Here is what drivers were saying after Sunday’s playoff race at Homestead-Miami Speedway:
Christopher Bell — Winner: “It’s no secret this track hasn’t been my favorite. The first stage, I thought we were onto something. Started 14th and got all the way up to ninth, I thought if we can improve just this much, we’d have a great day. And then, it went the opposite as soon as we got to stage two. I have no idea what adjustments (Adam Stevens) made. We threw the kitchen sink at it, as we went from being one of the worst cars on the track to being one of the best at the end.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 2nd: “We just needed laps. The long run car was really good. I just couldn’t fire off for 10 laps or so. I think the track cooling off helped those guys. I think we were better in the hotter, slicker conditions when fire off speed didn’t matter as much and it fell off quicker. That played into our benefit.”
Blaney on right side of cutline after Homestead
Ryan Blaney says the No. 12 was good on long runs all day after a runner-up finish at Homestead-Miami and doesn’t have much to share when asked about the incident involving Kyle Larson on pit road.
Tyler Reddick — Finished 3rd: “Yeah, it was a frustrating day. I was really hoping we were going to get a little more out of that. The finish was what we needed, but we didn’t run as well as we wanted to all day, which was the disappointing part. I don’t know, it’s been a gripe of mine ever since we went to the composite body on the Cup side. Everyone runs the fence, and there’s no penalty when you have a mistake and hit the wall.”
William Byron — Finished 4th: “We just didn’t have the turn in our car to go into a run, so we just struggled there to fire-off. I was doing all I could to air-block; move my line around and try to take (Christopher Bell’s) air, but it just wasn’t enough. I couldn’t get through the middle well enough to maintain pace. But our No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet was really solid all day. We just needed more there at the end, but we had good execution, good pit stops and put ourselves in position to win.”
AJ Allmendinger — Finished 5th: “We started the race in the 25th position and drove right up into the top-10 there. The track was tricky – you got on one side of the race track and we fought tight through the middle-half of the race. Our crew chief made some really good adjustments there, and we got some more clean air and I was able to make some moves. I thought maybe we were one of the fastest cars there at the end, but overall, just a really solid day. It’s always great when you can get a top-five finish.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished 6th: “Ooh, frustrating day, frustrating sixth place. But, proud of our effort today, that’s what it takes. Never give up. We just need to be better. Have to look at what we did from Saturday night into today and not do that again and start better to put ourselves in contention. I thought our pit crew put us back in the game there today. Just not what we had for our No. 23 McDonald’s Grimace Toyota team, but all in all, a good result for sure.”
Aric Almirola — Finished 9th: “We ended up with a solid top-10 today even after a mistake on pit road by me. We finally had something go our way with that caution that brought us back in the game. We found some speed in our Smithfield Ford Mustang today. We needed a top-10 as a team after the year we’ve had and to do it at Homestead is awesome. We never gave up today after coming back from 30th, to that penalty, and then back up again.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 10th: “We had a solid qualifying effort on Saturday that put us in position to be contenders on Sunday. Our Chevy was fast all day. We finished in the top 10 in both stages and were setting up for the end to have a shot to win. We played the strategy game and the cautions seemed to fall our way. On the last pit stop of the race, we came in fifth and there was a problem on pit road causing us to restart 18th. We would have liked to have a go from the front at the end, but it wasn’t in the cards we were dealt. Still, nice recovery for our team to finish in the top-10.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 13th: “Decent day for our 41 group. We spent a majority of the first stage trying to get our car a little bit tighter so we could run the top, but our entry and exit were good throughout the day. Our car was fast and we were able to make positive gains throughout the day with pit strategy. Wish we could’ve gotten a few more spots there at the end, but it was an overall good day for us and we’ll take a 13th-place finish.”
Erik Jones — Finished 14th: “Just an OK, up-and-down, day for the No. 43 Allegiant Chevy team. We had some good runs and some bad runs, but overall, ended up with a decent day. We needed that. We’ve had some bad finishes; some weren’t necessarily all our fault; we were just in a bad spot. It’s nice to come home with an OK day, and hopefully go to Martinsville and get it a little bit better.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 17th: “We never really could get the track position. I felt like our car was good enough to run up front. We were able to pass the 23XI guys who finished up front and were able to, about halfway finally get to 11th or 12th, then got a penalty that just kind of killed our day. Frustrating but, overall, we still had a fast car, which is a positive for our mile-and-a-half program. But it’s definitely frustrating.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 18th: “We were just too tight throughout the race. Crew chief Randall Burnett and the guys on the RCR team made adjustments on every pit stop but we just didn’t hit on anything that improved the balance. One bright spot for us was our pit crew. Those guys did a solid job on pit road today. Not the finish we wanted, but we’ll regroup and bounce back next week at Martinsville Speedway.”
Chris Buescher — Finished 21st: “Yeah, that was a brutal day. We worked hard on this Fastenal Mustang and got it better. We started off the race really tight and went a lap down and didn’t have any opportunities to get that back. The cautions didn’t fall at the right time for us and about the time they would start the green flag cycles something would happen. We couldn’t quite catch the break we needed. We did find some good speed and I feel like on equal tires there at the end we would have been able to move up quite a bit. It just wasn’t the case.”
Justin Haley — Finished 23rd: “I felt like I had an issue with my steering all day. We fired off so tight with no downforce and couldn’t drive in traffic. We made solid adjustments all day, but there was definitely a bigger issue. Hopefully we can regroup and head to Martinsville.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 30th: “We tried and it just didn’t work out. Unfortunate for this Sport Clips Toyota team. We really battled back well today – just a tough break.”
Joe Gibbs Racing loses Hamlin and Truex Jr.
Joe Gibbs Racing drivers encounter catastrophic issues concurrently at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with Denny Hamlin suffering a steering issue and Martin Truex Jr. being plagued by an expired engine.
Ross Chastain — Finished 31st: “We were outside the top-10 and needed to work our way back up into the top-five there. We needed to catch a lucky caution to be back into the mix. Just ran out of room — I don’t think it was anyone’s fault, just four-wide coming off turn two.”
Kyle Larson — Finished 34th: “I was just trying to push it as much as I could. He (Ryan Blaney) had a great car and I felt like if he was to come off pit road the leader, he was going to end up winning the race or beating me. I was just trying to maximize my pit-in, and honestly I felt like I was doing a really good job. I just didn’t anticipate him slowing down as much as he did. But on the replay, it looks like I just missed it by a lot.”
