What the drivers had to say following Sunday’s Cup race at Indianapolis Motor
Speedway: Kyle Larson — Winner: “It’s definitely up there.” As you indicated, this is such a prominent location… such holy territory. It’s great to get the opportunity to race on the oval again. What a work our team did. I mean, never gave up at all. We had a pit stop issue there early on. Just struggled and dug till things worked out. We can’t thank them enough. Hendrickcars.com, Valvoline, Chevrolet, JINYA Ramen Bar, Prime, and all of our fans. I love you, Indiana fans. I know you love me as well. “How about we return next May and try to kiss these bricks in an INDYCAR?”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 2nd: “It was a great recovery for us. We had our issues beginning stage three. I thought that was really going to cement our finish towards the back. We went with a different strategy, had a really good restart. I was behind (Kyle Larson) and (Chase Elliott), got by both of them. Unfortunately that move that coil was able to catch a lot of people off guard with today got me as well. That’s the bummer. We were ahead of him but relet him get by us. Obviously a lot of cars and a lot of things had to happen for us to get second. Honestly, it was a good day. Obviously return to the Brickyard, it’s tough coming up one spot short. Once we got off of turn two there, I knew I was pretty much it. He was going to have to make a mistake. Glad we had a good recovery. Another solid points day. We didn’t close the gap on the 5 that much, but a little bit on the 9. In the big picture, it was a great day for the team.
Ryan Blaney — Finished 3rd: “Our car was fast. Thought we had really good strategy. Kind of was the front guy having to save a little bit of gas. I thought we put ourselves in a great spot. I know the 6 was probably going to run out if it went green. Came to the restart, I couldn’t believe they stayed out. I knew there was no way they were going to make it. So I obviously chose the top because he might run out in the restart zone. He runs out coming to the green so he gets to do to pit road and the 5 gets promoted. Luck of the draw right there, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t know what to be mad about. Mad at losing this race because I thought we were in the perfect position. Once I lost control of the race, obviously I would have been on the bottom, but I thought the 6 (Brad Keselowski) would run out in the restart zone or down the back, I don’t know. Stinks to lose in that way. Appreciate the effort. I hate we don’t get to celebrate with Mr. Penske and everyone at Penske here. That stings a lot. Just try to keep going. That’s all you can do.”
Christopher Bell — Finished 4th: “It was a little bit of a struggle today for our Rheem Camry, but Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and William (Hartman, engineer) and (Chris) Whitenight (engineer) had a great strategy and we were able to run it out of gas and get a good finish out of it. Something to build on and hopefully we can improve after the break and come out strong for Richmond.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished 5th: “We were fifth – what a day. I just did not do a good job on Friday and Saturday and set us behind for track position. I really didn’t know what our car had, but I knew the people we had on it and that is what matters the most. I appreciate Bootie (Barker, crew chief) and the gang for just giving me a car to work with. The No. 23 U.S. Air Force Toyota Camry was really, really fast. It felt really good. After a few laps, I was like, I don’t know what we have – but it is good to be back on the oval. The finish is making my mood better, but it was really difficult to pass. All-in-all, a good day. A good points day.”
Todd Gilliland — Finished 6th: “I think our Mustang was really competitive. We were a little tight on exit the whole race, but that is part of it. Our car had good speed when we stayed up there. It was an interesting race. It was hard to pass. We didn’t do good on the strategy for the middle part of the race but then it put us in a position where it worked out for us at the end. Just disappointing a little bit. I was fourth on the last restart and probably should have chose the bottom looking back on it, but that is how it goes sometimes. You live and you learn.”
Austin Cindric — Finished 7th: “I did my race team zero favors today with qualifying as poorly as I did putting it in the wall and then speeding on the first pit stop. Good rally by everybody. I felt like our Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse was quick today, we just had to get it in the right place on the race track. We saved fuel and Brian did the right things with strategy and we earned a good result because of it. I wish it would have gone green there at the end because I think I would have gotten a few more spots with the fuel situation. Overall, a nice reward going into a little break here.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 8th: “The No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy team did a great job with the strategy. Our car wasn’t horrible, we just never had the track position that we wanted to, to show the speed of the car. We needed to be faster on the straightaways. But all-in-all, I felt like we had a decent Chevy. Still have some work to do, but the team executed a great strategy, so we will take it.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 9th: “We struggled at the beginning part of the weekend and definitely grateful to come back. I don’t know officially where we will be with those guys running out of gas off of Turn 4, but we had plenty of fuel. Drew Blickensderfer called a great race and it is always fun to have Bass Pro Shops on the hood. We struggled on Friday in practice and got a little better in qualifying, qualified 21st and we just made progress all day. We got a Stage point in Stage 1. Strategy, you never know when the caution is going to come out, but Drew made some great calls. I had more gas than the rest of them there and for a second I thought it was going to be Nashville 2.0 with a bunch of restarts but we were able to hang on and come out of here unscathed.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — Finished 11th: “Our No. 47 Kleenex 100 Years / Donors Choose Chevy was really good. Qualifying was really solid yesterday and that set us up to get points in both stages. The way those cautions fell, we could have done with one less of them. Running in the top 10 there, it sputtered a little bit coming to the white and then the caution came out, so that was a fortunate one.”
Carson Hocevar — Finished 12th: “It was just hard to keep on the right end of it with fuel strategy and everything, but I think we did a really good job. The yellow caught us off guard, but I think that was the difference maker in us making it. Our No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevy was super strong, and to be able to capitalize from Saturday was big. We put ourselves in a hole, but we were able to claw our way up when it was really hard to pass. We put together a really good day for the No. 77 team.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 13th: “We had a solid weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the No. 3 SENIX Tools Chevrolet. After our practice session and qualifying 11th, we knew we could have a good race. We were up and down on track position throughout the day, but Justin Alexander made a strategy call at the end to pit since a handful of the guys we were racing with were low on fuel. If the caution would have come out before the white flag, I think we could have jumped a couple more. Overall, our car was good and I’m happy for SENIX Tools to get a 13th-place finish. We will take these next two weeks off to keep building and getting better. Thanks to everyone at RCR, ECR, and Chevrolet.”
Cody Ware — Finished 18th: “I’m super happy with how the day ended. To come back from a left-rear flat and going two laps down, to fight our way back to 18th through the late race chaos was a good fight by everyone on the team. We stayed focused and executed all day. I’m happy with the result, especially getting to race at Indy in a crown jewel race like the Brickyard 400 and put our bad luck from Pocono behind us.”
Justin Haley — Finished 20th: “I’m happy with the progress we made over the weekend. I felt like we had a good shot at a top-15. We started off really struggling with passing, it would just get so tight, but we finally got it to a good place. Then a slow stop put us behind and all the cautions at the end made it tough to make up that track position. The two weeks off should be a good chance to reset and get back to consistent top-15 and top-20 finishes.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 24th: “It was kind of a rough weekend for us from a speed standpoint. We were never really that good or that great. Made our car quite a bit better, but we still were never good enough to win, but we got it up in the mix. I was able to get it up there in the top-five for a little bit. Strategy just didn’t go our way. We pitted to prevent what happened at Nashville, and then obviously got to where we got in a wreck. It was disappointing. We were kind of up and down all day and thought we were going to be in good position if the cautions kept coming out to be in the mix there in the top-five, but obviously we got caught up in that big wreck. It’s kind of part of the deal at the end of these races.
Kyle Busch — Finished 25th: “Randall Burnett and everyone on the Cheddar’s team did a great job to put us in position to have a good finish today. After getting loose in our qualifying session, we worked the entire race to gain track position and in the closing laps, we had a shot to finish inside the top-10. We saved fuel throughout the race to help with our strategy which put us in position to capitalize when it mattered. The ending is just the way racing is today. Thanks to Cheddar’s for their support. We will spend the next couple of weeks with our families and bounce back at Richmond Raceway.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 26th: “We just got caught in a tough spot there at the end of the race. We decided to stay out and risk it on fuel and it just didn’t work in our favor today.”
John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 29th: “I changed lanes there after the start/finish line, went to the bottom. I had a pretty good run. Everyone started checking up going into (turn) one. I checked up and I think I got hooked in the left rear here. Not really sure, moved down and I think Daniel (Hemric) got me. It stinks. Our Pye Barker Toyota Camry XSE was really fast today. We led laps. Not leading laps just in a speedway race, actually leading laps there. Proud of all the guys. Proud of the effort. Pye Barker Fire & Safety colors looked really good today. Thank you to everyone. Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development, Inc.). Everyone to keep us safe. That was a really hard hit. But overall, really excited for a couple weeks off after the last few weeks. But, proud I’ve been able to show speed three of the last five weeks. Looking forward to getting back after the break and seeing what we can do.”
Daniel Hemric — Finished 30th: “It was a chaotic restart, as some guys were running out of fuel. The No. 42 checked up, and unfortunately I had nowhere to go but into the back of him. We had a tough day but got to run up front and show some speed, so I’m proud of the gains we made as a team.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 31st: “Bummer of a day. We didn’t really have a very good day going with our No. 48 Ally Camaro. We were pretty fast in clean air, but just really tight in dirty air. We were stuck in traffic there, and getting blocked all the way down the straightaway for 27th was pretty frustrating. We just didn’t need to be that far back in position. We should have been running better than that and eventually the way the strategy and the cautions fell, we got buried there. We had a lot going on and my ass was on fire at one point, so interesting day, for sure.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 32nd: “I couldn’t see. There was a car coming across the track and I hit him.”
Jimmie Johnson — Finished 33rd: “I was cruising along on the bottom and got hit in the right rear and got turned into the outside fence at that point. Those restarts are just so aggressive, everybody is pushing to get to the end of the race, and it is go time. Sadly, those pushes didn’t line-up right. I don’t know what started that but something on the outside happened, and they collected me and off and around we went. It was great to be back. Our cars were driving nice all weekend. Unfortunately, in qualifying, we just missed our balance, but very competitive in the race.
Joey Logano — Finished 34th: “It seems like they were three wide a couple of rows behind me and the wreck caught me, unfortunately. It looks like Hocevar sent it down the center and just kind of stuffed it in there late. That seems like something he has done a lot recently. Unfortunately, it caught up to me. He right-reared Jimmie into my left rear and nosed our Shell Pennzoil Mustang into the wall. It is a bummer. You come here to Indy once a year and all you dream of is kissing the bricks. My team gave me a great race car and we were the leader of our strategy and that is kind of all you can hope for, to et to the lead of your strategy. And we were going to have a shorter pit stop and we were going to try to gain some spots the restart as a lot of guys were staying out. We could have a shorter stop than them and that is when we were going to cycle back up to the front, hopefully, but we never got to see it through.”
Josh Berry — Finished 35th: “I am not entirely sure without seeing the replay. It looked like the 19 got spun out and we were all just stacking and I think I got clipped from behind and turned into the wall. It is an unfortunate end. It has been a tough weekend. Today, our car was really competitive. I was happy with the car. We started in the back and never could get the track position. I had a tough day on pit road too. Every time we got to the top 20 we would get knocked back.”
AJ Allmendinger — Finished 37th: “I just saw everyone start checking up. I actually saw the No. 21 (Harrison Burton) on the bottom, so I went to go to the middle. Right as I went to the middle, the No. 24 (William Byron) was coming across. It’s just kind of the story of the year.. wrong place, wrong time.”
William Byron — Finished 38th: “We got back there in traffic. It seemed like the pit stop sequence didn’t go our way there. The No. 14 (Chase Briscoe) was just being a squirrel back in the pack. He drove up in front of me. I had to lift way off the corner and I got run over. Hate it for our team. We had an amazing No. 24 Valvoline Chevy. We were running there on the right strategy in the top two or three; got back there in the pack and got wrecked.”
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