Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway:
Joey Logano — Winner: “The sport changes so quickly. It is crazy how you can just ride these roller coasters. I am so proud of the team. Proud to finally get AAA Insurance into victory lane. They have been a partner of mine since I have been at Penske, so 13 or 14 years and we have yet to win with them so it was awesome to get that done here. The JL Kids Crew is here so we will have fun with them in victory lane. A lot of people here. My family is at home, but hey, Brittany and the kids, I love you guys. It is going to be a fun night. … A couple of times we had a really tough pit stall situation and the pit crew did a good job of managing that. We just grabbed a couple here and there. The car was fast, I knew that yesterday, I just did a poor job qualifying. We just were grinding it out, a couple here and a couple there and eventually we get the win. It is nice to get one, really nice.”
Joey Logano collects his 37th career Cup victory.
Ross Chastain — Finished 2nd: “Starting 31st, we wanted to go +30 positions today. It’s all on this crew – the engineering group at Trackhouse Racing and the group at Chevrolet. We made an adjustment during the race and it fixed the car. All the problems we had yesterday and the start of the race, they were gone. I was confident. I was not confident yesterday … you heard me in the booth say it. With just one adjustment, it brought this Tootsies Chevy to life and that’s why you keep fighting.”
Joey Logano earns his first Cup win of the season, while William Byron continues to be the points leader.
Ryan Blaney — Finished 3rd: “The one time I didn’t pick the outside the 71 (Michael McDowell) got the lead and then I couldn’t get it back. Just driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job. I appreciate the team. The 12 car was a fast car today. I just can’t do anything right currently. Hopefully it will work itself out.”
Kyle Larson — Finished 4th: “(Michael) McDowell just did a really good job of timing the restarts. He left pretty much when I did, and he had a push behind him. He got clear to the lead and I just lost control of the race there. It was a bummer to do that. If I could have kept the lead, we would have been hard to beat in clean air like that. Just a little frustrated with myself, but all-in-all, it was a good points day for us today. The No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a great job today. The car was good. We’ll just study it and try to do a better job next time.”
Erik Jones — Finished 5th: “It was a sloppy day in a lot of ways. We had two pit road penalties, but just happy to come back from it and get a top five. It would have been pretty disappointing to have a car this good, kind of our first car this year that’s been pretty strong to throw it away. I thought we were headed that way, but it turned out well. Thankful for Advent Health, Legacy Motor Club, and Toyota to get a good run and hopefully we can get rolling. I would love this to be the start of our summer stretch and just keep it going”
John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 8th: “It means a lot. We unloaded with speed this week, which was nice, in practice. Had good long run speed – guys brought a fast Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE. It was an up-and-down day for us. Just kind of all over the place with what we had. Glad to come home eighth. The last couple of restarts were tough with the positions that we were in. I’ve got to get better from a driver’s standpoint racing up towards the front, but I haven’t had any chances at that, so progressing and learning.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 10th: “It was a good day for this No. 99 Kubota Chevrolet team. We had decent speed out there. I think that we potentially had a little bit more, but we were struggling a lot on restarts all day long, except for the start of the race for some reason. All-in-all, it was a decent day and it’s good to get back-to-back top-10 finishes.”
Shane van Gisbergen — Finished 22nd: “A decent finish today for my SafetyCulture team. Just wasn’t comfortable with the car there at the start and struggled to find speed. Thanks to my 88 crew for never giving up and continuing to work to make my Chevrolet better and better. We will learn from this and continue to make improvements.”
Michael McDowell — Finished 26th: “I just really hate it for everyone on this No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet team. We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position. Joey (Logano) got a run there, and I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go. When (Ryan) Blaney slid in front of me, it just took the air off of it and I just lost the back of it. I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point. Just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. I know that’s not the day that we wanted, but we had the opportunity to win the race. I’m really proud of everyone at the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop – you guys saw those restarts, the motors were ripping. Just hate that we didn’t get it done, but we knew we had to go for it.”
Josh Berry — Finished 32nd: “The car was really good. I could tell early on that our car was really strong, especially after the first pit stop when we made an adjustment, it was really good and we got out front and felt really good about it. Just started to approach the lap traffic. You have no choice but to run the opposite lane. Your car is never going to turn if you follow them. I went around the 62 on the outside and felt pretty decent about it. Then caught the 51 and was working on the 51 and hit that bump and got loose. I don’t know what I would do too much different. Obviously in these cars, especially at a place like this you are going to be fast, it is going to be uncomfortable and you are going to be on edge. Unfortunately it bit us today.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 35th: “I just saw guys wrecking in front of me. I tried to get high. The No. 16 (AJ Allmendinger) came back across the track and we all piled in there. I hate that for this team. We had a really fast No. 48 Ally Chevrolet. I think we passed more cars than anyone’s ever passed at Texas (Motor Speedway). We just shouldn’t have been back there to begin with. Really bummed, but we’ll move onto the next one.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 38th: “It was blowing up for about a lap or so before it really detonated. I tried to keep it off to keep it from full detonating, that was (so) they can diagnose exactly what happened to it. It’s tough to say exactly what it is, but they’ll go back and look at it and we’ll find out in a few weeks.”
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