Here’s what the drivers had to say after Sunday night’s Cup race at Richmond Raceway.
Austin Dillon — Winner: “This is a first, but it feels good to win. After the season we’ve had, God just blessed us today. We had a fast Bass Pro Shops Chevy No. 3 and I hated the caution coming out. I knew it was going to be wild and I just had to go for it on the last corner. This was our chance; you don’t get that often and that’s what our partners, my family and RCR want from us: We have to go out and try to win. So I just had to do it.”
Dillon: “Sometimes you just have to have it”
Austin Dillon talks about his win at Richmond Raceway and whether his last-lap maneuver was fair.
Denny Hamlin — 2nd place: “It’s a foul, obviously, but it’s fair in NASCAR. It’s a different league. There’s no penalties for reckless driving or anything like that, so Austin (Dillon) has the ability to just do whatever he wants. My problem is I got hit on the right rear again. I’m just minding my own business, and he turned left, hit me on the right rear and dislocated my damn shoulder. I don’t know. The record books aren’t going to be about what happened. He’ll be credited with a win. He’s just not going to go far because you have to pay back your debt for that kind of thing, but it’s worth it because they gained 20 positions in the points standings, so I understand all that. There’s no resentment involved. I understand it. I just hate that I was a part of it. It would have been funny if I hadn’t been one of the two guys that went out on the last corner, but I understand it. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Hamlin: “A line was definitely crossed”
Denny Hamlin talks about crashing out of the Cook Out 400 and why he understands what Austin Dillon did.
Tyler Reddick — Third place: “Yeah, Joey (Logano) stole my words. That’s exactly the move. Unbelievable. I understand the first point, I think, about Joey trying to win the race. I’ve been threatened with suspension for right-hooking people, and they’ve always been pretty tough on that. I don’t know. Riding hard for the win is one thing. Just right-hooking someone is another. That sounds pretty biased saying that about my boss, but if I were in his shoes, I’d be pretty upset about it too. They put so much emphasis on winning races that people lose their minds and just do ridiculous things. I’m happy for his team. A lot of great people on his team. That was pretty crazy.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished fourth: “We knew we had to work hard here because we were obviously lower down and that’s exactly what our team did. We fought hard. We didn’t have the best day in pit lane. Not for a lack of effort. I appreciate them getting better as the night went on. They were there when it mattered at the last stop – they kept us in the race. Just execution. Our Leidos Toyota Camry was way too loose. I tried to bite my tongue from the start of practice. It was a hard job and definitely hurt us in the race but we kept getting better – tried to give the best feedback I could. Just execution all night. I appreciate the effort from my team. Nice to come out here with a top five. We’ve got a long way to go. We just have to keep fighting. I guess you can leave somebody behind and drive right behind somebody and it’s OK. It’s funny how that works.”
Carson Hocevar — 8th place: “The No. 77 Delaware Life Camaro ZL1 was pretty good. We didn’t qualify particularly well, but we were able to get a top-15 and then top-10 finish in the long track. Considering where we were in the spring and where we were in the short tracks, this is huge for us. To get a top-10 finish is pretty awesome and to have a really good turnaround here from almost high 20s to a single-digit finish is really great for the Delaware Life/Spire Chevrolet team.”
Daniel Suarez — 10th place: “That was a great race! If NASCAR and the fans didn’t like those option tires, I don’t know what would have, because they were fantastic. Strategy played a big part in what everyone was doing; what we were doing and everyone’s different plans. It was fun. I enjoyed it and the No. 99 Choice Privileges Chevy was fast. The guys did a great job with the strategy. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out in the end, but we tried and ended up 10th.”
Ryan Blaney — 11th place: “I actually thought it was a good night for us. We had a terrible pit stop and lost seven seconds, which really hurt us. We were able to fight back and get into the top 10 before the final yellow period and ended up in 11th place. Overall it was a good night. I definitely think it could have been better, but not bad.”
Kyle Busch — 12th place: “Overall, we had a respectable night in our Cheddar’s Patriotic Camaro at Richmond Raceway. The way the race went at the end, we were able to lap back and gain a few positions as the race went into overtime. Crew chief Randall Burnett and everyone on the Cheddar’s team did a good job with strategy tonight and improving the car. It was challenging at the beginning, but we were much better by the end of the race. Congratulations to my teammate Austin Dillon on the win. He was really good all weekend and took advantage of his position to win tonight.”
Josh Berry — 14th place: “It was okay. We struggled a little more than we thought, but overall we had a good race. We stayed on the lead lap and had a solid finish. We’re building on that now and heading to Michigan.”
Michael McDowell — 15th place: “I’m proud of everyone on the Love’s RV Stop Ford Dark Horse team. The run before the caution period, I had to drive the 24 and 77 really hard to get in the top 10. Then we were too loose. We ended up trying two tires and got in the top 15. Travis made a great decision to run the red tires early on. We came out of the free run and ran seventh. That changed our night and put us in a position to be competitive.”
Joey Logano — 19th place: “Apparently it’s OK. What can I say? Apparently he can come back from five car lengths and completely run someone over and then run someone else over to the finish line and that’s what we call racing. … When you’re that far ahead, that’s three to four car lengths up to three. I even backed off. I was like, ‘I’m just going to go under here. I’m good.’ And he just goes in so hard. Obviously he didn’t make the turn because he hit me and (Hamlin) wanted to win the race so he had no intention of racing. I beat him fair and square on the restart and he just pulls a coward’s trick. He’s a piece of shit. He sucks. He’s been shit his whole career and now he’s going to be in the playoffs. Good for him, I guess.”
Logano after Cook Out 400: “This is a bunch of nonsense”
Joey Logano doesn’t hold back after the end of the Cook Out 400 when Austin Dillon turned him around on the last lap to win at Richmond.
Noah Gragson — 20th place: “We had problems all weekend and just needed to push forward, but we’re still super proud of our group. We got the car better, just fell back a bit all day. We’re really looking forward to next weekend in Michigan and will keep going.”
Chase Briscoe — 21st place: “What we experienced here at Richmond from a pure racing perspective – you know, it was pretty difficult to overtake – I don’t know what it looked like outside the car, but inside the car it looked like a lot of drivers were going forward and backward. That definitely added a new facet and strategy to the race. I’d be interested to see how we all would look if we had been running on the soft tires the whole time. I thought it would be OK.”
Ty Dillon — 26th place: “Tonight wasn’t quite the race we wanted, but we did everything we could in a long race without incident. I’m really proud of our performance and feel like we were able to hit the ground running where we needed to. I get better every time I race with Kaulig Racing. P26 and we’re on our way to the next one.”
Justin Haley — 27th place: “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 — 30th place: “Tough night at Richmond. Congratulations to Austin (Dillon) and RCR on the win; it’s great for the alliance. We definitely need to regroup, but hopefully what we saw here tonight with the No. 3 car will help us in future short tracks.”
Riley Herbst — 33rd place: “I’ve always enjoyed racing at Richmond in the Xfinity Series, but the Cup Series is a whole different ball game. It took me a while to really get a good feel for how the track changes and what that does to the car. Things happen so quickly that it’s hard to come back from a few laps down, but we drove every lap and that’s exactly what I had to do in my first Cup race here.”
Martin Truex Jr. — 37th place: “It hiccupped once on the back straight and then it started to go on strike. It was like a valve spring broke or something and then it just sort of dissolved itself, destroyed itself really quickly. I don’t know. One of those days.”
