Here’s what the drivers had to say after Sunday’s race, which broke a NASCAR Cup Series record with five overtimes before Joey Logano won.
Joey Logano — Winner: “There was a lot of teamwork. A lot of credit to our fuel guy, Nick Hensley, a lot of credit to our engine department with Roush Yates who built engines that could handle the fuel really well, and a lot of grit – a lot of grit that made it happen. It’s been a tough season and to be on that starting line, I can tell you it sucks. It’s just not fun. It’s tough and you just want a little bit of relief and with seven weeks to go until the playoffs, it gives us a chance to take a breather and start working on our car a little bit differently and get some better sleep, to be honest with you.”
Logano ‘out of breath’ after victory in Nashville
A relieved Joey Logano takes his first Cup Series win of the season at Nashville, surviving five overtime restarts and saving enough fuel to cross the finish line first in the Ally 400 after a “stressful” few weeks .
Zane Smith — Finished 2nd: “I mean, obviously very happy with the result. But when you hear for about 10 laps, “He’s supposed to burn out, he’s supposed to burn out,” and you see him shaking the car to cross the line and you’ve just finished second, it hurts. The winning side hurts, but just appreciate everyone at Spire Motorsports and appreciate the strategy there. I like Jockey Outdoors and Luke Bryan; having them on board here in Nashville, along with all of our other partners. It’s been a very difficult year, but it’s a great booster for momentum, confidence, all that. So hopefully we can continue that momentum, but it was great to sniff out your first Cup win.
Tyler Reddick — Finished 3rd: “I don’t know, the last set of tires didn’t give our Monster Energy Camry the balance it had all day and that allowed it to fight for the lead with Christopher Bell. We had a bad restart, I fell back and I could see in the last few laps that we were hurt pretty bad. The tires were messed up. When the yellow flag came out we were in a really tough situation. We were going to lose all our track position but we had to put tires on because I don’t think we would be able to hold on on a restart but that became exactly what gave us the opportunity to win the race. It was a great call, a brave call by crew chief Billy Scott. I was disappointed with the position we were in but I kept being aggressive on the restarts and I mean we got to the end. It’s tough. Everything went to plan on the last lap, I just didn’t get the job done.” »
Reddick ‘didn’t get the job done’ in Nashville
Tyler Reddick expresses frustration with the conclusion of the NASCAR Cup Series race in Nashville and says he “didn’t get the job done” after several favorites ran out of gas at the end.
Ryan Preece — Finished 4th: “It wasn’t pretty. Track position was difficult and we always felt like we were on the other side, but for once, when it mattered, we were in the right place.”
Chris Buescher — 5th place: “We had the ability to run in the top 10 all night, get stage points and have a good finish. I’m still just frustrated. It was just chaos in the end. Obviously I have to go back and look at what happened, but we just didn’t get a chance to run much. There we were well placed. We had good speed after sunset and we had tires, so we really wanted to get some laps in.
Kyle Larson — Finished 8th: “Just a lot of craziness at the end. There were a lot of cars running out of fuel and we were one of them. Just a lot of mess. On the first restart, I was just trying to wash Denny (Hamlin) off the bottom so I could get some fresh air and give myself an opportunity to win. I felt like in second place I wouldn’t have a chance. I just tried to run with him and ended up really tight against Ross (Chastain), which caused that crash. And then on the next restart, I just twisted and almost caused a crash. On the third, we ran out of fuel on takeoff. We just had a few good restarts at the end. Happy to be in the top 10, but a little disappointed with how it went.
Larson ‘disappointed’ despite top 10 finish
Kyle Larson finishes eighth in the Cup Series race at Nashville after multiple overtime restarts and recaps the incident with Ross Chastain and an aggressive race with Denny Hamlin.
Daniel Hemric — Finished 9th: “Today was really another example of our season. It was a roller coaster ride. We struggled to find speed on short runs all weekend with the #31 Cirkul Chevrolet. After the rain interruption and a few good adjustments, I thought if we could get some track position we would be fine. We finally made it and ended up in an accident. I thought every turn I was thrown out of the car. Somehow the sea kept parting. We were able to make a few good restarts at the end and cross the line in ninth position. What a weekend, but I’ll take it. »
Noah Gragson — Finished 10th: “We just saved a ton of fuel to finish 10th. 110 laps on one tank of fuel. We pushed it to the max and got another top 10. Proud of the work everyone puts into this race car.
AJ Allmendinger — Finished 11th: “A long and tough day. I felt like as the race went on we improved the race car. We didn’t manage to get a good track position before the end. Unfortunately, that strategy didn’t work. We managed to avoid all the crashes, get back on track and make the most of our day. Overall, there’s something fun to learn. Good finish for both cars. Good day for the race team.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 12th: “We came out under caution. (Crew chief Chris Gabehart) was watching the fuel pressure. I let him know what the fuel pressure was. We were doing fine, we were just out of gas and we did it under caution. It was the right call. I was coming down pit lane there, out of gas. Honestly, I’m surprised we held that many green and white checkers. Sure, it stinks to be 15 seconds from a win at the end and then 10 seconds from a win, and then finish 12th. That’s just part of it.
Hamlin: Multiple OT reboots are ‘just part of it’
Denny Hamlin fought his fuel until the very end but ultimately ran out under the final caution, and it reveals the chaotic ending to the NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Chase Briscoe – Finished 21st: “I was kind of the worst case scenario for the last 70 rounds or so, from a strategic standpoint as to how it played out. We had to come back to 30th place because of the way the strategy went and the cautions came down and we were able to come back to around 15th place. There, in the end, you don’t really expect to have three or four green-white pawns, so we ran out of gas taking the white flag. It definitely stinks every time you’re in contention there. I thought in the second to last I had a good chance to potentially win the race and we finished 21st or something like that. It’s frustrating but that’s part of the problem.
Josh Berry — Finished 26th: “Today was a difficult day. We started very tight and couldn’t find the balance, but my team worked hard to get me the car I needed and we finally found it after the rain stop. We picked up a bunch of spots and had a much more competitive No. 4 Dark Horse Ford Mustang. It was chaos in the end. We tried to deal with all these reboots and ended up getting caught up. It’s a shame we didn’t finish well this week in Nashville, my home race, but we learned a lot. »
Kyle Busch — Finished 27th: “I’m proud of everyone on the Zone team and RCR for their efforts today. We struggled early, but our guys continued to make changes to our Zone Camaro throughout the race. Randall Burnett made some good decisions to put us in position to finish in the top five. Those cautions at the end of the race and in overtime really worked against us because we were close to fuel. On the last restart, we were running fourth when the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) ran out of gas right in front of me and I had nowhere to go. It’s frustrating for sure, but we’ll bounce back next week in Chicago.”
Bottlenecks on Cup field after Larson runs out of gas
Kyle Larson runs out of gas as he approaches the green flag on the third overtime restart at Nashville Superspeedway, with Kyle Busch taking the brunt of the damage.
Austin Dillon — Finished 32nd: “Our luck is incredible. We started today with a fast #3 Chevrolet BREZTRI AEROSPHERE® at Nashville Superspeedway. Even though our handling started to deteriorate around the middle of the race, crew chief Justin Alexander and the entire RCR team worked hard to improve the balance of our Chevrolet and by the end of the race we were felt pretty good. We were 11th when the caution flag came out in Stage 3 and we decided to pit for the right side tires, knowing it would be a fuel shortage if we stayed out. A car flipped right in front of us on the restart and we had nowhere to go. This ended our evening and ruined any chance of a top 10 finish. It’s not the finish we deserved or hoped for, but I’m proud of this team for bringing a strong Chevrolet to the track. We will be heading to the Chicago Street Race next week and hope to have better luck.
Michael McDowell — Finished 35th: “I was coming out of Turn 4 and I thought something had broken in the driveshaft or something, but it was actually in the transaxle. Something broke and put a hole in the side of the case. That’s not what we wanted. We were salvaging a pretty decent day, so it was unfortunate.”
Christopher Bell — Finished 36th: “I just put myself in a pretty bad position going into the first corner. I got bottled up there and lost my composure to make things happen and put myself in a bad situation and spun.
Bell’s domination in Nashville ends after a spin
Christopher Bell swept the stages at Nashville Superspeedway, but a Stage 3 spin in traffic sent the No. 20 into the outside wall and effectively ended his bid for consecutive Cup Series victories.
Riley Herbst — Finished 37th: “I just felt like (Corey LaJoie) was kind of outplaying me, but I had fun. It was a fun day. It was cool. I learned a lot.”