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What drivers said after Cup race at Miami

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Denny Hamlin holds off Chase Elliott to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Denny Hamlin - winner: “Our car was really good. This is a setup based off of what we had in the fall here last year going for the championship. Had a strong car all day. Obviously with the laps led and was able to get around Chase (Elliott) there at the end. This whole FedEx team has just done a phenomenal job. This Camry is real special. Have to thank Coca-Cola, Jordan Brand, FedEx and all of our partners. Everyone at JGR for putting together great race cars and keep digging to make ourselves a little bit better.”
(Did you feel patience would pay off and Chase Elliott would come back to you after the last pit stop?) “I didn’t know. It seems like the end of these races are Chase’s best suit. I knew that if I was just patient and ran the pace that I wanted and the pace I was comfortable with, we were going to be hard to beat in the long run.”

Chase Elliott - finished second: " I just need to get through lap traffic better.”

Ryan Blaney - finished third: “When we came off pit road after that last green flag stop we were a ways behind those two guys and we made up a lot of ground, tons of ground on them, and just got to them and everyone is running the wall. You just get tight, especially in (Turns) 3 and 4. (Turns) 1 and 2 there are multiple lanes, but three and four if you weren’t on the fence when you got 15 laps on your stuff, you were just tight and gonna hit the fence, so that made it hard for us to kind of go once we got there. (Tyler Reddick) was the same way with me. He kind of got there and stalled too, but I’m proud of the group. We had really good short run speed early in the race and I thought by the end we had really good long run speed, so we crossed over which is a good effort by the Jack Links team.”

Tyler Reddick - finished fourth: “I’m really proud of my Chevy Cares Chevrolet team and the effort we showed today. We had really good speed and were able to run up front pretty much all night long. The men and women of RCR and ECR did a great job preparing us with a fast race car to bring down to my favorite track on the circuit. We were able to use that speed to our advantage and race into the top 10 within the first 30 laps, and we were able maintain that track position. We fined tuned our car from then on out for the rest of the race and tried to make it better to run the fence. It was tough, though, because sometimes the top seam worked better instead of the fence, so figuring out which lane was the best to use at what time was tricky. We got a little too tight by the end of the night to really make the fence work like I wanted, but all in all, it was a solid effort. I’ve won the past two times I’ve come here, granted in the Xfinity Series, but it was so fun to be ripping the fence with three of the best tonight in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was a hard-fought battle and one we can build momentum off of.”

Aric Almirola - finished fifth: “Man, we finally had a nice clean day today. We really needed that as a team. We haven’t raced a full race yet without having something go wrong. This proves we have the speed we need to compete this season if we continue to run clean with no mistakes. Homestead is not an easy track to earn a top five at either. To get our first of the season here shows we have a lot of potential.”

Austin Dillon - finished seventh: “It feels great to be able to capture a top-10 finish for my first race as a new dad, and to bring home a solid result for everyone on the Dow Coatings and Behr teams. The No. 3 Dow Coatings Chevrolet was much stronger at the end of the race than it was at the beginning of the race, so I am proud of everyone for sticking in there until the end. We started off way too loose, but adjustments on pit road helped us improve handling. By the end of Stage 2, the handling transitioned to tight, but we were really fast, especially in clean air. We worked our way up to seventh when we were issued a penalty for an uncontrolled tire during a pit stop and had to battle through the field to earn our seventh-place finish. We had a fast Chevy at the end of the race, and I’m proud of everyone at Richard Childress Racing. It was a solid effort all around for our organization this weekend.”

Christopher Bell - finished eighth: “Our Rheem Camry was really, really loose to start the night and then Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) did a great job adjusting on it got it pretty close to where I was happy and then we were able to pick our way though there. The races are so long – there are so many yellows – that I really wasn’t worried about our starting position. I knew that if we had a car that was good; we were going to get up front.”

Brad Keselowski - finished 10th: “It was a good comeback for our MoneyLion Ford team tonight. We were really tight for most of the race but (crew chief) Jeremy (Bullins) and the guys kept working hard and we came away with a top 10.”

Clint Bowyer - finished 11th: “That was frustrating. Our BlueDEF Ford had the speed tonight, but we just couldn’t get it to turn like we needed. We were tight and really struggled for grip.

Michael McDowell - finished 15th: “That was great. Another top 15 run; that’s two in a row for us. Everyone at Front Row Motorsports has worked really hard. Our No. 34 program has been a lot better this year and we’re starting to see some of the fruit of that, so thanks to all of the guys back at the shop who have been working really hard to get everything that they can out of our race cars. Our Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang was fast on the long runs; we just needed a couple more laps at the end to grab a couple more positions, but I’m really excited about our performance today. Drew and the boys did a good job tonight and I’m ready to keep the momentum rolling with Love’s Travel Stops next weekend at Talladega.”

John Hunter Nemechek - finished 19th: “We had a solid night in our No. 38 Death Wish Coffee Ford Mustang. We fired off pretty tight and battled with that for probably two-thirds of the race. The crew was lightning fast on pit road all night long and we managed to get the car a little bit freer towards the third stage. We would have finished a few spots higher but I had a right front tire go down on the last lap. We still were able to get a top 20, which is another solid result for us.”

Cole Custer - finished 22nd: “The guys did a great job staying with me all day. We fought a tight car for most of the day, and we’re working hard to figure these cars out, but I can’t thank the guys enough for hanging with me all day.”

Joey Logano - finished 27th: “We just really struggled tonight, even when we were leading early in the race. The team made a lot of adjustments the first two stages and we just couldn’t ever get the front tires to work and turn the center. We’ll regroup and head to Talladega next Sunday.”

Corey LaJoie - finished 29th:

Daniel Suarez - finished 31st: “It was a good job by the pit crew. It was a good job by Dave (Winston, crew chief) and everyone. The balance of the car was good for most of the night. Now we just need to find more speed.”