Chase Briscoe — winner: “Ty Gibbs, incredible teammate there. I would not have won that race without Ty. Just an amazing team effort. I can’t believe I won a superspeedway race. I haven’t done it any level anywhere. Just an unbelievable atmosphere. It’s not hit me. We’re going to Phoenix! So thankful the Lord’s blessed me, opening an incredible door here at Joe Gibbs Racing. I just had such a piece. Normally I’m a nervous wreck around this place.
Noah Gragson — 34th: “We executed that pit stop really well, and we were up there with Joey. He was running second in the bottom lane and I was just trying to control our lane from the lead, and (Erik Jones) was pushing really hard. You usually get those pushes late in the race in the third stage, but he was just pushing hard. It’s unfortunate. The back straightaway here is really rough and I was pushed in the wrong area and started wheelbarrowing down the backstretch before he caught me. Yeah, it’s just unfortunate. We have two more opportunities to end the season with strong races, but we were looking like we had a lot of speed. I was just trying to keep even with (AJ Allmendinger). There’s a couple of times where we both got clear of him. He was pushing really hard in the corner, places that guys don’t normally push in the first stage, whether it’s through the trioval or the corners. It just seemed a little bit aggressive in the first stage and we still had nine laps left, so that was definitely a bummer.”
AJ Allmendinger — 35th: “I feel all right. It knocked the breath out of me. As I stopped it, I felt like the car was catching on fire, so got out and tried to get my breath back. Feel OK now. I’ll probably be sore. A hard hit for my old body. Proud of our guys. Got it up front there. I kind of make these decisions after the pit stop, when you get to the front, maybe I’ll go run to the end of the stage, and I think we were leading there. Joey (Logano) was doing a really good job pushing me in the right areas. I felt we could direct both lines. I had Noah next to me and looked like Noah got turned getting in the corner, and it turned me straight up into the fence. So it’s disappointing. It’s why I hate this place. But it’s part of this racing. At least we were up front for a little bit there. Sucks to have it happen so early. But at the end of the day, I get to kiss Tara and Aero and I’ll be a little sore. Other than that, just disappointing. Always expect the worst here and hope for the best, and today we got the worst.”
Dega wreck ‘knocked the wind out of’ Allmendinger
AJ Allmendinger admits he’ll “probably be sore” after taking a bit hit in Stage 1 at Talladega and shares his perspective of the wreck that validates why he “hates this place.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — 37th: “I didn’t see anything but (Noah Gragson), unfortunately. We were leading that top lane. I felt like I did everything I needed for our team there; got off pit road really well and saved a lot of fuel. We were battling for a top-10 coming to the stage end. Maybe (Erik Jones), for some reason, pushed Gragson in the corner. I felt like it was a little early for that. I think up to that point, everyone was racing hard, but weren’t putting anybody in bad spots. It just looked like he got him on the right-rear side of the bumper and spun him there.”
Austin Cindric — 39th: “We went through the first cycle, and it didn’t work out for us, I thought we did the right stuff there to get some stage points, that’s our priority. Yeah, so then it was just seeing whether we could get it fixed enough to go back out or not, but we had a steering rack issue so I couldn’t drive it out. Our Ford Mustang was really fast, and I felt like we positioned ourselves well for the cycle but maybe didn’t have enough cars there.”
Chase Elliott — 40th: “The assignment is very simple (for Martinsville). I don’t know about the crash. I saw someone get turned sideways. Just trying to get slowed up like normal and ended up getting turned sideways and slid into some people, and they slid back into me. I hate it. I felt like we had ourselves in a good spot before the cycle. I didn’t feel we executed the cycle very well. That put us back in the back again. I’m not sure if that would have helped us miss the wreck or not. All that’s very circumstantial. It is what it is. I can’t change it now. Just all eyes on Martinsville and try to go up there and get a win. … The energy was definitely picking up. Pretty much everything after the pit cycle was getting pretty crazy, so I wasn’t super surprised by it. Maybe I should have got out. … I wasn’t going to get any points where I was out. We were right on that cusp of if your lane really goes forward and catches the back part of the top-10, but it probably wasn’t worth the risk at the end of the day. It was really wild from the get-go. Even when we were saving fuel, we were running four-wide and getting a lot of confidence up.”
WILL BE UPDATED
