DARLINGTON, S.C. -- What drivers had to say after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway:
William Byron -- Winner: “It’s pretty amazing. My granddad passed away on Thursday, and just, man, I wish my family could be here. Just things have a way of working out, honestly. It just worked out that way today. We didn’t have the best third stage. We just kept battling, and things just kind of come back around. Want to wish happy Mother’s Day to my mom. My sister just graduated school, so big day. Definitely didn’t expect this. But just thankful for a great team, and yeah, just things have a way of working out, and come back here to Darlington and have it go exactly the other way. I’m just thankful that I was able to get in this 24 car. I was too young at the time I feel like, but growing up, maturing and just having a great team around me, being able to build the core that we have, I have a great group of guys, Rudy, Brandon McSwain, Tyler, my car chief, everybody on the team does a great job preparing good cars, and we work hard at it. It’s nice to see it go our way once.”
Kevin Harvick -- Finished 2nd: “We had a good car all day; we just never could get up towards the front in our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang. Struggled in traffic today, but we were really good at the second half of the run and just struggled at the beginning of the run. But we had good track position, then had a bad pit stop under green, and then wound up having everything work out there at the end. Didn’t have anything for William. The front is torn up pretty good. But they did a great job and just kind of kept ourselves in the game, and you never know what’s going to happen. I think if you would have dropped us in first or second place, we probably could have run there. The Fords struggle in traffic with this particular aero package, and it’s hard to make up ground, and then we lost a bunch of ground on pit road under the green flag pit stop. Then we got toward the end and missed all the wrecks. Well, we came out the other side of the wrecks. We were in the wrecks, but just didn’t have any damage to the wheels and tires, just structural damage. WIlliam ended up being the only car that didn’t have damage, and he just drove off, so still a good day for our Sunny Delight Ford Mustang, and we’ll just keep plugging away.”"
Chase Elliott -- Finished 3rd: “I feel like our car was plenty good, really, throughout the whole day. I just do such a terrible job getting up through traffic. I get stalled out behind guys, and I just feel like people driving cars like mine don’t do that. They tend to get up through there and get to where they belong. I feel like everything on the other side of the wall and the car that I was driving was really, really good, so I need to just try to improve and keep going to work on the areas that I’m struggling in and try to build on the improvements we’ve made. But I certainly have a long ways to go. But really proud of our team effort to keep us in the fight. Pit stops were unreal, and obviously got really lucky there at the end with those guys crashing and then the caution coming out quick for myself and guys like Brad to keep our spots like that. I’ll certainly take third, and appreciate all the effort this weekend. We’re making some small gains here and there, just got to get some more.”
Brad Keselowski -- Finished 4th: “I felt like at the end it turned into a wreckfest and we got tore up and salvaged what we could salvage. Ultimately, we were a fifth- or sixth-place car all day and ended up fourth. It was a real solid day. I felt like the whole team did a great job. At the end it just turned into chaos and had all those wrecks and I was in the wrong lane and got tore up and from there we were just salvaging what we could, but it’s nice to come out of here with a fourth, a lot of stage points and something to hold our head up high with.”
Bubba Wallace -- Finished 5th: “Unfortunately, we had that one bad pit stop that set us behind, but this team never gives up. It feels good to rebound to fifth. I keep looking at that pylon, and I’m still pissed off. There are a couple cars up there that were in a wreck that got put back in front of us. That’s bullcrap, and it’s frustrating that we got beat like that because I feel that our car was really good, especially at the beginning. I thought we were a second-place car to the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.). All in all for Dr. Pepper, Toyota, this 23 team, proud of our guys, proud of the pit crew for rebounding and giving us a shot with a good points day. I thought we were a second-place car. I put that down in the debrief and thought the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) was really strong. I don’t know what got him in the back. Pit stops hurt us; that one kind of set us back, but they rebounded and executed the rest of the time. Appreciate that. Just aero, such a big aero place even when tires wear out. The groove goes to the top and you’re just trying to find your way. Proud of our team and proud of our team for staying in it. Things were starting to fall our way there and ended up fifth. Solid points day. Continuing to climb so it’s good.”
Harrison Burton -- Finished 6th: “I felt like we kind of just bounced around 15th after we lost the top-10 track position early on pit road. That was a mixture of my fault and the pit crew, so it’s kind of nice we got the last caution and it was a chance for both of us to redeem ourselves and felt like we did that and got a decent finish out of it. I’m really proud of the DEX Imaging Ford Mustang guys and the Wood Brothers. It was a fast car. I mean, it felt relative to our alliance teammates at Team Penske. That’s been our goal as of late is to try and run with those guys and, relative to them, we were right there. It’s a good day for us and something to build on. We really needed it. The last few weeks we’ve kind of been on the other side of it, where we’ve been fast and didn’t have anything to show for it. This week was kind of the opposite. We were probably a 10th-place car and finished sixth. That was just about execution at the end, restarts at the end and getting a decent finish.”
Ryan Blaney -- Finished 9th: “Track position was big. We got decent in the second stage. We long-pitted and I thought we made up good ground. We went from 18th to eighth, and our car was pretty respectable there, but then the track went tight on us and we lost a little bit of speed and handling. We lined up there at the end and just got caught. They stacked up and destroyed the nose, so it was just one of those days.”
Chris Buescher -- Finished 10th: “We worked hard today with our Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang to get it better. We got rolling pretty good and avoided the last two wrecks. We really wanted to see what we could do with those last 10 green flag laps to see what we could do with it, but just didn’t get that opportunity. The way this day started, we’d have taken a 10th if you would have told us we could get there. We still have a little work to do, but it’s such a track position sensitive race again. We were just planted and basically stuck and that’s why the restarts are as chaotic as they are.”
Martin Truex Jr. -- Finished 31st: “When we got into (Ross) Chastain there at the end of the second stage going for the win in that, it knocked the toe out so we were tight from there on out. Just an unfortunate deal. There was plenty of room there, but he just came off the wall and hit me. Like I said, knocked the toe out in the right front. Pretty crappy from there, and then on that restart I guess I just got real tight and I don’t even know who I squeezed into the wall, but I apologize to them. Probably my fault, just got real tight and couldn’t stay down the track.”