Here’s what the drivers had to say after Sunday’s race, which went a NASCAR Cup Series record five overtimes before Joey Logano won.
Joey Logano — Winner: “There was a lot of teamwork. A lot of credit to our fuel guy, Nick Hensley, a lot of credit to our engine department with Roush Yates who built engines that could handle the fuel really well, and a lot of grit – a lot of grit that made it happen. It’s been a tough season and to be on that starting line, I can tell you it sucks. It’s just not fun. It’s tough and you just want a little bit of relief and with seven weeks to go until the playoffs, it gives us a chance to take a breather and start working on our car a little bit differently and get some better sleep, to be honest with you.”
Logano ‘out of breath’ after Nashville Cup win
A relieved Joey Logano takes his first Cup Series win of the season at Nashville, surviving five overtime restarts and saving enough fuel to cross the finish line first in the Ally 400 after a “stressful” few weeks .
Zane Smith — Finished 2nd: “I mean, obviously really happy with the result. But when you hear for about 10 laps, ‘He’s supposed to be fading, he’s supposed to be fading,’ and you see him shaking the car to get across the line and you just finished second, it hurts. The winning side hurts, but just appreciate everybody at Spire Motorsports and appreciate the strategy there. I appreciate Jockey Outdoors and Luke Bryan; having them on board here in Nashville, along with all our other partners. It’s been a really tough year, but it’s a great boost for momentum, confidence, all that. So hopefully we can keep that momentum going, but it was great to get your first Cup win.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 3rd: “I don’t know, the last set of tires didn’t give our Monster Energy Camry the balance it had all day and that allowed it to fight for the lead with Christopher Bell. We had a bad restart, I fell backwards and I could see in the last laps that we were seriously injured. The tires were damaged. When the yellow flag was thrown we were in a really difficult situation. We were going to lose all our track position, but we had to put tires on because I don’t think we would be able to hold on on a restart, but that ended up being exactly what gave us the opportunity to win the race. It was a great decision, a courageous decision by crew chief Billy Scott. I was disappointed with the position we were in, but I continued to be aggressive on the restarts and I mean we made it all the way to the end. It’s difficult. Everything went according to plan on the last lap, I just didn’t get the job done. »
Reddick ‘didn’t do his job’ in Nashville
Tyler Reddick expresses frustration with the conclusion of the NASCAR Cup Series race in Nashville and says he “didn’t get the job done” after several leaders ran out of gas at the end.
Ryan Preece — Finished 4th: “It wasn’t pretty. Track position was a tough thing and we always seemed to be on the other side, but for once when it mattered we were in the right place.
Chris Buescher — 5th place: “We had the ability to run in the top 10 all night, get stage points and get a good finish out of it. I’m still just frustrated. It was just chaos at the end. Obviously I have to go back and watch what happened, but we just didn’t get a chance to run a lot. We were in a good spot there. We had good speed after the sun went down and we had tires, so we really wanted to get some laps in.
Kyle Larson — Finished 8th: “Just a lot of craziness at the end. There were a lot of cars out of fuel and we were one of them. Just a lot of chaos. On the first restart, I was just trying to wash Denny (Hamlin) off the back so I could get some fresh air and give myself an opportunity to win. I felt like second was not going to have a chance. I was just trying to run with him and got really tight with Ross (Chastain), which caused that crash. And then on the next restart, I just got out of shape and almost caused a crash. On the third restart, we ran out of fuel on the takeoff. We just had a couple of good restarts at the end. Happy to be in the top 10, but a little disappointed with how it went.”
Larson “disappointed” despite his place in the top 10
Kyle Larson finishes eighth in the Cup Series race at Nashville after several overtime restarts and recaps the incident with Ross Chastain as well as an aggressive race with Denny Hamlin.
Daniel Hemric — Finished 9th: “Today was really just another example of our season. It’s been a roller coaster ride. We struggled with short-run speed all weekend in the No. 31 Cirkul Chevrolet. After the rain delay and a few good adjustments, I thought if we could get some track position, we’d be okay. We finally got it back and got caught in a crash. I thought every corner was being knocked off the car. Somehow, the seas kept parting. We were able to get a couple good restarts at the end and crossed the line ninth. What a weekend, but I’ll take it.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 10th: “We saved a ton of fuel to finish 10th. 110 laps on a full tank. We pushed the car to the max and got another top 10. I’m proud of the work everyone put in for this race car.”
AJ Allmendinger — Finished 11th: “Long and hard fought day. I felt like as the race went on we were improving the race car. We were not able to get track position until the end. Unfortunately that strategy didn’t work. We were able to miss all the wrecks, get our lap back and enjoy our day to the fullest. Overall something we can learn from and have fun. Good finish for both cars. Good day for the race team.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 12th: “We went out in neutralization. (Chris Gabehart, crew chief) was monitoring the fuel pressure. I let him know what the fuel pressure was. We were in good condition, we just ran out of fuel and we went into neutralization. It was the right decision. I was going down the pit lane out of gas. I’m surprised we lasted this long on the green and white checkers, honestly. It’s a shame to be 15 seconds from victory at the end, then 10 seconds from victory, then finishing 12th. It’s part of the game.”
Hamlin: Multiple OT restarts are ‘only part of the problem’
Denny Hamlin fought his fuel until the very end, but ultimately ran out under the final caution, and he reveals the chaotic end to the NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Chase Briscoe – Finished 21st: “I was kind of the worst case scenario over the last 70 laps or so, strategically speaking, the way it played out. We had to come back to 30th because of the way the strategy played out and the cautions came out and we were able to come back to 15th or so. There, at the end, you don’t really expect to have three or four green-white checkers, so we ran out of gas taking the white flag. It definitely stinks any time you’re in contention out there. I thought on the second to last lap I had a good chance to potentially win the race and we ended up 21st or something. It’s frustrating but that’s part of the problem.
Josh Berry — 26th place: “Today was a tough day. We started really tight and couldn’t find the balance, but my team worked hard to get me the car I needed and we finally found it after the rain delay. We made up a lot of positions and had a much more competitive No. 4 Dark Horse Ford Mustang. It was just chaos at the end. We were trying to manage all those restarts and eventually got caught out. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t finish this week very well in Nashville, my home race, but we learned a lot.
Kyle Busch — Finished 27th: “I’m proud of everyone on the Zone team and RCR for their efforts today. We struggled early, but our guys continued to make changes to our Zone Camaro throughout the race. Randall Burnett made some good decisions to put us in position to finish in the top five. Those cautions at the end of the race and in overtime really worked against us because we were close to fuel. On the last restart, we were running fourth when the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) ran out of gas right in front of me and I had nowhere to go. It’s frustrating for sure, but we’ll bounce back next week in Chicago.”
Bottlenecks on Cup field after Larson runs out of gas
Kyle Larson runs out of gas before the green flag on the third overtime restart at Nashville Superspeedway, with Kyle Busch suffering the most damage.
Austin Dillon — Finished 32nd: “We were incredibly lucky. We started today with a fast #3 Chevrolet BREZTRI AEROSPHERE® at Nashville Superspeedway. Even though our handling started to drop toward the middle of the race, crew chief Justin Alexander and the entire RCR team worked hard to improve the balance of our Chevrolet and by the end of the race we felt pretty good. We were 11th when the yellow flag came out in Stage 3 and we decided to pit for right-side tires, knowing we would run out of gas if we stayed on track. A car flipped right in front of us on the restart and we had nowhere to go. This ended our night and ruined our chances of finishing in the top 10. It’s not the result we deserved or hoped for, but I’m proud of this team for bringing a strong Chevrolet to the track. We will be going to the Chicago Street Race next week and hope to have better luck. »
Michael McDowell — 35th place: “I just came out of Turn 4 and thought maybe something broke in the driveshaft or something, but it was actually in the transaxle. Something broke and put a hole in the side of the case. This is not what we wanted. We were saving a pretty decent day, so that was unfortunate.
Christopher Bell — Finished 36th: “I found myself in a pretty tricky situation at the first corner. I got stuck there and lost my composure to do something, found myself in a sticky situation and spun. »
Bell’s Nashville dominance ends after a twist
Christopher Bell swept the stages at Nashville Superspeedway, but a spin in the third stage while driving through traffic sent the No. 20 into the outside wall and ended his chances for back-to-back victories in Cup Series.
Riley Herbst — Finished 37th: “I just felt like (Corey LaJoie) kind of outplayed me, but I had fun. It was a fun day. It was cool. I learned a lot.”
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