually run very well.”