Kyle Busch — Winner: “It was a lot more hectic than I wanted it to be. Those lapped cars just got in our way and slowed us down so much that we just had no momentum. Finally I got through a couple of them. Larson just threw a dart there in Turn 1 and 2 and tried to pull a slide job. I don’t think he was close enough. He didn’t get enough clear on me to be able to slide. And when he got to me, he throttled up and drove us in the wall. And going down the backstretch, I lost all of my momentum. I tried to side-draft him as much as I could to keep him alongside of me. He cleared me and I gave him what he gave me back into Turn 3 and 4.
Kyle Larson — Finished 2nd: “Oh man, I’m not upset. I had an opportunity there to slide in front of him and I figured I wouldn’t clear him or I would allow him to drive back underneath me. So, I tried to get to his door and you know I opened the door for him to retaliate into (Turn) 3. I thought it was free game. I ran into him first, he got me after that, maybe a little bit worse than I got him, but that is alright. I love racing Kyle (Busch). I know all these fans are probably mad at him, but hey we put on a hell of a show for you guys and that was a blast.”
Kevin Harvick — Finished 3rd: “Our car was just off all weekend. We had a tough time making the front end turn and then we would wind up way too tight, all the way through the corner or way too loose all the way through the corner. The guys did a good job and kept us in the game all day. We had a chance, we just wound up at the wrong side of it at the end.”
Martin Truex Jr. — Finished 4th: “Up and down for sure. Starting in the back and we overcame that pretty quickly, really. Our pit stall was awful. I feel bad for the 42 (Larson). To pit behind us and there is nothing we could have done about it. That rule where NASCAR picks your pit stall for you, it hurts the 42. It hurts us just as much. All in all we battled here today with track position and we were a fourth-place car and that’s where we finished so it was a good day.”
Clint Bowyer — Finished 5th: “Yeah, we were too fast. The guys work very hard on making sure that they are pushing the envelope, which you have to do in this world and against this competition. You have to push everything. Certainly pit road is a big part of that. You are splitting hairs out there on the race track down to the tenths of a second and you can gain seconds on pit road. Obviously our pit road speed was just a little too fast. We practiced it yesterday and the guys even made some adjustments but that tight section down there was just too fast.”
Erik Jones — Finished 6th: “Yeah, I think overall the last two weeks have been really good to us. Sonoma was a big challenge and I thought today was going to be a big challenge. Which, overall, the grip level being as low as it was. The track being as hot and slick as it was. We did a good job making good adjustments. Overall, we did what needed to do to get a good run and it turned out into a solid top 10.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 9th: “We struggled with some stuff out there today. Struggled with a vibration and we struggled with grip. We were a little better, probably a fifth place car today. I probably cost us a couple of spots but that is just the way it goes. I think we are the same we have been. We can run fifth to 10th at the 1.5-mile tracks but we are behind the (Truex), (Kyle Busch) and Stewart-Haas (Racing) cars.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 10th: “It was a good day for us for sure. Another top 10 is something for our team to continue building on. We battled some loose conditions off and on, but (crew chief) Greg (Ives) made some great changes to the car. Our Axalta pit crew was on it today. I am pretty sure we gained two or more positions on each stop. This is definitely good momentum going into next week’s race.”
Chase Elliott — Finished 19th: “Unfortunately, we didn’t finish like we started. We tried a couple things and they just didn’t work out in our favor. There just was no pace on the top there at the end.”
William Byron — Finished 20th: “Yeah, just fought tight the whole day and felt like we got a little bit on the other side of it but didn’t really help us out much. But, good pit stops and a couple of good things to hang on to. So, go to Daytona.”
Aric Almirola — Finished 25th: “Our car was super fast, especially out in clean air. It was incredibly fast. We just have to execute. We have to put a whole race together. That is the difference between being good and being great. We are capable of winning. We showed it today. We have speed, we are bringing incredible race cars to the race track and we just have to put a whole day together. We have to be flawless on pit road and I have to do my part too. Today we just had two loose wheels on two separate instances and you can’t have that, especially in races like this that go green forever. I am really frustrated but the good news is that our cars are fast. We can build on that. We are going to win a race. I guarantee you we are going to win a race. We have to be perfect to do it though.”
Ty Dillon — Finished 28th: “We still have some work to do on our intermediate track program. Our team has certainly had some good moments this year, like our 13th-place finish at Texas, but today was a struggle for our GEICO Camaro ZL1 team. It’s so hard to take notes from one mile-and-half to another because a lot of them are in different stages of a repave from recent years. We are going to keep working at it though. Continuing to build and improve takes hard work, and this team certainly isn’t scared of putting in that time and effort.”
