Alex Bowman – Winner: ‘I feel like we’re been really fast lately, everywhere and everywhere we went. Atlanta ran us third. Bristol, we’re the best car, break a transmission. Going to Martinsville, the 12 was probably the best car, but we were probably the second best car. We have our problem there. Pretty happy with where we are at the moment. We go to a lot of places where I struggled statistically, like Martinsville and here, and run really well. I think if we get to the places where I feel we are actually good, it’s going to be really, really good. ”
Denny Hamlin – 2nd place: “There is definitely frustration. But it does not change my attitude or work ethic. I’m going to work just as hard next week and the week after that to win. You are a competitor, you want to win. Especially if you have a great chance of winning. It just did not happen. I just had to digest it, look at it and see where we could have been a little better. But in the end I can do nothing. My effort was as high as it could be. There is nothing striking that I feel I could or should have done differently. Maybe there. I’ll go back and look at it, notice it. It looked like the 48 (Alex Bowman) grabbed it a few laps there. ‘
Joey Logano – finished 3rd: “Congratulations to them. They beat us. I probably think the adjustments they made to that final pit stop definitely set (Alex Bowman)’s car on fire very well. He started paying the fine the last few laps, but he was so far that it did not matter. This is frustrating because we were so close to the Shell / Pennzoil Mustang and wanted to get our Ford in a victory lane here and led a few laps. We made Denny’s pass and then we had a fight that went back and forth. He was stiff when I passed him and then I was stiff and he caught me again, so the track changed there and we both tried to keep up with it. Varnish. I hate being so close. Third is decent, but to be so close and you’re on the front row with the last restart, you think you shot it well and the front didn’t wake up three laps. After it woke up, it was too late, so that’s part of it, I think. ‘
Christopher Bell – finished 4th: ‘I knew we had a very good SiriusXM Camry, right from the drop of the green flag. We kept working on it and working on it, but then I think we caught a shot down there at the yellow flag in the second phase. From that point on, it just struggled there again. Really proud of this 20 group. We had a bit of a lack of consistency during the year, but now it seems like we’re picking it up. ‘
Martin Truex Jr. – Finished 5th: “The driver definitely took our chances there. Toyota Camry from the car owner was really fast. Just like last week, we got off in the middle of the race and then in the third phase it was called and I was quickly caught on the pit road. We had to drive all the way back through the field and under green, it was hard. We came all the way back to fifth. Lots of effort by the guys and wish I hadn’t made the mistake so I could see what I could do with them. ”
Aric Almirola – 6th finished: ‘Man, I really struggled there fifth at the end, but burned my tires on the outside. Finally, a solid day for our Smithfield team. Everyone did their part and we were flawless today. Let’s fire it up and keep it rolling. ”
William Byron – 7th place: “It was a good day for us. We ran in the top 10 all day; sometimes top five. I was definitely looking for more there in the end, but getting home seventh on a track I struggled with is good for us. We definitely know what we need to work on to get better. It’s not a race we circled to do well, so it’s good to finish in the top 10 again and keep that streak alive. Congratulations to Alex (Bowman) and the no. 48-span. At the end of the race they did an excellent job of getting their car to take off. It was pretty amazing. We’re going to Talladega (Superspeedway) and trying to win this one. ”
Kyle Busch – Finished 8th: ‘We had a great M & M’s Red Nose Day Camry. The car did not start well, but Ben (Beshore, crew chief) and the guys kept adjusting, and we got it much better. There at the end you try to get everything in and out of the pit path to take a chance on the win, and I just get too hard in there and get the bet (penalty). ‘
Matt DiBenedetto – 9th place: ‘It definitely feels like a long time ago that we finally got the top 10, so that’s good. We had some tough circumstances that put us in a hole to start the year, but we knew we had a lot of speed and of course an excellent team. It was good to get here and on a job that I really would not consider one that I have been very successful in the past, so it was definitely rewarding. It was a day full of no forgiveness. You can not make mistakes at all, so we started the race and we are too far from there. We worked a bit on the car and made the right calls and got breaks and once we got the track position and got into the top 10, we had no problem staying up there. That was good. It was really a high pressure day, as there was no room for error with so many green flags. I’m proud of the team and with Menards and Libman in the car. All good things and something to build on. We climb out of that hole in the points and win very fast. ”
Austin Dillon – 10th finished: ‘Solid day for our number 3 Chevrolet team. I thought we had something going up today. I felt we were pretty good; drive to the sixth or seventh. We were never really as good as last time we were here. Just could not get the adjustment that would really make us go better than before; just some kind of top-10 spot all day. At one point we were worse than that. Justin (Alexander, crew member) did a great job with adjustments and the guys in the pits were solid. Can not all the team at RCR and the no. 3 guys thank you enough; work hard and make an effort. Tenth, for a fight, was good. We wanted more, but we’ll make it to the top 10. ”
Ryan Blaney – Finished 11th: ‘It was a walk in Richmond for me and the BODYARMOR team. Our lap times and the way we handled our car and we adjusted it through the race were better than the 11th place we had; we just got caught for too long and without warnings it was hard to get it back. I think we have learned a lot of important knowledge that we can evaluate and come back stronger if we race here in the playoffs. ”
Brad Keselowski – 14th finished: ‘Our discount tire Ford was fast, but it just did not come together for us. We bounce back next week. ”
Erik Jones – Finished 19th: “It was an up-and-down day for the no. 43 Medallion Bank Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. We started too tight and could not really do what we had to do with our Chevrolet Camaro. We got better as the day went on, especially towards the end of the race. We really started to get a good speed and got a bit of a track position. Just got too far behind, caught on the pit road when the warning flag came out, lost a shot early and could not get it back where we needed it. We will achieve a top-20 finish. We got some good notes and we will move on. ‘
Tyler Reddick – 20th finished: ‘We tried a lot of different things today with our number 8 Cat #WhatPowersYou Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE trying to get the handling where it needed to be and making some small gains throughout the race. It seemed like we were a little off from what we had during our one visit to Richmond Raceway last year, and we will definitely study this one to be better when we return in the fall. I was a little too tight and loose almost all day in the last phase, which could not let me load through the corners as I wanted. Richmond Raceway is a difficult place to find in a Cup car, especially since this is only my second Cup start here, but I learned a lot. We will be ready when we come here again in September. ”
Chase Briscoe – 22nd finished: ‘Richmond has always been a difficult place for me, but I felt we had a decent day, despite the results. We still have work to do, but half the fight tried to overcome our starting position, and the early warning caught us off guard. Johnny (Klausmeier, crew chief) and the guys did a good job of listening to my feedback, and we will continue to work on our short track program so that we will be better off when we return in the fall. ”
Cole Custer – Finished 23rd: ‘We had a few issues we wanted to shake up all day, the biggest one was that after the first ten laps of a run we just had a hard time getting our Ford from HaasTooling.com running. There were so few warnings that we did not have the chance to make enough changes to fix it. A difficult last three races on these short tracks. We will be able to stretch our legs a bit next week at Talladega. ”
Austin Cindric – Finished 28th: “It’s an interesting race. I definitely chose the wrong time to make a rookie mistake to get into the 6 (Ryan Newman). It’s definitely on me and it was a very vulnerable time for our strategy and it put us behind the eight ball all day. We tried to come up with a strategy to get ourselves back, and finally we pushed another round. By the time stage three swapped, we were able to make good adjustments and our Verizon 5G Ford Mustang was really good. I would not say that our top five were good, but I think we were good enough to run in the top 10, top 15, so there are a lot of positives. I drove under green to P20, so much to learn, but definitely wish I could get two mistakes back at that point. ”