Here’s what drivers said after Saturday night’s race at Kansas Speedway:
KYLE BUSCH — Finished 1st: “It did go our way. I certainly found the boundaries that you need to have here being able to feel the race car and I’m so used to just attacking all these race tracks that sometimes I over attack and that may be what has bit me here in the past, but tonight I really felt this race car all night long. It was really grooving and styling out front.”
KEVIN HARVICK— Finished 2nd: “Hit a big piece of debris and knocked a big hunk out of the nose and knocked the splitter down. From that point on it was tight. Otherwise I would have drove around (winner Kyle Busch). All in all, it just didn’t play out that way and they were able to win the race.”
KURT BUSCH – Finished 3rd: “We battled hard. I was trying to find all the different lines on the track to find speed. We did a lot of things good and to win you’ve got to be great. We are right there, we are knocking on the door.”
MATT KENSETH — Finished 4th: “We were about a second to fourth-place car most of the day. I thought we were as good as (Kyle Busch) if we could have had the position, but it was tough to stick on that bottom. I tried something different there to try to lay back and get the pass, but once they were single file I couldn’t go get them.’’
RYAN BLANEY — Finished 5th: “We started off the race really, really good. I thought that was when we were strongest, when the sun was up, the track was a little bit hotter. We were really strong then. Then as the night came, it cooled off a little bit, we lost a little bit of speed. It took us a while to try to get that back.’’
AUSTIN DILLON – Finished 6th: “It was a solid run for us. We didn’t have the speed earlier in the race and we just kept working on it. We had some good lap times. We just needed to get the track position. It was really hard to pass out there tonight. We get days like that and we’re going to have a shot to win before too long.”
RYAN NEWMAN – Finished 7th: “We battled some handling and some damage issues throughout the race, but we kept fighting and that’s what this team needs to do. Tonight was our best finish of the season and like I told the team, keep digging. We have plenty of racing left to turn our season around.’’
A.J. ALLMENDINGER – Finished 8th: “A little fortunate with eighth-place finish with what happened there at the end. We just kept digging. I caught the wall and we had the fender rubbing the tire. We thought we had it off and it flattened the tire. The guys did a good job; we got lucky it kind of cycled back around and got back on the lead lap. he yellow came out, but overall just a hard fought night to get a top 10 out of it from where we were yesterday and kind of where we ran throughout the course of the night.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI— Finished 10th: “Kyle (Busch) did what he had to do (on a restart). He put a little block on and I still got underneath him, but the little block kind of opened up a run for (Denny Hamlin) from behind and he put it in there and it just spun all of us out. That’s part of it, I guess. I’m disappointed, but I don’t think there was anything malicious. We’re just all racing for wins and that was everybody’s shot to win the race.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR.— Finished 13th: “It definitely isn’t what I felt like we deserved. I thought we had a top-10 car. We just have to clean up everything from pit stops to getting the car a little bit better throughout the race. We have to be able to work on it to get it faster throughout the race.’’
MARTIN TRUEX JR. — Finished 14th: “We’re going to win races for sure – if we keep bringing cars like that, we’re going to win some. It’s frustrating when you’ve had it happen so many times in your career. I swear, you watch guys win races that don’t have the fastest car or on fuel mileage and all this stuff and it’s like, ‘damn.’ Someday I’m going to get on one of those or on the other side of one of them. Usually you can dominate and win, but it’s tough and it happens. It’s part of racing.”
KASEY KAHNE – Finished 16th: “I figured we had a top-10, maybe a top-five car if things went our way. But, we had our hood collapse like with three runs to go and I was like terrible after that; especially the first 10 laps of a run. We struggled and ended up 16th. But, we had a much better car than that.”
TREVOR BAYNE – Finished 25th: “Losing the track position was really unfortunate. I hate that we lost those laps after having to pit for the flat tire. We had our AdvoCare Ford good there at the end. (Crew chief) Matt (Puccia) made some great adjustments, but we just couldn’t regain any of that lost track position. We’ll rebound from this and get after it next week in Dover.”
JAMIE McMURRAY – Finished 26th: “The track was really wide, which was good. The top was probably the preferred lane when the tires wore out. But, I don’t know. I thought it was actually pretty good. Certainly some tracks are easier to pass than others. This one is a little more difficult; maybe not quite as much tire falloff as what we need. But overall, I thought the racing was still pretty good.’’
DENNY HAMLIN — Finished 37th: “I was going in there three-wide.I wasn’t letting off and the 42 (Kyle Larson) was just too close up there. It wasn’t his fault by any means, but we were both trying to drive in there to clear each other and I just got loose and I mean that’s crazy there was no contact, but both me and (Brad Keselowski) got loose there.’’
JOEY LOGANO – Finished 38th – “It just looked like (Brad Keselowski) got loose and then (Denny Hamlin) got loose. I was hoping (Hamlin) would come down the hill and when you’re in the smoke you can’t see anything. I hit the wall, so I knew where that was and I just kept riding and riding and hoping (Hamlin) would come down the hill because I couldn’t see and he stayed up there and I got him right in the door. It’s just racing. Things happen sometimes.”