What the drivers were saying after Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series round one cutoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Chris Buescher became the third consecutive non-playoff driver to win the first three races of the 2022 playoffs:
Chris Buescher – First at the finish: “It’s something very special, this team did such a great job. Love this circuit, love the fans. Love every time we come here. It’s so special to me. We had a really fast Fastenal Mustang. Just so proud of everyone. We knew we had a good car after practice and didn’t quite get the job done in qualifying, but what a car. It’s just special. Get RFK in Victory Lane for the first time and we had great race cars. Brad also had really good speed. I don’t know what else to say now. I’m out of breath This place will totally wear you down and I love that about it, but such a special night.”
Chase Elliott – Finished Second: “Actually, I really liked my car. I found our Chevrolet to drive really well and to be honest I don’t think I could realistically ask for a little more balance. I just needed to be able to get into different lanes better. And being second there, the top end had become so dominant there. The ground was pretty good there early in the night and you could walk down there for a long time and then as the night progressed the summit got better and better and that swing was hard to beat. Unfortunately, we never got into lapped traffic to get it moving, but we started there in the last three or four laps. I felt like we were going to win but I wasn’t close enough to do anything with him. But I appreciate the effort. We had a long day yesterday. Was able to fight my way back from a poor qualifying session to get a top 2, I’m very proud of that. I am happy to continue and look forward to more opportunities here in the coming weeks.”
William Byron – Third: “Honestly, with this next-gen car, the pace is so fast here and I didn’t really get a chance to see what was going on around me. I saw guys at the top of the wall having tire problems or exploding, so I just tried to avoid it. Our team did a great job tonight. We were a bit shy at the beginning and didn’t really have the car in the first stage. We wanted to get those points to go through. And then after the first stage they told me that we were locked up. After that we were a little freer. We really didn’t change much, but we managed the car better and had a good second and final stage. I’m really proud of this team. In this whole lap we got better from race to race. Just proud of the effort. After a tough summer, it’s really nice to see how we made the playoffs. Many thanks to all our partners and supporters at home. We’re really excited.”
Christopher Bell – Fourth: “It’s terribly disappointing. That’s two weeks in a row where we had speed and the car under me to win the race and didn’t make it. Very proud of this group of 20 people. They keep bringing Camrys to the track that are amazing. It makes me really excited to see where we’re going, especially Texas, which is one of my best racetracks. I am proud of everyone in this group. Hopefully we can take that momentum with us. Looking ahead to the next seven races, I’d say Texas is arguably the most important race outside of Phoenix. Talladega, we all know what it’s like – there will be some lucky guys and some unlucky guys. Texas is sort of the only place where you can steer your destiny into the next round and if it’s a playoff car the winner will feel really good.”
Ross Chastain – Finished Sixth: “I’m proud of the efforts made by Trackhouse Racing, the #1 Worldwide Express Team and Chevrolet to minimize things that take you out of the race. The minimum amount of flat tires. None for Trackhouse. We need that; We needed extra air in the tires and extra ground clearance. We struggled to be tight all night. At the end we did a few laps there on the right rear and finished sixth. We were up where we needed to be all night. …To be honest, the only thing I had on my mind for the test this week was Homestead. We have a lot of questions to answer. Good, bad or indifferent – we’ll know a lot more on Wednesday night and that’s what tests are for. We take a lot of spare parts with us. I need to work on running up more, running the wall. That’s a big thing that we’re going to focus on.”
AJ Allmendinger – finished seventh: “I’m happy to do 500 laps at Bristol any time I can. That’s a good night. I was pretty happy with our Camaro ZL1. I think we just needed a little bit more to get to the next level, but we’re really happy when we can run all night between seventh and tenth. We had a good strategy and our pit stops were really good. So overall I’m very, very happy with the night.”
Cole Custer – finished eighth: “We had a really solid day. The guys brought in a really fast car all weekend when we were just unloading. It was a lot of fun to ride so we had a solid day. We performed well and stayed out of trouble and ended up making a top 10. Hopefully we can carry that momentum over to next week.”
Denny Hamlin – finished ninth: “We had a good track position from our qualifying but overtaking was just impossible. It was just a day where you had to stay ahead at all costs and we just couldn’t quite make it and ended up having a flat tire that threw us back and we tried to come back from that point. (The next generation car) was tough. I would like to see the race improve overall. Some lap time variations a little. We just run around there and it’s like we’re running faster on the corners than on the straights. Just extremely difficult to overtake. We had some steering issues and it looks like our Toyota teammates are having steering issues too. We just fought our way through and held onto ninth place today. … We can win anywhere we go. We’re going to go to Texas and try to win like we always do. I just need to get a good, solid lap going. Seems to be just mechanical stuff on this next gen and wrecks are the X factor to keep going so you just have to be really consistent and with five races to go you have to start winning.”
Kevin Harvick – finished 10th: “It was pretty tough (at the last pit stop). We pitted in front of (Buescher), so that’s how the year went. I just went from being able to lead the parade to being a part of the parade. Difficult to overtake. The car is much too fast through the corners. Can’t race.”
Justin Haley – finished 12th: “It’s a really strong night. We fought hard all night, played an excellent strategy and just had a good car overall. That was a good, good run for the company. We’re definitely going to build something. We will take that and keep improving.”
Brad Keselowski – finished 13th: “There are 40 – some of the best cars that nobody will give you. You scrape and scrape every day and every hour for every little bit and if you’re lucky and don’t break don’t explode, have no problem and finish 10th-15th and if you’re lucky and you’re damned good, you win. If you’re damn good and not lucky, you’ll still get 20th or worse. So today we had two cars that were really good and one that was unlucky and one that performed and everything went in the right direction for them. … Oh yeah, I’m proud as hell (as a team owner). Everyone has some level of ego and I won’t say I don’t have ego, but it’s easy to overcome ego when you see that.”
Chase Briscoe – finished 14th: “I was worried pretty early in the race that I was going to have problems and was able to finish fourth in that first stage and third in stage two and really put us where I think we were right at the cutting line that begins this last phase. We got a bit lucky when the 18 blew up and busted a couple of guys and it was unlucky at the end, we just drove around to make sure we didn’t eliminate ourselves, so I’m super proud that I can move into it round of 16 That’s a really big achievement. We just have to do what we did today and not eliminate ourselves. That will be key to this next round, especially when it comes to how many wildcard races there are. So if we can go there and do that, the guys will keep eliminating themselves. We just have to limit our mistakes and when we do that we know we need to have a little more speed, but if we can limit our mistakes then we also have a chance to go through the next lap. … I didn’t have the whole race (power steering). My arms are smoked. That wasn’t the most fun. It yanked the wheel out of my hands every time I rode the bottom and it was a little bit easier on the top so I kinda had to run on the top no matter what just to try to keep going but luckily there was ‘ t a lot of long, long runs.”
Daniel Suarez – finished 19th: “It’s been a long day. It wasn’t pretty, but we did what we had to do. We thought we could make our car better overnight, but it wasn’t. We have to regroup. Hopefully we can find some answers and come back stronger. I think the next round is pretty good for us. Texas we will be strong. A street course is located in our wheelhouse. Anything can happen on a superspeedway. I am very grateful to our team. You never give up. The car wasn’t what we needed but we’re still on the good side. You have no idea how easy it will be for me to back up (for the second lap) because that car wasn’t fun. Getting into the next lap with the way the car drives is a huge plus for me. Thank you to everyone on our team. You have done a very good job. We had the speed but there were a lot of mistakes; on the pit lane, myself, overall. We will come back stronger next round.”
Austin Cindric – finished 20th: “For a while I was just trying as hard as I could and as they dropped like flies trying not to force problems try not to force any more right front tire failures. From there I was tied with the 18 for 100 laps I think, but just one damn good night. I still don’t think this place loves me back but it probably showed me a little mercy tonight so I’ll take it and run with it. We’re going to be on the offensive for the next three races, just like we would start this round at Darlington and have some fun with it. … Yeah, there’s a part of me that wants to say, ‘Man, that’s kinda b.s. I blew a tire and didn’t get a warning,” but I would also think that NASCAR probably recognizes that there could be some issues with tires and probably understands that “OK, it’s not just a one-time thing.” Going first was mine. I’m happier about it because I made it. I would be less happy if I hadn’t made it, but there’s certainly something to be said against coming to a very important race of the year on a new tire, but it’s not my decision to make and just to understand how we do that can improve on our site.
Erik Jones – finished 21st: “We knew this week could be a test of the new car at Bristol and tonight has proved to have its challenges. We had handling issues early in the race and made the right changes but spun and missed a wreck and that put us back a few laps and had some tire problems late in the race. A disappointing night for sure. We need to build seven more races for next year and I know we’re capable of being up front and winning races, we just need to turn things around. We have to go to Texas next week, which is one of my favorite tracks, and see what we can do.”
Tyler Reddick – finished 25th: “Certainly frustrating. We didn’t have the pace or balance to really improve our car and unfortunately we were quite limited by the balance issues we were struggling with. We couldn’t really adjust to that without affecting the car’s overall downforce, so we were kind of trapped. Then we were simply caught back there in that accident. I checked in time but I got totally run over from there. Caught right front and broke the upper control arm for the second week in a row.”
Ty Dillon – finished 26th: “Such a bad way to end an otherwise pretty solid night in Bristol. Our No 42 team was able to make some pretty good changes to our car to help us through the race and that put us in position for a top 15 finish. Unfortunately, a mechanical problem got us out early. It’s a shame because we’ve made some good progress so far, but that’s how it is sometimes. I’m looking forward to going to Texas next weekend and leaving that behind.”
Ryan Blaney – turned 30th: “You never know what can happen and with this apartment there’s nothing we can do about it. You’re lucky to have that cushion for this race. The most unfortunate thing is that our car was also super fast. That was the terrible thing about it. The worst of it now in retrospect. The car was really good and just had no display. It seemed like a lot of guys were having right front issues tonight but I’m proud of everyone who fixed it and just got out there to finish the race. There really wasn’t much we could do other than log rounds and let it all play itself out. So you try to do two good races beforehand because you never know when you need points.”
Austin Dillon – finished 31st: “I heard Daniel (Suarez) just ruined (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) and caused a big one. A part of it. I wish we had been in a slightly better place. The suspension on the front left just broke. We got stage points and had a pretty good race car. I feel pretty good about it. We just had to miss that. That was the best racing car we brought with us. We got ourselves into a quandary in the first two races and brought something back with us today. We’ll just try to win a race before the year is over.”
“It’s probably over for us…we’re just trying to win a race.”
Austin Dillon is out of the running and below the cut line to advance in the #NASCARPlayoffs. pic.twitter.com/HOEwjshot5
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 18, 2022
Alex Bowman – finished 32nd: “Cars stop in a hurry and I can’t be stopped. We lost the power steering and tried to work our way through. We stayed out to collect stage points, which luckily was a great race car, and we were able to collect stage points even without power steering and lock ourselves in. But the downside to that was restarting back there and just getting collected. It’s a shame, but at least we’re through to the next round and we can focus on Texas next weekend.”
Kyle Busch – finished 34th: “It just suits our year. I don’t even know what to say. I am shocked. I just feel so bad for my boys. You don’t deserve to be in this place. You work too hard. We’re too good a group to be this low down fighting for our lives just to get by. Two engine failures in three weeks, that makes a difference. I feel really bad for Rowdy Nation, everyone at M&M’s, Interstate Batteries, Rowdy Energy, all the partners that get us going every week. This is not our normality.”
Martin Truex Jr. – finished 36th: “It blew out the seal and pushed all the (power steering) fluid onto the right front tire. Just unbelievable. What did (Kevin) Harvick say? crappy parts. … You literally can’t drive here without power steering. You lose it, you’re done. It’s been a terrible run of luck for us and we had another strong car tonight. We worked our way up, every run progressed. Ready for this year to end and begin anew.”
