Here’s what most of the 20 drivers in Saturday’s Sprint All-Star Race had to say after the race (or after their night ended prematurely) at Charlotte Motor Speedway:
Joey Logano – finished 1st: “What a crazy battle for a million dollars at the end. This is the All-Star Race. It’s special just to be in the race. Forget winning it, it’s just special. It’s neat to be in victory lane. … It’s up there for sure (when asked where does this win rank in his career). It’s definitely one you want to have on your resume. You want to have the Daytona 500, but the All-Star Race is special and the Coca-Cola 600 is next and that’s a really special one to have.”
Brad Keselowski – finished 2nd: “A decent night, but not the great night we wanted with the Miller Lite Ford ending up second. I’m pretty happy for my teammate Joey Logano. He kind of did exactly what you would expect out of an All-Star Race format and made a pretty incredible pass to win the race. I’m happy for Team Penske as a whole, but of course I wish it was me in victory lane. … There was a next-to-last lap pass for the lead. There were several passes for the lead. The last four races there hasn’t been a pass for the lead in the last 20 or 30 laps. I think our fans deserve a better format than that and they got that today. I don’t know how you can get much more compelling racing than what we saw today, so they need to get unconfused and enjoy the racing.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. – finished 3rd: “We still have some gains to make. We didn’t win the race but we outran a lot of guys who had been outrunning us the last few weeks. We didn’t get to practice so we worked really hard during the race changing a lot of stuff, and I hope Greg (crew chief Greg Ives) learned a lot. Next weekend we’ll actually get to practice some and make some changes to see if we can’t get our car better for the 600. I’d love to win that race before I retire.”
Carl Edwards – finished 4th: “I had fun on those restarts. That was wild. I don’t know what it looked like on television. … Just a crazy night. I wouldn’t call it confusing because I kind of understood what was going on, but it took most of my brain power to keep up. … NASCAR has done a good job with the aero package, they’re working in the right direction and the 600 should be good. I think with the long runs in the 600, you’ll see guys moving around a little more and maybe a little more racing.”
Chase Elliott – finished 6th: “I was confused the whole time. I really was. There was a lot of time I didn’t know what was happening and just a lot of things, but hey, I was really proud of our effort. It was such a long day and my guys did such a good job fixing our car; not once, but twice today. So, I’m proud of them for that. I thought we had a good car from the start of the race until we got our damage and I think that’s encouraging for next week.”
Trevor Bayne – finished 7th: “We learned a lot tonight that will help us for next weekend in the (Coca-Cola) 600. Our car was really fast all day long and I’m really happy we got to be a part of this race after winning the Showdown. In that last segment we were able to race into the top five before the aggression really ramped up but we’re happy to come home seventh with this AdvoCare Ford and I’m really proud of all of my guys for their work throughout the day.”
Denny Hamlin – finished 9th: “I think when you start to set rules on you can pit at this time, but you have to do it before this or that and then the caution comes that you don’t expect like we saw then it puts cars laps down. I don’t know. How do you keep up at home to be honest with you? I knew when it took about 10 minutes to explain the rules in the driver’s meeting that it was going to be a complicated night. All this is to give the fans a great finish and we’re trying to fabricate something for them to look at this All-Star race and say that it’s exciting. You want to create a last lap pass every race you can, but you also don’t want to get too goofy trying to create it.”
Kyle Busch – finished 10th: “I have no idea what the race looked like on TV so I can’t really comment on what it was. … I thought our strategy was perfect – poor execution on the driver.”
Kevin Harvick – finished 11th: “We just had something that went wrong. It’s unfortunate, because we had a really fast Busch Light Chevrolet. It was really, really fast, but I just got to a point where I couldn’t steer anymore in traffic or in the corner. It just made it tough.”
Kyle Larson – finished 16th: “I’m super disappointed. I hate that I keep letting my team down. They did everything right. They worked their tails off after I got all the damage in the Showdown. We had a really, really good Target Chevy and were able to get to the front pretty quick there to be in the best position possible there for the last restart. I got clear right away and thought I could cruise. … I’m really disappointed but congrats to Logano and their team. Hats off to my guys. They’ve worked their tails off. We’ve had fast cars the last few weeks where we had struggled with that recently. I’m having fun but this will be hard to get over.”
Matt Kenseth – finished 18th: “I got more than bumped from behind, I think I got drove over. I hope everybody understands this race better than I did from the cockpit, because ever since the first car pitted in that first segment, I have no idea of what’s going on.”
Tony Stewart – finished 20th: “I’m as baffled as everybody,” Stewart said on Fox Sports 1. “It’s the most screwed-up All-Star Race I’ve ever been a part of. I’m glad it’s the last one (for him). I’m alright, I’m just madder than hell. I don’t understand how they’ve officiated this thing from start to finish.”
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