Here's what the drivers had to say after Sunday's Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Chase Elliott — Winner: “It was just crazy. This place is so sketchy. I haven't seen Denny (Hamlin) and our reenactment yet. There, I've never seen anyone do anything extra crazy like anything they've ever done to me. I didn't feel like I did anything to make him crash. I just had to run forward. I didn't feel like I did anything to cause him to crash. Still, if you do, please apologize to him. I couldn't be more proud of our team. Thank you to our partners at NAPA, Hendrick Motorsports, for a great week. Thank you, Boss, for sticking with me. I'm really, really proud of you. Thank you to all the people back home who stood by me and helped us get back on track.”
Chase Elliott earned his first Cup win at Talladega since October 2022.
Brad Keselowski — 2nd place finish: “We just didn't have a lot of speed. To be honest, I'm more frustrated than anything because I feel like we have a great team and we don't have the speed to match. I'm doing everything I can to overcome it. The driver in me feels like I'm good enough to win these races, but not fast enough to achieve it. The owner in me is furious because it's my fault for not making the car faster. I'm proud of our team for their execution. It was a finish we probably didn't deserve but we won with a never-give-up spirit. It was a good job of executing with what we had. It's frustrating. You can still get a good finish by having a good day, executing on pit road, and having a good strategy. I'm proud of the team for getting it done today. ”
William Byron — 3rd place finish: “I just had a big run. Ross (Chastain) and I had a really good race and I didn't want to wreck him there, but it's understood that he blocked me late. It was a race at the end, but I was already there and unfortunately I made enough contact that he almost squirmed and that happened. So I hate that that happened, but at the end. It's a lap and I ran it, so I'm just going to keep going. I wasn't expecting that, but I don't want to do that to the Chevrolet guys and we always have a really good race for Chase (Elliott) and those guys. I'm happy. They did a great job. We had a good car, our No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet, that we struggled with all day and our position on the track. I had to fight really hard all day just to keep it up. I just had a few good restarts at the end.”
Tyler Reddick — 4th place finish: “We had an important restart under our control and we didn't execute. We just kept focusing on the wrong things.”
Daniel Suarez — 5th place finish: “It was tough. I thought we were going to be pretty strong, and in the first run we were pretty good. Then in the first green flag cycle, we were very loose, so what happened to the car was I don't know. Then we started making adjustments and the car started to feel better. We started to move forward, then got a penalty and went back again. We started to move forward, but then we had another bad pit stop. It wasn't a pretty day. Our strategy worked and we had a few good restarts so it was a good result at the end of the day. But we had work to do. There are a few things we need to do to move forward.”
Chase Elliott won his 19th career Cup.
Chase Briscoe — 6th place finish: “That was frustrating. Our Mustang was really good. Of course we were able to finish fifth in both stages and we did everything perfectly until the wreck. We will be the leaders. (Bubba Wallace) had pretty old tires, so I thought if I was next to him going into (turn) three, I would be the leader. I bumped into people a lot and forced (Harrison Burton) to go three wide. And he was probably more worried about me. And to be honest, we both got hurt. I was lucky in a way when I got back to the back and caught a really lucky caution. Today's Rush Truck Centers Ford was really good, much better than 6th place. So I feel like I keep saying it's frustrating because we're so much better, but overall it was a really solid day and a really solid point-scoring day for us. I feel like we're almost there. We just need to sort out a few things.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished 7th: “I'm so mentally exhausted. There was just a balance between clean air and dirty air, and there was such a huge difference between the two. …I'm going to go on a little rant. Thank you to the team for letting me get back into the game and getting me into the top 10. I need those grinding moments, just having that mindset. Thank you to all of these 23 teams.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 8th: “I’m really happy for the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy team. It was a great finish for us and I’m proud of the fight our guys showed. We were struggling with the handling of the car, so we finished eighth. It's great to be back. We made some good decisions to get track position and had some good restarts at the end to get a good finish. It feels like a win, so I hope we can build on this.”
Kyle Busch — 9th place finish: “After having to go to a backup car on Saturday, it was great to get a decent finish today at Texas Motor Speedway. Everyone on the Zone Chevrolet team worked really hard all weekend, And I really appreciate the effort. We made a lot of stops today and crew chief Randall Barnett and his staff made adjustments from tight to loose grip every time we pitted. Everything was changing a little bit, right down to the lack of it. Randall called for a long run on the final stage and we caught a caution midway through the pit cycle and we were in a position to get the top 10. I survived the restart and finished in 9th place, so I wasn't in the top spot.
Ryan Preece — Finished 12th: “I wish the caution had worked differently. Once I had (Kyle Busch) and (Joey Logano) behind me, it was tough not to keep getting three-wide. With tires as old as we were, we were trying to hold on as best we could. If we restarted on the outside that time, we needed a little more grip, so the position of the track helped. It would have been.”
Ty Dillon — Finished 16th: “We fought in the Seavest Camaro ZL1 for most of the day. We weren’t where we wanted to be for most of the day, but thankfully (crew chief) Travis Mack made some good decisions. This team never gave up and I can't wait to get back in the Kaulig Racing car. ”
Daniel Hemric — Finished 17th: “Thank you Michael Ghosn, everyone at South Point, and all the supporters of Kaulig Racing for sticking with us. The last few weeks haven't been thrilling or exciting, but at the end of the day, this year is better than racing. We were able to finish on a number of occasions. That's what we did here today. (Crew chief) Trent (Owens) made the decision to put two tires on there and get track position. I'm proud of that. We've got to do a better job of restarting. A couple went there at the end, especially the last one. I'm proud of this No. 31 team's fight today.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 18th: “I felt like I had a good car. During the green flag pit stop, we were going to run fifth, sixth or seventh, but the caution came out and we were down a lap. We got stuck. That happened a few times, so we had to fight back in that scenario a few times today. Overall, we stayed in the top 10 all day. I couldn’t take it home.”
Erik Jones — Finished 19th: “There wasn't much good going on and it didn't work out in the end there either. We had a good strategy there to get points in the second stage of the Dollar Tree Camry, but in the end we needed it. We weren't as careful. We just have to do better.”
Jimmie Johnson — Finished 29th: “Certainly, I learned a lot today in the AdventHealth Camry. I did the most laps I've driven in this new car. I'm just trying to get up to speed and figure out how to adjust the car. I'm thinking about what to do now. I didn't run enough in Charlotte, so I'm going to do a lot to help myself this weekend. I feel like we've learned some things. We're not where we want to be as a company, but we're going to keep working hard to get there.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 30th: “Yeah, I got loose in Turn 3. It's something I've been fighting all day. At the bunting checker, when I have to push the most, I know what the likely scenario is. It meant I couldn't get out of the corner at the speed I was going. Yahoo I tried to take the Camry and it came loose and spun.”
John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 34th: “Yeah, he (Christopher Bell) started spinning and I did the same thing. I braked pretty hard and it just spun out and I had nowhere to go. I think that's part of it. I fixed the traction. I was riding a really fast Romco Equipment Toyota Camry XSE, and on the second one, I ran it on the outside of (Austin Cindric) and it just cut out. I think it's part of the car. I think I learned a lesson from that painful experience.”
Michael McDowell — Finished 35th: “I just hit that bump (in Turn 4) and the car came loose and drove away. Track position was very important today, so I had a chance to take the lead and control the race. It just didn't stick. It was a really fast car today.”
Josh Berry — Finished 36th: “At first it felt like we were a little bit stuck at the bottom, but when (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) went down, he just barely clipped me or knocked the air out of the car. It was so close. To be honest, I think we made a little bit of contact, but the second time I was just running around and I went out and powered. When I tried to hold on to it, it broke again.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 37th: “Actually, it all started with something that happened on pit road and it got buried there. We should have been in the top 10, but yeah, we were racing hard against those guys. It was a really bad situation where I hit the other guy and had to hit the brake pedal. No. 22 (Joey Logano) knew it before I did, but it's just how we all did it. I had to press the brake pedal a little harder than I expected, just because it was stacked up, and as soon as I pressed it, I spun out, which is a shame. We had the No. 48 Ally Camaro that was really fast. We were going through the field pretty well. We made a deal on pit road and got pushed to the back, and that's when it happened.”