Carson Hocevar — winner: “I feel like every time I’ve ever seen the crowd, really got to hear ‘em, I’ve had this thought up for a while. I’ve messed it up every which way to not be able to do it. I don’t care if it took 20 minutes or whatever, I was going to figure it out how to do it. It took me a while. I’m so thankful. This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it in any better way. Hopefully my grandpa’s watching. My grandma died last year, so I’m so thankful that I can give my grandpa a trophy now. Wish my parents were here. All thanks to Jeff Dickerson. Unbelievable. I’m just so thankful, thank you. I posted on Instagram I didn’t really care, we were going to win, and we won, so… I’m just so thankful. I knew we were going to win. I really did.”
Chris Buescher — second: “Really proud of everybody. That was a fun race all the way there at the end. We had that back (indiscernible) going. I felt really good where we were at coming off turn four. Felt like we were in a spot to take this Ford Mustang into victory lane. Man, it was close. Proud of everybody. Solid execution. It was a good race for us, it really was. It was clean. I’d say we probably needed (Erik) Jones behind us. He was really strong, was giving us excellent runs. When we lost him, it was a little lonely up there, yeah. Excellent job by everybody. I was proud of our group, what we did. Yeah, we’ve been leading last three times I’ve been here. We’re getting closer.”
Alex Bowman — third: “Yeah, I mean, honestly, to be blunt, it just feels good to get out here without crashing. I’m getting old, don’t have much of that left in me. Glad to get out of here clean. Yeah, we had a great Ally 48 Chevy all day. Felt like we played the race the best we could kind of with the situations we were given. Yeah, had a good day on pit road. Hendrick engine shop did a great job. Glad to get a Chevrolet in Victory Lane there with the 77. Happy for him. He deserves it, for sure. A perfect place for him to get his first one. The Boulevard, did they leave that open tonight? It might burn down with that going on. Yeah, just a good day for us. Excited to turn things around a little bit. Hopefully we can keep that going next week.”
Chase Elliott — fourth: “It was an OK day for the No. 9 Chevrolet team. You try to do the best you can to execute and put yourself on those first couple of rows. We kept getting really close, but we just lacked a little bit there to put ourselves just one row forward. I think that would have made a big difference for us. Nonetheless, it was a solid day. Super happy for Carson (Hocevar, race winner). He’s been really close many times. Glad to get Team Chevy a win. Between Alex (Bowman) and everyone there on the bottom, I thought we were doing a good job keeping him in it. Happy it worked out for one of us.”
Zane Smith — fifth: “Everyone had the same idea in trying to force three-wide through the tri-oval and exiting the tri-oval, but in the Cup Series everyone is good at defending it. It’s definitely a different feel from how fast the pace is, just running hard that final stage, but with that said it was a good recovery from how our day started. We had another uncontrolled tire and went a lap down, played some strategy that worked out for us and fortunately came back with a top five. I’m happy about our finish, but I just wish we were a couple of lanes forward and I feel like our car was really good and capable of winning. It feels good to end up in the top five.”
Ross Chastain — seventh: “I thought we executed the day really well. We got really fortunate through a lot of scenarios. We were in the right lane there at the end to not get caught up in the last wreck. There was an emphasis on stage points in January for this No. 1 team, and we’ve struggled getting up there. A point in Stage One and the Stage Two win was good. Brandon (McSwain, crew chief) has been on us to unload better so we can get stage points on downforce tracks. Overall, it was a great effort for this No. 1 Chevrolet team.”
Austin Cindric — eighth: “Obviously, I didn’t get a chance to be part of those last two cycles of that first stage. We got trapped with the 34 car to our inside and missed on that execution and it took us about all the way up to the third stage to get back on the lead lap. I’m not sure I’m the best judge of how things went to be honest. The end of the race I would say played out a similar way to what we thought as far as racing in the lanes and the aggression for sure. We can’t run that many laps without wrecking each other on these. I wish we would have had a gauge of our speed or really anything from today, so other than a good points finish, and we need one of those, especially on tracks like this, so we’ll take that and keep going on. When you’re one and one, two cars, I think it’s easy to organize, but it’s more difficult when it’s three or four. Everything gets mistimed. I feel like a majority of these wrecks are fairly accidental, at least when they come off the front bumper. I’ve been on the wrong side of it plenty of times.”
Noah Gragson — ninth: “You either had to start the third stage at the front and hope you didn’t get your back bumper beat off enough to where you were spinning through the infield like the 43. The 77 was up there the whole last stage and didn’t wreck. It’s a two-by-two line two-wide and you’re not gonna go anywhere if you’re second row on back, so it was a good points day. It was a long race. Our car came home in one piece with a top 10.”
Kyle Busch — 10th: “Solid run. We were good early, we just didn’t keep it clean all day. I felt like we had a really good race car early there, we got caught up in the wreck in the second stage and bent her up a little bit, but the guys were able to repair the Chevrolet to get us back in the top 10. I hate it for Austin [Dillon], I think he was going to be a top 5 guy, but they got wrecked in that last one on the start finish, but good job to us. Definitely good to get a good finish. We wanted more, I felt like we were capable of more, but we’ve got to take the top 10 result right now and be happy with that.”
Ty Dillon — 13th: “That was the best finish of the year. And it was great to get a good finish. There’s a lot of things we’d like to clean up and do a little bit better, but, you know, we battled hard, got the finish we needed to get this thing back on track. We’ve had a few rough weeks but this will help. I think we’ll be even better in Texas.”
Tyler Reddick — 14th: “Yeah, we able to overcome problems that we had throughout the day. The second cut tire, I thought was going to be the end of our day, but thankfully we hit it somewhat true enough that all it did was bend stuff, not break it. It was just the day we needed to have with the adversity we had along the way. Bummed we didn’t get to victory lane today, but all-in-all, I think we did gain more ground on those around us in points, so to wreck and be able to accomplish that is a good deal.”
AJ Allmendinger — 16th: “We survived Talladega with the car in one piece. It was challenging today because it was the luck of the draw in picking which lane moved or didn’t move. We got up there and ran in the top five feeling things out. We just didn’t want to get wrecked being up there so early. I’m happy we didn’t wreck and finished the race. Just wished we could. have had an even better finish today.”
Austin Dillon — 19th: “Not the way we wanted our day to end, but our Chevrolet had speed. We were in position to have a shot at it on the last lap which is a positive. I went to the middle and next thing I know, I had contact from behind and around we went. We were still able to finish but it could have been a much better day. Still very proud of the effort from everyone at RCR and ECR.”
Jesse Love — 27th: “Today was a bummer. Even though we made it to the end of the race, our day ended pretty early after we ended up with damage in the big one. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get it fixed up competitively. We were okay to start the race. We had to save fuel, and crashing is always a risk when you have to save fuel in the first couple of stages. Still thankful for the opportunity and looking forward to my next Cup race.”
Brad Keselowski — 31st: “We got caught up in the big one and the team rallied really well to keep us from a DNF and get us as many points as we could.”
Ty Gibbs — 34th: ““Well, we had a really good first stage in our SAIA Camry. Unfortunately, not a lot of people pitted with us, and we just barely made it on the lead lap at the end of the first stage. I thought we were really fast. I thought our car was really good, but didn’t end well. Unfortunate end of the day for us. We will keep working hard. I’m excited for Texas. Not a lot of luck at the roulette table today at Talladega, so we will look forward.”
William Byron — 35th: “I was just trying to get slowed down so I didn’t get any major impacts. It didn’t feel like I hit that hard, but somebody got me in the right-front and I got damage to the suspension. We didn’t have the best Stage One, in terms of how the strategy shook out. We kind of cycled back a little bit. We were just trying to get back towards the front, but we didn’t get the chance. It’s a bummer, but we’ll regroup and get ready for Texas next weekend.”
Bubba Wallace — 36th: “Got wrecked there, unfortunately. Our Toyota Camry was a little unstable getting pushed, but manageable. Maybe that hard of a hit was too much, so unfortunately, we wiped out a bunch of cars. Got to debrief, got to be better. Just kind of riding around, not doing much in the first stage – nothing to show for it at Talladega. Unfortunate, it is a place we come to with a lot of confidence, and it is what it is. We will put this one behind us and go on to Texas and have some fun.”
Ryan Blaney — 37th: “I feel like we all just got pinballing off each other there. The 1 got up in front of me. I was coming, so I’m kind of checking and trying to get on him OK, and it looked like the 23 got up in front of him while we were coming, and then we all just kind of got nose bumper tag there. You’re trying to lift and stabilize it and the 23 ended up getting turned in front of everybody and causing a big wreck. I don’t know. It’s not like there’s any blame on anybody. It’s what this thing is. We see each other. We all just kind of get bumping and banging and one guy eventually gets turned with the car being as unstable as it is. It definitely stinks to be out early. There’s no bubble. You’re just ramming through the guy in front of you. You have to be very precise with how you lift and drag brake to get on them gently. There’s no bubble at all. It’s just running through people. You’re just trying to take care of the person in front of you and it’s hard to do. We’re just all on top of each other and that’s what you get when you’re all on top of each other. Obviously, I would like a change to the race car. I feel like we can be better at these speedways with just how the car races and try to be not as all on top of each other and just running through each other. I obviously have my hand up to wanting to make a change because we’re either fuel saving or we’re running all over each other just because that’s what this car is and that’s how you go forward. You’re just running through and it’s however hard you can push somebody. The cars are pretty unstable in the back. They get tank swapping or if you get ping-ponging they just can’t take it. Hopefully, I don’t really see it changing this year at all. I don’t think you can during the middle of the year. You could, but I feel like hopefully that Speedweeks deal in January we can try a lot of stuff out.”
Joey Logano — 39th: “They just started wrecking above me. You’re kind of seeing it happen and hope they stay up there and you’re able to get by it. The wreck started moving down the hill and there we were. It’s just unfortunate. That’s Talladega. You start pushing and shoving. We got to the point where we could start racing and not have to save fuel and we’ve proven with this car we can’t race each other without wrecking. We got maybe 10 or 12 laps of racing in before we wrecked. That’s about as far as I think we’ve ever gone. I enjoyed (Stage 1). I mean, it’s a crew chief’s game at that point, and you’re just trying to do what they tell you to do. It was interesting, I think. I don’t know what it was from the fan’s perspective, but from inside the car it was interesting seeing how it all played out. The team did a good job getting our Mustang able to get some stage points there, which that’s the only positive of today. We probably got seven points on the day or whatever that is gonna be, so it’s not real good.”
Kyle Larson — 40th: “There was a big stack-up and I was just in the middle of it. It was a bummer for this No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet team. Just another Talladega result for us, but we got ourselves back there. I don’t know what happened on our first pit stop, but we didn’t get as much fuel in it that we needed to. I was saving fuel and got shuffled to the back. We had to take a little longer on the next pit stop, so we lost the draft and had to restart in the back to start Stage Two. It was starting to get hairy there at the start of the stage, so I wasn’t surprised to get wrapped up in that crash. It’s just an unfortunate end to the day.”
