“It was a great feeling,” the drivers said after Sunday’s Cup race at Pocono Raceway.
Ryan Blaney — Winner: “I think things are going well for us. I feel like I’m in great shape speed-wise, especially over the last two months. Honestly, I feel like I missed a couple of races that I thought I had a chance to win. I’m glad we went according to plan today. Our plan was to get track position at the end and we knew our car was fast enough. I’m very proud of all 12 of our team. The Wabash Ford Mustangs were awesome. … It’s really nice to win here again. I won here seven years ago and it was my first Cup victory.”
Blaney scores ‘special’ Cup Series win at Pocono
Ryan Blaney said it was “pretty cool” to win at the place where he first won in the NASCAR Cup Series as he builds momentum for his second victory in 2024 and as the defending champion.
Denny Hamlin — 2nd place: “Track position is very important. When (Ryan Blaney) got the jump on the stage we won, they got in front of us. It was definitely hard to pass. We just didn’t have enough green laps towards the end.”
“Hats off to them, it was a great run. He had a great pace up front and it was really tough for me to even get close to catching him.”
Hamlin finishes second after leading 31 laps at Pocono
Denny Hamlin led a race-high 31 laps at Pocono Raceway but ultimately “ran out of time” to challenge Ryan Blaney for the Cup Series win and had to settle for second place.
Alex Bowman — 3rd place: “I struggled a lot with the car in the dirty air. When the clean air came in at the end, I think most of the adjustments were a little detrimental. I was running too freely. I’m proud of my No. 48 Arai Best Friends Chevrolet team. It was a good run. I just needed a little more to catch the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney). I worked the right rear tire hard for a long time, so it was pretty easy for Denny (Hamlin) to get by me. But yeah, it was a good day for me to get third.”
Bowman: “Third place is hard to be happy with”
Alex Bowman “just couldn’t get the job done” on the final restart at Pocono Raceway, finishing third, but is still encouraged by where his race team has put themselves recently.
William Byron — 4th place: “It was just okay. The No. 24 Raptor High Heat Chevrolet was definitely decent. We executed really well and kept everybody focused. We had some situations where the strategy didn’t work out, but we got some good restarts, especially towards the end, and we kept it up until the end. There’s a lot to analyze, but I’m really proud of the team and it’s great to finish in the top five.”
Joey Logano — Finished 5th: “Overall I’m happy with the top five result. I had speed towards the end of the race and I think I was in the top two. I’m not sure if I was faster than Ryan, but I just took too long to get the balance right. I was close to the track position and balance and I almost messed it up on the restart. That position ultimately cost us a chance to win, but overall I’m proud of the speed we had on a track like this. I’m a little bit more excited for Indy now. There’s another long straight there and the car seemed to work better in the straights this time.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 6th: “Stage 1 and Stage 3 were decent. Stage 2 was a little bit of a struggle. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good restart in the middle section and that cost me the points. But overall it was a solid day and I was able to close the gap on the points leader and then, obviously, Denny (Hamlin) was catching us a little bit. It was a solid day overall and a great day in the points.”
Bubba Wallace — 10th place: “Points matter, so I wasn’t able to take advantage of them, but Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs were not doing well. It was a good rebound. Usually it’s the other way around. You start really good, then you lose speed at the end and lose a lot of track position. Here, we had a good strategy and were able to hold on. It was just that the car just wasn’t working. Sixth-place (Brad Keselowski) had the car going in Turn 1 and I was trying to go all out with him, but I realized I was going to crash and he was just going to keep going. It’s an eye-opener to see how far apart we are. I’ll have a good report tomorrow. Overall, I was just trying to have fun in the first stage, like I said I would. I gave it my all and here we are.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 15th: “It was an okay day. Speed-wise I wasn’t very good all weekend. I didn’t feel like I had the ability to win. But honestly I think I made the car pretty good all weekend, which is really encouraging. I thought I was pretty well balanced, I just wasn’t as fast as the other guys. For the most part I think I made the most of the day. I might have been two or three places higher. Overall it wasn’t a bad day. It wasn’t a great day, it wasn’t a bad day.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 16th: “It was a day of ups and downs for the No. 99 Worldwide Express Chevrolet team. We didn’t have as much speed as we wanted. We were fine in clean air, but for some reason we struggled a lot in traffic… I feel like we struggled more than our competitors. Overall, there were some things we could have improved on, but we finished 16th, which is good enough considering the car and the speed we had today. I thought we could have done a little better yesterday, but we’ll go back and analyze everything and make improvements for next time.”
Josh Berry — Finished 20th: “It was up and down. I made a few mistakes that dropped me back, lost track position and got out of the order. The car looked strong at times but overall I needed to be a bit better and a bit more consistent to finish well. But I got through it and it was a decent day.”
AJ Allmendinger — Finished 21st: “It was a tough battle. I felt like I was doing pretty well until the middle of the race, but I didn’t execute my strategy well to gain track position. I got involved in a crash at the end that damaged my race car a little and slowed me down. I did everything I could to make up for the day.”
Justin Haley — 22nd place: “It was a decent start to the weekend. I struggled in practice and qualifying which affected my race a little bit. I felt like I wasn’t as fast as the other drivers so I need to improve on that. But Chris (Lawson, crew chief) and the team did a good job to get the car in a good position for me to do something today. I would have liked to get another top 20, but there’s one more race before the break so I have a chance to do well during the break.”
Austin Dillon — 23rd place: “It was a long day at Pocono Raceway for the Bootburn Chevrolet team, but I’m proud of everyone at RCR and ECR for not giving up when the going got tough and working to make adjustments throughout the race. Our Chevrolet was fast, but our brakes gave out in Stage 1. It was frustrating because even though we were faster than the car in front of us, we couldn’t do anything without brakes. We didn’t really know what was going on. We did the best we could with what we had and managed to finish 23rd. We’ll go back to the shop and evaluate it.”
Daniel Hemric — Finished 25th: “We were battling the No. 31 Poppybank Chevrolet, which had a tough handling car. We hit the wall and bent a toe link. Unfortunately, the part eventually broke and the day’s race ended a few laps early. I’m proud of our team’s fighting spirit as we fought until the end.”
Cody Ware — Finished 26th: “I felt like we made a lot of progress with the car’s handling and was pretty happy with our car, especially with the increased caution and the chance to continue making adjustments. Unfortunately, we avoided a catastrophe on the track, but a rotor or something punctured the radiator. The team did everything they could to get us back on track and we made the most of the situation until the end.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 30th: “All I know is that we had a really good car and it looked like we were going to have a good day, but then we got dropped back into the pack and that’s what it came down to.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 32nd: “I want to thank all our partners — RCR, ECR, Zone, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Lucas Oil, Chevrolet, everyone who supports us. We’re excited to get out and have some fun and continue to work on our program and try to build it all up. It’s just an unfortunate situation. Thank you to Rowdy Nation, all our fans and everyone for your continued support. We’ll get back to work and get ready for Indianapolis.”
Busch turns and slides to the front of the field at Pocono
Corey LaJoie got behind Kyle Busch and lapped the No. 8 to send it to the front of the field, bringing together several Cup Series drivers at Pocono.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — Finished 33rd: “I have no idea what happened. I was in the top lane. My team said the No. 8 (Kyle Busch) somehow fell into the grass and crossed the track. I don’t know how that happened. I think our strategy was good from the start of the day. The speed in the No. 47 Sugar Land Sippin’ Cream Chevrolet was decent. The whole second half of the race we were inside the top 20. I think we were in a good position. We were on four wheels but there were a lot of guys on two wheels. I was hoping it would pay off later in the run, but I didn’t get a chance to see how it worked out.”
Todd Gilliland — Finished 34th: “I struggled with brake vibration in practice and early in the race. About five laps before, my brake pedal started going a little long and then my brakes blew in the middle of the straight. That’s the first time that’s ever happened. We’ve been really lucky. Front Row Motorsports has had some really well-built Ford Mustangs and we’ve had very few mechanical issues over the last three years. I’m grateful to them for giving us such a great car. We’ll keep fighting. It certainly wasn’t our best day to start and we have a lot of work to do, but we’ll try to learn from it.”
Ross Chastain — Finished 36th: “I totally spun out. We were all skating and then I spun out. It felt like it happened in slow motion. Of course I was annoyed with myself but there’s no turning back now.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 37th: “I just got away in Turn 1. I was battling but then I got away. Nobody caught me. I was all alone. I tried to hang on until the caution came out and tightened up a little bit but they just couldn’t get me. It was definitely disappointing to retire so early in the race, but Overstock“And the entire team of 10. With retirements in practice, qualifying and early in the race, it really wasn’t the weekend we were hoping for.”
