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What drivers said after Busch Clash at Daytona

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A tussle between Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney in the final lap of the Busch Clash gives Kyle Busch a straight shot to victory at Daytona.

Here is what drivers said after tonight’s Busch Clash on the road course at Daytona International Speedway:

Kyle Busch - Winner: “I didn’t know how it was going to play out or what was going to happen there, but I saw those guys go in there two-wide and I was like, I don’t know if they’re going to come out two-wide. Certainly, it was a tough battle between those two. They were really good. The 9 (Chase Elliott) was fast, I don’t know if he was the class of the field, but the 12 (Ryan Blaney) was definitely just fast and made aggressive moves and was doing a good job all night getting himself back up to the front each time. Those two coulda, shoulda, woulda been the two to race it out for the win and maybe the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.). Just interesting how that plays out sometimes and what dynamic will push you into victory lane. Here we are with our M&M’s Toyota. Thanks to TRD, Interstate Batteries and Rowdy Energy Drink and everybody that gets us here. Appreciate Ben Beshore (crew chief) and all my new 18 guys for this year.”

Chase Elliott - Finished 2nd: “I was close enough to drive it in there and I feel like I’d be mad at myself for not at least trying. Obviously, I don’t mean to wreck anybody, especially him. Some guys I wouldn’t mind. But he’s not one of them. Hopefully he’s not too mad at me. I feel like you’ve got to go for it here in an event like this in any situation. I can’t be sorry about going for the win, but I certainly didn’t mean to wreck him. I drove in there and, just that corner gets so tight and I didn’t want to just completely jump the curb to the right. But I feel like I tried to get over there as far as I could. And at that point we were coming together at the same time. I hate it. We had a fast Llumar Chevrolet in a position to have a shot at it. We’ll try again on Sunday.”

Joey Logano - Finished 3rd: “Perseverance - just keep fighting. it’s a small field so you can always come back. All of the cars run off the road in the bus stop and got my grille packed full of mud. It’s not even grass back there, it’s just mud so I felt like I was dirt racing again. And then we got that cleaned out and was getting close to being in position to win it, I don’t understand the call NASCAR made there. I’ve got to talk to them. That’s a move that’s been made for the 10 years, 11 years I’ve been doing this. I don’t know why it’s not ok now. I just want consistent officiating. That’s all I’m looking for, so just trying to understand that a little bit better. It might be on me, I’ve got to look at it. And then we fought. We got close. I just ran out of tires there at the end and tires ended up passing us.”

Tyler Reddick - Finished 4th: “Tonight was all about shaking the rust off and learning as much as we could in our No. 8 I Am Second Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for next week’s race at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course. We had a fast car tonight, and I learned a lot about what I need. It was great to lead laps and be up front, but there is definitely still work to be done. Pit road was one of the most challenging parts of the NASCAR Cup Series last year, and I’m still working hard to be better at it this year. We were also a touch tight all around, but we’ll regroup and see what we can change before we return. Overall, it was a good night for us. I had fun, and I think we learned some valuable things for the points-paying Daytona Road Course race in a week.”

William Byron - Finished 5th: “We had an eventful night for sure. We had the pit stop issue that we had to fight back from and were still able to finish fifth. Good job to the team to be able to rally. (Crew chief) Rudy (Fugle) made awesome adjustments to make us better. We started off the race surprisingly kind of off and we were able to work on it and make it better. To finish fifth overall is good. We know what we need to work on for when we get back here in a couple weeks.”

Alex Bowman - Finished 7th: “I really think we could have been in contention to win tonight. Those speeding penalties on pit road hurt us a little, but this Ally team really helped make adjustments and get the car back toward the front. Even after those penalties, we were still in contention to be up front. We learned a lot that we can bring back for next weekend’s road course race. Now it’s time to get focused on the oval and qualifying tomorrow night.”

Austin Dillon - Finished 11th: “We learned some things tonight in the No.3 Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. We used the beginning of the race to work on picking up overall speed. We got into our groove and it was good to race up front and battle in the top-five. It was wild out there tonight. The whole exit to the chicane was filled with dirt from cars going off course and sliding around the track. On that last restart we all went three-wide and I got punted and shut out. We ended up finishing 11th, but we definitely learned a lot that we can use next week when we race on the road course again. We’ve come a long way from where we were a year ago.”

Aric Almirola - Finished 12th: “We learned a lot tonight. We tried some things for the road course race in a few weeks and found speed that will hopefully carry over. Our Smithfield pit crew team did a great job tonight. It’s good to be back racing.”

Ryan Blaney - Finished 13th: “A race is a race. I don’t care if it’s an exhibition race or a normal points race. I don’t care about that. It’s racing, but I was upset about it, for sure. Chase and I know each other well. I know he didn’t do it on purpose, but sending it off in there hard like anybody would do it’s just a shame we both got taken out or neither one of us won the race. If you’re gonna make a move like that make sure you either win the race, don’t let the third-place guy do it.”

Brad Keselowski - Finished 17th: “Not the finish we wanted tonight in our MoneyLion Ford. I tried something a little different in the bus stop and it didn’t work. We’ll learn from it and get ready for the Daytona 500.”

Cole Custer - Finished 20th: “I felt like we were having a pretty good run in our HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang. The adjustments we were making were definitely helping, and we were gaining track position. I’m not sure what happened when I stopped after missing the chicane. The good news is we learned a lot that we can work on for next week (on the road course), and now we can focus on the Daytona 500.”

Martin Truex Jr. - Finished 21st: “I just overshot the bus stop a little bit and hit that mud that was there. It was worse than the laps before, so just caught me off guard. I actually slowed down from the lap before going through there and once it got in the bus stop turned back to the right, it was gone. It’s been a tough night with that mud there, but I made a big mistake early on and it cost us the lead and we had to come from the back. Honestly, I beat the car to pieces trying to get there. It was fun; it was a lot of fun getting through the field, just wish we could have closed it out for DeWalt, coming on for the first time.”