Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race at Pocono Raceway:
Denny Hamlin — Winner: “I pushed him all the way into turn one. I don’t know if he didn’t have his tires clean and then he washed up the race track. We got side-by-side, and he chose not to lift. It’s just one of those things when you are on the outside the aerodynamics position, I didn’t touch him. He just made the decision not to lift. … I thought we had the best car honestly. We had the best car. The strategy worked out well. (Crew chief Chris Gabehart) just kept getting me more towards the front.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 2nd: “In the closing laps, we didn’t get a lot of pushes – we didn’t really get a good push on any of the restarts and that left us in a vulnerable spot. We did everything we could.”
Martin Truex Jr. — Finished 3rd: “We fought track position all day, and finally got it, and then drove away from the field until strategy got us back a few spots. All-in-all, really good speed, good day. I just couldn’t get the push from the front row to get the lead back.” Truex Jr. needed bigger push from inside row Martin Truex Jr. admits his runner-up finish at Pocono came down to lane choice and not getting the right push from the inside lane on the final restart.
Kevin Harvick — Finished 4th: “I would have rather won, but I think we just have to keep ourselves in the mix, keep doing what we’re doing and you just never know how these things are gonna play out. We needed the front in clean air and we never really got that. Our car just struggled in traffic on that first lap of the restarts to get going with the front tires, but it was a strange race. I didn’t ever think that that strategy would play out like it did, running where we were and then have it cycle all through. You’ve just got to keep going every lap. They know what they’re doing up there and let it play out.”
Ty Gibbs — Finished 5th: “It’s great to come home in the top-five. Thank you to everybody supports me at (Joe Gibbs Racing) and Toyota, TRD. What a great day. We were up front all day. Solid day with good track position. It was nice to stay out of the mess back there. We just have to keep fighting.”
Ricky Stenhouse — Finished 7th: “It was an up-and-down day for the No. 47 Blue Buffalo Chevy team. We didn’t have track position at the beginning. We got it there in the middle stages of the race, but just wasn’t good enough to keep it. The guys made some really good adjustments and we got better. The final stage when we ran long, we were running good lap times when we got clean air. It was just about timing those restarts there at the end. We messed up every restart there at the beginning, and then nailed every one there at the end. All-in-all, it was a really strong day for our team.”
Harrison Burton — Finished 8th: “It was a good finish for us. We were mired in traffic all day and that makes it hard, and we struggled for handling but made a few changes at the end and that got the car pretty good right before the long green flag cycle and I could kind of run long. A lot of those guys pitted themselves into traffic and we were able to have clean air and click off faster lap times. We pitted and came out in front of a lot of those guys, so that helped us a lot. The strategy at Pocono is always fun, so it’s fun to kind of know what’s going on and know that you have to go run fast laps because the guys behind you are trying to do the same. It worked out to where we pitted out in front of them. The guys did a good job on pit road to do that and the last few restarts I just tried to be aggressive and keep moving forward and got a few more spots. It was a decent day for us.”
Erik Jones — Finished 9th: “It was a good day for the No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevy. I thought we had some good speed. We capitalized a lot on strategy and some opportunities to get up to the top there at the end. We had some restarts go our way and happy it played out for us. It was a good day and hope to keep improving.”
Kyle Larson — Finished 21st: “(Denny Hamlin and I are) friends. Yes, this makes things sh—- and awkward, whatever, he’s always right. All the buddies know that he’s always right. So, I’m sure he was in the right there as well. It is what it is. I’m not going to let it tarnish on track, but I am pissed. I feel like I should be pissed.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 22: “Decent day for our No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Chevy team. Just lost too much on pit road and didn’t make good adjustments there at the end. It’s a step in the right direction, but we just need to be better. Disappointing, but we don’t have a mark on the car. We just need to be better.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 30th: “It stinks. We got the lead and had it for two laps and then we had our issue. We’ll have to figure out what it was, but, overall, I’m proud of the effort. We brought a pretty good car and got it better throughout the day. It’s just one of those things that happens every now and then. I essentially lost 100 horsepower. We’ll have to look at it, but it laid down pretty flat pretty quick.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 34th: “I heard (Dale Earnhardt Jr.)’s replay, said that I came down a little bit. Felt like I was holding my own. He was at my left rear going in there, I knew we were three-wide. I think I’ve got the right to at least hold my lane. I mean, I’ve got to turn at some point to get down. Brad (Keselowski)’s on my outside, maybe a half-lane up. Tyler drove it in there. Obviously, I feel like he drove it in deep enough to where he had to come up the track into me. We can look at SMT and see the little, fine movements that we make, but (I) felt like that was not the time to do that.”
Joey Logano — Finished 35th: “We’ve been fighting these cars for two years now with four flat tires when a car spins out, and you get this long, horrible ride back. It’s rough. Your head is bouncing around in there. It’s stupid. It’s just really dumb that we can’t just put four tires on a truck. I saw a whole bunch of them earlier today. I did something for Verizon and I saw at least 25 trucks. If we can put four tires on one of them with a jack and an impact that can just change the tires and let us come back, instead of dragging the car two miles around the racetrack, it’s just stupid.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 36th: “Definitely frustrated because I feel like we’re better than this. I’m frustrated also because I feel like guys are…