What drivers said at Phoenix Cup championship race

By Mike HembreeNov 6, 2022, 7:41 PM EST

What drivers said after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway, won by Joey Logano, who scored his second title:

Joey Logano — winner: (Logano’s son, Hudson, rode with him to Victory Lane). “We’ve had so many conversations over the last couple weeks before bedtime. First was Daddy isn’t going to get a pole, and he’s going to meet me out here and we’re going to win the race, and I couldn’t be a liar to my son. So it’s worked out. Ever since (Kevin) Harvick gave his son a ride in the car, I always wanted to do that with Hudson. He’s such a little car guy. It was a special moment to ride together. Man, I can’t say enough about this race team. They just grind it out. They’re so amazing, Paul Wolfe, everybody that puts so much time and effort into the last few weeks. And not just this 22 team, this goes so much deeper when you think of Roush Yates Engines and the motor that’s in this bad boy. You think of everyone at Ford, all the employees at Shell and Pennzoil, everyone that’s supported me. It’s been 10 years with Shell, and to get a couple championships and 31 wins is special.”

Ryan Blaney — Finished second: “I wish we could have won one. We had a great car to do it, and it just didn’t happen. I’m proud of the effort. We had a winning car, and it just didn’t happen. You can’t pass anybody. You get behind someone and get tight and it takes your air away, and that’s all you can do.”

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Ross Chastain — Finished third: “Starting better and racing up there with those guys all day (would have helped). We got our car really good there at the end. Hats off to Phil Surgen (crew chief) and everybody at Trackhouse. It’s incredible to build from 2011. To have my family push me away from the farm to chase this dream. For my mom, my dad and my brother to come out and keep pushing me, keep supporting me and keep being there for me. But today was all about winning the big trophy, and we came up just a little bit short. I think we did everything right there at the end. That was a heck of a drive by us. Who had the No. 1 car second in points on their bingo card on February 1? This is pretty wild. This is a continuation of a lot of people believing in me. To build everything together to come drive this car, there are so many team owners and so many crew members that have put in the work. It’s pretty wild to fight for a Cup Series championship and to have a car fast enough to chase them down to the end. (On contact with Chase Elliott) I think I got a better start. I got to his left-rear, and he tried to cover it late and I was already there. I feel like it was just hard racing and I had position. We could have raced down in the corner side-by-side if he had just kept going the way we were going. I had a really good run. It looked like William (Byron) didn’t get going quite as well as he wanted to. I got to the left of (Elliott) and saw an erratic move that he made to turn left to cover it, but I was already there.”

MORE: Title contenders can’t catch Joey Logano

Chase Briscoe — Finished fourth: “I just didn’t fire off near as good (near the finish). I was kind of on top of the racetrack a little bit more than I really had been all day. Truthfully, the 22 and the 12 were so good on the short run every time. I just had nothing for them. On the long run, I was typically a little bit better. I just would give up so much on the short run. I just didn’t fire off very good there at the end. I don’t really know why. I don’t know if the track just changed there as the sun was going down. It wasn’t as good. I felt that was the worst run balance-wise we had all day. It’s unfortunate that’s when it came, but, overall, it was a good day. I definitely feel like we’re a top-five team week in and week out, especially these last 10 weeks. It’s just a matter of putting it all together. This was one of the best races we ran start to finish today, but we just came up a little bit short. We still have to get a little bit better, but we definitely got closer to where we need to be.”

Kevin Harvick — Finished fifth: “On the restarts I kept getting on the chip and getting hung in gear and we would get passed by a couple of cars. I just needed a whole run.”

Christopher Bell — Finished 10th: “Wow, wow, wow. Just from being out and then the wins at Charlotte and Martinsville and all of a sudden you wake up this morning and you are racing for a championship, and you are happy, you are elated and then your world comes crashing down. Whenever you get news like that, it puts it in perspective that there is more to this than racing. The whole Gibbs family is in all of our prayers. I’m thinking of them. Ultimately today, the best car won the championship. He was really strong. Proud of our 20 group, though. We fought hard, and at the end of the race – the last pit stop, or what we thought was going to be the last pit stop, we were right there battling for it. I’m just proud to be in this position, proud to be at Joe Gibbs Racing and race this no. 20 car. The DeWalt Camry was – we were there, and hopefully, we can come back here next year. I feel good about where we are at, for sure. I’m hopeful that my group stays the exact same, from mechanics, engineers and obviously Adam Stevens on top of the pit box because I feel like we have a good thing going. We feel like we are right there on the brink of being there every week and being a title contender, year-in and year-out. Just really thankful to be here and very, very incredibly saddened by the news today, and I’m thinking of the Gibbs family.”

Austin Dillon — Finished 13th: “We had a solid day at Phoenix Raceway. Our Get Bioethanol Chevrolet started off tight, but throughout the day we were able to adjust on it and be in the fight at the end. There weren’t many cautions during the race today, so we had to be on top of our adjustments. Our pit crew did a great job on pit road, and Justin Alexander laid out a good strategy that kept us in the top 20 all day. To leave the last race of the year finishing 13^th and taking home 11^th in points gives my RCR team momentum to start the 2023 season.”

Tyler Reddick — Finished 23rd: “I’m really proud of this whole team’s effort over the years. We have come such a long way in three years’ time. I learned a lot with this group. Anything I wanted to learn and anything I wanted to do, they’ve given me the platform to learn and be a better driver. I’m just really thankful for everyone’s efforts over the years from everyone at RCR and ECR Engines for the fantastic power that we’ve had. We all worked hard and were able to do a lot of great things, and I will always remember that. We had high hopes for our day and we were pretty close with our Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a tough day on pit road, and that put us back there in the mess. We got caught four-wide going into Turn 3. That doesn’t work, and we got quite a bit of damage that pretty much set us back for the rest of the day. At the very end there, we were able to get it back where it needed to be, but we just ran out of time.”

Ty Dillon — Finished 26th: “We rebounded there at the end. Our Petty GMS team was able to get the car a little bit better towards the end of the race. I’d say it was a decent end to the year. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to drive the No. 42 Chevy this season. We had a lot of memories made this season, and I had a lot of fun behind the wheel. Thank you to Maury Gallagher, Richard Petty, the fans, and all of our partners. On to what’s next for me.”

Chase Elliott — Finished 28th: (Asked about contact with Ross Chastain) “Yeah, I’m not sure. I’m not sure. Looking forward to the off-season, and really proud of our team for the fight that we put in today. I felt like we just kind of peaked right there before we crashed, and I felt like we got our car driving pretty good. We just had our best pit stop of the day, so that was all really solid. And heck, we were right there next to the 22 (winner Joey Logano). I thought we had a shot at it all the way up until we didn’t, and that’s unfortunately the way it goes sometimes. I feel like we had gotten it driving about as good as it had been all weekend, honestly. When we split the stage and some of those guys stayed out and ran long and we went a lap down and made our lap back up there under green, that run, I thought our car was driving pretty good.”

Brad Keselowski — Finished 35th: “It just caught fire and the next thing I knew we were sitting there. It’s a bummer, but we’ll hopefully learn something from it and move on. We’re making a lot of progress. It’s obviously a bummer way to end the season, but a lot of progress as a company and we need to have a big off-season of learning.”

Winners and losers at Circuit of the Americas

By Mike HembreeMar 27, 2023, 7:00 AM EDT

A look at winners and losers from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas:

WINNERS

Tyler Reddick — Reddick needed patience and perseverance to stay in front through three overtimes to win Sunday’s race. Considering the supreme strength of his Toyota and his nearly flawless performance, losing first place in that calamity near the end would have been heartbreaking. Instead, he gives Toyota its first win of the year.

Kyle Busch — Busch never led, but he pushed through the field in the final stage, worked his way through the restarts and finished second.

William Byron — Byron appeared to have the only answer to Reddick’s power. He led 28 laps but was shuffled to fifth at the finish.

Todd Gilliland — Gilliland was in the top-15 mix through the three overtimes and worked his way to a 10th-place finish, the third of his Cup career.

Jenson Button — Former F1 champion finished 18th in his Cup debut, highest among the road course ringers. He told his team after the race on the radio that Cup drivers “are on it every second of the race” and also said that the race was a “roller coaster … a whole F1 season in one race.”

LOSERS

AJ Allmendinger — Always expected to be a threat at road courses, Allmendinger left the race after 60 laps with damage from an accident, finishing 34th.

Brad Keselowski — Spins limited Keselowski’s effectiveness Sunday, and he parked after 56 laps with a driveshaft issue, finishing 35th and dropping four spots in the points standings.

Bubba Wallace — The year has not started well for Wallace, who finished 37th Sunday and now has four finishes of 20th or worse in six races. He fell three spots in points.

What drivers said at Circuit of the Americas

By Mike HembreeMar 26, 2023, 8:49 PM EDT

What drivers had to say during and after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas:

Tyler Reddick — Winner: “It means the world. This whole 23XI team has been working so hard all winter long to make the road course program better. Was extremely motivated to come in here and prove that performance, too. Just so proud of this Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD. Toyota, everybody, all the resources they’ve been putting into this to help turn around the road course program means a lot. I’m out of gas. But I feel a little bit better with Monster Energy. I really had to dial it up there at the end to get an advantage. I was making mistakes on every single restart. I was able to make it a little better there in the end. … Obviously, there was a lot of cautions at the end. I mean, the way that things kind of have progressed, the front and rear bumpers of this car are really resilient. You can really hit someone pretty hard without knocking the nose of your car out. The rear bumpers are really tough, too. We saw that at the Clash, people being able to lean on each other front to rear. It kind of brings that to light at the end of these races. But seriously, though, you look at Turn 1 here, Turn 1 at Indy road course, they’re very inviting corners with a lot of room. It’s just a product of restarts and the nature of NASCAR racing and how aggressive all the drivers are. Someone’s going to be on the short end.”

MORE: COTA Cup results, driver points

Kyle Busch — Finished 2nd: “I don’t know if we could have (beaten Tyler Reddick). Even if we were on equal tires, when we tested here, they were lights out. Had us beat on the frontside of the runs. We needed longer runs. Even today we didn’t have great long-run speed. We had great middle-run speed. Overall, for as much effort and everything that we’ve put into coming here and focusing on this place, all the testing and everything we’ve been able to do during the off-season, come out here with a really good finish. Tyler obviously is a really good road racer. He proved it driving this car here last year. I was able to get in it and run right back to him. I’ve been trying to emulate the things he did in order to make this car fast last year, but not quite all the way there. They had a whale of a car.”

Alex Bowman — Finished 3rd: “It probably wouldn’t have been that bad if my interior stuff worked. When this Coolshirt doesn’t work, it just heat soaks, kind of cooks you. I’m hot. It stopped working pretty early. I don’t have issues with stuff from Hendrick Motorsports very often. Shout-out to all the guys back at the shop. This road crew, I’m not the greatest road course racer, so to come here and run top five again means a lot. It was a hot day. Proud of the 45 (Tyler Reddick). A heck of a road course racer. Fastest car definitely won today. Wish our Ally Camaro was a couple spots better. All in all, a good day for us. (On post-race talk with Daniel Suarez): He just thought I drove in and tried to drive through him. I had the corner made. Only reason I was inside of the 99 was to protect from the 1. Then the 1 just hammered me in the corner, dumped me, then I ran into the 99, kind of cleaned him out. Daniel and I, we’ve been teammates in the past, raced together a long time. I respect the hell out of him. I’m sure he’s still not super happy. Just tried to explain that I wouldn’t race him like that, that I was shoved in there. You see that a lot at these road courses. Indy last year, Harvick was super mad at me and crashed me. Then he watched the video, and he was like, ‘Man, I crashed the wrong guy.’ Sometimes just it’s a chain reaction. Fortunately, it worked out for us, ended up with a top five.”

Ross Chastain — Finished 4th: “When we got spun, I think we restarted down at Niece Equipment south of town. To come back to a top five was a top effort for our Worldwide Express team. I thought we were a top-five car all day. Thought the 45 (Tyler Reddick) had us covered. There was a line of Chevys second through sixth. It was about positioning each other while we were saving fuel, then racing each other, whoever was in front was going to be pretty good. Another top five here. I love this place. I love road course racing. But the fight to get better never stops. I know there’s things I can be doing better.”

William Byron — Finished 5th: “It was all right. I probably could have done better on those restarts. I gotta look. I just kept getting pushed wide, and it seemed like the last one didn’t happen for some reason. I just gave up too much track position. It was really my only option. Good to get a top five. We had a good racecar; I think a top-two racecar really, with the 45. He was a lot better than everybody, but I thought we were a close second. It was really fun. Tyler is great, and they were great all weekend. Tyler’s been great on the road courses. We made it a battle for sure every time with crossovers, out-braking each other — that was a lot of fun. I hate that it kind of got down to restarts there at the end. I got shoved off one time in second. We needed a top five and probably could have done some things different.”

Austin Cindric — Finished 6th: “Great to lay some laps. Good to be able to show some speed in our Discount Tire Ford Mustang. It’s one of those days where you win or lose as a team. There were quite a few miscues on pit road that probably kept us from having the track position. Then, it’s a fight. Fair recovery to finish sixth. A lot of things had to go our way for those restarts. But for a long, hot day, we never gave up.”

Chris Buescher — Finisned 8th: “It was our first bumper car race of the year. Our Fifth Third Ford Mustang ended up pretty solid there toward the end. We got a solid top 10 out of it. That’s a big testament to this team and its ‘never give up’ attitude. I started into the 30s for the day, 32nd. I had to really power through, and we had some issues there that probably came from getting run into… backward a couple times. But I’m proud of everybody. That was a good finish for a really hard-fought day.”

Ty Gibbs — Finished 9th: “I’m sure it was entertaining. We had a really great first half of the race and then we had an issue with our lugnut – lost a lot of time and I got two penalties. I just have to minimize mistakes. We will take it.”

Todd Gilliland — Finished 10th: “The restarts were really good for us, even in the very beginning of the race. We were able to fire off and gain a lot of spots right off the bat. So, after that, we had fallen off a little worse than everyone else, but our fire-off speed was probably top-five to 10 every time. It was really nice to have some speed there, and to be really aggressive on the restarts. Most of them worked out really well. I got spun once, but we were able to rebound up to 10th or so. That’s good — 15th and 10th the last two races. That’s something to build on.”

Jenson Button — Finished 18th: “It was an emotional rollercoaster. First, it was terrible. I mean, I must’ve been last by the end of it. And I was just like, ‘Everyone: Go. I just need to drive and find a rhythm.’ I’ve never gone through a corner too wide so often. And trying to place my car in the right place — I just got it wrong every time. Normally, if you’re a little bit slow through a corner, nobody tries to overtake you from the outside. Because they’re not going to make it all the way on the next one. But here they do, because they get a wheel inside for the next one, and if you turn in, you turn around. The first stint was really bad — it was embarrassing for me. I was like, ‘All right guys, we need to pit, freshen the tires and I need some air – I need some fresh air.’ I got that. The pace was good, consistency was good. I was really happy — and passed a few cars, which was nice. We got a little bit unlucky with the safety car because it was just two laps before our window. Pitted, then the next stint was mayhem. We also made a couple of changes that just didn’t work. Big oversteer — went from the car feeling great to really difficult to drive. I also had a massive whack from Kimi (Räikkönen), and it fell off after that. The car wasn’t quite right. Every time I turned in, the rear tires would chatter, then immediately to oversteer. It was really difficult, but toward the end, we made some good calls stopping and putting on fresh tires. I enjoyed the last three restarts — got good placement and good overtaking moves from the outside. Finished 18th after almost stopping because I had heat exhaustion. It was so hot, I don’t have a fan in my seat which really didn’t help me too much. It was so hot, I thought I was going to faint in the car. So, I stopped twice for a minute. They put ice on me, gave me loads of water, and I went back out. I was so close to getting out of the car because I thought I was going to faint. I must’ve drunk eight or nine bottles of water during the race. The team kept me calm, and it’s the reason why we got a good result in the end. So, I was happy.”

Noah Gragson — Finished 20th: “Had a solid day in our Black Rifle Coffee Camaro. We ran inside the top 10 and top 15 for a large part of the day with good speed. We kept working on the car. Luke Lambert and the rest of the guys called a great strategy. The pit crew did an awesome job. We put ourselves in position during the green-white-checkers to be in the top 10. I ended up getting spun and rallied back. We never quit.”

Ryan Blaney — Finished 21st: “Certainly, wasn’t the day we were looking for. Starting in the back we managed to gain quite a few spots early but got hit really hard in the left rear and had to make repairs. Glad we had a shot late for a decent finish, but those overtime restarts are crazy and sometimes it works out and other times it doesn’t.”

Erik Jones — Finished 23rd: “Frustrating day here in at COTA. I felt like we had a pretty fast Allegiant Chevy, but it seemed like we kept getting hit. There were a couple times there on restarts that we just flat got ran over. Wrong place wrong time for sure, and it stinks that we weren’t really able to have anything to show for the speed we had. I’m thankful that we were able to show as much promise as we did early on with a good run in qualifying, and I can tell we are moving in the right direction at Legacy Motor Club. On to Richmond.”

Jordan Taylor — Finished 24th: “Yeah, it was definitely wild. I wouldn’t say I survived; I feel like I’m beat up pretty much. Every restart, you just get smashed in the front, rear, side. So, yeah, it was pretty much just survival. The guys knew I’d be a little bit more hesitant, so they would take advantage of it. At the end, I got more aggressive and made our way almost back to the top 10. On the last restart, I don’t know who went down on the inside, but they were never going to make the corner and used us to stop themselves. I’d say it was a disappointing day. I made a couple big mistakes early on that probably put us back there, but the No. 9 UniFirst Chevy was fast. I need to thank UniFirst and Hendrick Motorsports for giving me the opportunity. We had good pace, but we just got shuffled back every restart. Tough day.”

Joey Logano — Finished 28th: “We had a decent day going with the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang. Paul (Wolfe) made some good strategy calls to gain track position. Felt like we had a top-10 car, but depending on how the end played out maybe a top-five. The restarts at the end normally play out that way and we ended up spun out. We’ll move on to Richmond.”

Kimi Raikkonen — Finished 29th: “I think it wasn’t too bad. We got unlucky with the incidents that happened. It was one of those things, unfortunately. Then there were no tires left. They kept coming, getting more restarts and more restarts, so I think after the spin I had, the tires were just done. It’s a shame because when we were there, but then we restart, and just wrong place, wrong time. It was a case of trying to stay out of the issues in the first corner and every time. It looked like you’d be very good, then three corners later, somebody’s going the wrong direction. There’s a bit of mess and luck involved.”

Austin Dillon — Finished 33rd: “We had a really solid run going in our Get Bioethanol Chevrolet today, so it’s disappointing that we ended up in the garage early. We didn’t qualify where we needed to, but we worked our way into the top 15 by the end of Stage 1 and earned stage points at the end of Stage 2. The end of the race became a typical NASCAR road course race. It was just a mess. We drove up into the hill on a restart, and everyone just pile-drove into each other. I had nowhere to go. I don’t know if it would have worked out better for us if we chose the bottom or not. I hate it for all of the guys on this RCR team. We had a lot of good things going today, but nothing to show for it. There’s still a lot of racing to go. We’ll regroup and head to Richmond Raceway.”

Jimmie Johnson — Finished 38th: “What a disappointing finish. Unfortunately, we got off to a slow start yesterday and qualified poorly. We all know what happens when you start in the back and, unfortunately, we were caught up in that. Just a wild and crazy first lap that was taking place. I thought I had the wreck missed, but I just saw a flash of red out of nowhere. I guess there was more going on the outside of the No. 6 car (Brad Keselowski) as it was spinning, and I saw him and just got collected.”

COTA Cup Series results: Tyler Reddick wins

By Mike HembreeMar 26, 2023, 8:04 PM EDT

Wrecks led to a series of restarts over the closing miles in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas, but Tyler Reddick, who had the day’s fastest car, held on through all of the calamity to score his first win of the year.

Kyle Busch was second, Alex Bowman third and Ross Chastain fourth. William Byron, who challenged Reddick for supremacy most of the day, was fifth.

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Reddick led 41 laps on the way to his fourth Cup win (three on road courses).

Jenson Button finished 18th in his first Cup race, and Jordan Taylor was 24th in his Cup debut.

Tyler Reddick wins NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA

By Mike HembreeMar 26, 2023, 7:39 PM EDT

Tyler Reddick passed William Byron for the lead with four laps from the scheduled end and held on through three overtimes to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas.

Shortly after Reddick took the lead, the field was slowed under caution as debris flew from Austin Dillon‘s car. The field was stacked again as the race was pushed into overtime, giving challengers another shot at Reddick.

Reddick outran the rest of the field through the dangerous first turn and built a one-second lead before another caution for the damaged cars of Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece bunched the field again.

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The third caution in a row appeared when Martin Truex Jr. and Daniel Suarez crashed in the first turn, eliminating Reddick’s lead once more.

Again, Reddick shot away from the rest of the field on the restart and held the lead through another green-white-checkered to take the win, his third career road course victory. Following at the finish were Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and Byron.

The win was Reddick’s first of the season and also the first this year for Toyota and 23XI Racing. His car was a rocket much of the day, allowing him to pit one more time than most of the other contenders and still race out front.

“(The win) means the world,” Reddick told Fox Sports. “This whole 23XI team has been working so hard all winter long to make the road course program better. Was extremely motivated to come in here and prove that performance, too.”

Reddick and Byron were the race kingpins most of the day. Reddick led 41 laps and Byron 28. No one else led more than two.

Reddick, 27, held the lead with 12 laps remaining when Brad Keselowski‘s Ford stalled, bringing out a caution, bunching the field and changing the dynamic of the finish.

During the caution period, Christopher Bell, Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kimi Raikkonen and Preece stayed on track to inherit the starting spots at the front. Reddick dropped out of the lead to pit for tires and fuel. Chastain, who had been running third, was delayed in the pits by a slow right-front tire change.

On the restart, the field crowded into Turn 1, and Reddick burst into the lead as several cars, including Chastain, spun, causing another caution. Suarez, Chastain, Byron and Bowman trailed Reddick before they all rolled into the pits.

Reddick breezed to a win in Stage 2. He was seven seconds in front of Austin Dillon at stage end.

Byron won the first stage, leading eight laps to five by Reddick.

Jenson Button had the best day of the road-course “ringers” in the field, finishing 18th. Jordan Taylor, substituting for the injured Chase Elliott, was 24th, and Kimi Raikkonen was 29th.

Stage 1 winner: William Byron

Stage 2 winner: Tyler Reddick

Who had a good race: Winner Tyler Reddick and William Byron fought for the lead much of the afternoon. They split the first two stage wins. … Ross Chastain, who scored the first win of his Cup career in this race last year, raced into the top five in the final miles. … Kyle Busch had another solid run for Richard Childress Racing, finishing second.

Who had a bad race: Former champion Jimmie Johnson, making a rare Cup start, had a short day. He was one of five drivers involved in a crash on Lap 1, and he parked his Chevrolet for the day. … Bubba Wallace‘s car was damaged in a Lap 11 accident that also involved Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. He did not return to the race. … AJ Allmendinger finished 34th after being involved in an accident.

Next: The Cup tour rolls on to Richmond Raceway for an April 2 race (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1).

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MORE: Title contenders can’t catch Joey Logano

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WINNERS

LOSERS

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