Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
Josh Berry — Winner: “I’m just really proud of everybody on this (Wood Brothers) team. This is a great group. They build great race cars and it’s just been a privilege to drive for them. I’m just so really thankful to be here. There are so many people I could thank for this moment, but to be a Cup Series winner is really special … I just can’t believe it. I’m just so proud of everybody on this team. The car was really solid all day. We just executed. We had a mishap on pit road and was able to rebound again, and I’m just super proud of these guys. I’m just really trying to soak this all in, honestly. I’m trying to take my time with everything and really enjoy this moment.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 2nd: “A little disappointed. But first of all, congratulations to the 21 team and Josh. They did a great job. They’ve been fast lately. They’ve been in contention. So congratulations to them. We did everything right, you know? The team did an amazing job on the strategy, pit stops. We did everything right. Our car was fast. We just struggle a little bit in the short run. I mentioned to my crew chief just a little bit ago, before the last run, I told him, ‘Hey, we want to be up front, I need a little bit better short run. I am having too much contact in one and two.’ Unfortunately I feel like that’s why we lost the race, just a little bit too much contact. I mean, I almost wrecked in one and two.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 3rd: “Going into the season the motto is live by the fire, die by the fire and take chances, be aggressive, be on the offense and just put us in position. Man, I’m happy for Josh. I really liked him when we were teammates and I’m just super proud of everybody on this Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse.”
William Byron — Finished 4th: “Yeah, when everything got flipped with the fuel strategy – not really pit strategy, but you had to pit to make it to the end of the race. Everything just got flipped around and we were on the bad side of that, having to restart in the 20s and then have to drive back through the field. I thought we did a good job getting back through the field. Our car was a lot tighter in traffic. There’s definitely some things for us to improve and work on because I feel like once we lost the first couple of rows, it was a completely different race car. We just have to continue to improve on that.”
Ross Chastain — Finished 5th: “Yeah, it got him (Daniel Suarez) clear to the lead. I was fully committed to him and happy to do it. Got him a good push down the frontstretch and through the restart zone; another one into (turn) one and another one into three. We stayed connected well. It was aggressive, but it got him to the lead. And then he just bottomed out too hard with his car and let Josh (Berry) inside of him a couple laps into that run. Bummer because he had a better car than we did and had a shot to win. It just slipped away from us.”
Austin Cindric — Finished 6th: “Definitely a solid day for our Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Think we showed great pace and fought back through some adversity. Great call by (crew chief) Brian (Wilson) to gain back that track position. We can certainly build off today.”
Christopher Bell — Finished 12th: “It was a grind today for sure. I don’t really know how I feel yet, but we certainly didn’t do what we did the last couple of weeks and that was just have a nice clean race. I think the Interstate Camry was definitely capable of competing for the win when we were at our best but just going to the back and to the front and to the back and to the front, we just didn’t get a handle on the balance, because it changes so much from being back there. I felt like we were in position in stage two to contend for another win, but it got away from us.”
Joey Logano — Finished 15th: “Tough way to end the weekend for us. The last run was shaping up to look a lot like how last fall’s strategy played out for us, but I just made a mistake on pit road that I wish I could have back. Proud of the effort but should’ve had more to show for it.”
Michael McDowell — Finished 16th: “It was an up-and-down day for the No. 71 Group 1001 Chevy team. We had a little issue there early on with the diffuser flap falling down. We didn’t figure it out until about the end of stage 2. Once we got that back, we were kind of back in the game but just a couple adjustments behind. I thought we would have a shot at the top-10, but on the last run, the car just got really tight. It’s unfortunate to lose spots there at the end.. you never want to do that. But we’ll keep building and keep working on it; keep making notebooks and get it right.”
John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 20th: “The race started out not as a great day as the balance wasn’t there in our No. 42 Backstreet Boys Toyota Camry XSE. We had issues getting through traffic but luckily there was some cautions there and we didn’t go a lap down and that saved our day. We had some strategy calls that got our car better continuously throughout the day and we finished with a 20th-place finish. Hats off to the men and women at Legacy Motor Club, and thanks to Brian (Littrell), Kevin (Richardson) and Nick (Carter) for coming out today and hanging with us. I feel good about our result after we started but we still have some work to do on our mile and half program but step in the right direction.”
Ty Dillon — Finished 21st: “Our Sea Best team battles and fights and gets better and better every time, every minute we work together. We’re developing a trend of getting stronger as we go, so that’s exciting for the future. We had some opportunities to probably have a better finish there, but from where we were at the beginning of the race to the end, it was a lot better. I’m very happy with our effort. We’ll keep going and getting better. I’m very pleased.”
Erik Jones — Finished 27th: “Our Dollar Tree team had an up-and-down day at Las Vegas. We struggled with the handling and got caught back in the pack. Towards the end of the race, we got hit in the rear, which sent us spinning and caused some damage to our No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE. We’ll continue to work hard and try to get back on the other side of this with a great result.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 32nd: “We had a very fast Dow Chevrolet today. The results don’t show how good we were. We passed a lot of cars early in the first stage, which set us up for a strategy call to pit early and start stage 2 inside the top 10. We had a slow stop, and that put us mid-pack. We were able to race our way back inside the top 20 and felt like we had a top-10 car. Unfortunately, we got caught up in a big crash in stage 3. The wreck happened in front of us and we were pushed into it. Richard (Boswell, crew chief) and the team did a great job repairing the No. 3 to get it back on track and finish the race. I’m looking forward to Homestead-Miami next weekend. If our car is as good as it was this weekend, I feel like we can have a shot. I’m very proud of everyone at Richard Childress Racing. Both cars showed speed all weekend, and we have a lot to look forward to this season.”
Shane van Gisbergen — Finished 34th: “Our day was going pretty good there at the start. I was learning to move around and started to go forward. Just made an adjustment that didn’t go our way and never recovered. It’s a shame, my Red Bull Chevrolet had plenty of potential and I felt like I could’ve been okay. My teammates ran really well, so our car was good. Just learning to put myself in the right spots. We’ll be ready for Homestead next weekend.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 33rd: “Our BetMGM Chevrolet was strong early in the race. We were running up front, about to pit when the caution came out and we inherited the lead. Unfortunate to have been penalized for speeding on pit road. I was convinced we were fine as was Randall (Burnett, crew chief), but it was what it was. Obviously the issue with the right rear effectively ended our day. We were able to go out, log laps and finish the race, but we had high hopes that we had a car that could contend for the win today.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 35th: “I think it was my fault. I thought I had two (cars) underneath me and one outside and I guess it was two outside and I pinched the two guys in the wall, so I’m sure that’s my fault. … Long weekend for our (team). Thought our car was really good, finally got up into the top five there and then wrecked.”
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