Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday night’s race at Iowa Speedway.
Ryan Blaney — Winner: “What a cool way to win here. This place means a lot to me and means a lot to my mom. We had a lot of people here tonight cheering us on, so they willed us to that one. Overall, I really appreciate the whole 12 boys. I mean, our car was really fast all night and we got a little bit better through the night and two tires was a good call there. I didn’t know how well I was gonna hold on. I started to struggle a little bit at the end, but had enough to hang on. I’m super proud of the effort. … It makes up a little bit from a couple weeks ago.”
Blaney wins inaugural Cup Series race at Iowa
Defending series champion Ryan Blaney praises the effort of his race team after winning the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway in front of a sold out crowd.
William Byron — Finished 2nd: “(Ryan Blaney) had a really good car, so he was up front and contending a lot, and him and (Kyle Larson) were really good. So, we were just a step off of that, you know? I feel like I just needed to turn the center just a hair better and still kind of maintain the long run. Proud of the effort. It was a really good night, and I feel like we can learn from this and build from it to be a little bit better.”
Byron talks challenges of Cup’s first trip to Iowa
William Byron comes home second in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, and feels his runner-up finish is a good start to putting together consistent runs in what was a challenging race.
Chase Elliott — Finished 3rd: “Our balance was just right, and I thought all day we had really good long run pace. I just really struggled to get going on restarts, and just was really loose and couldn’t. Just felt like I couldn’t attack like I needed to and just lost a lot of ground. Could make good pace there at the end of a run with our NAPA Chevy, just needed to be a little closer I think to keep the pressure on and keep things rolling. Anyway, I was proud of the effort and felt like we had a really good car and were right there in the fight.”
Elliott: Iowa a ‘better race’ than anticipated
Chase Elliott feels the Cup Series’ first trip to Iowa Speedway was a “much better race” than anticipated and shares what his No. 9 team has been able to accomplish, now finishing every race inside of the Top 20.
Christopher Bell — Finished 4th: “A top-five, is a good day. Obviously, we had pace to be better than that, so that’s why I’m sitting here with mixed emotions. Great effort, and if we keep bringing cars like that, hopefully it’ll be our day one of these times.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — Finished 5th: “That first run and starting at the back, we were really strong late in that run. So, I felt confident in what our NOS Energy Drink Camaro could do throughout this whole race. We had a little mishap on pit road that set us back again, to kind of that back row. So, we had to battle back from that. Those guys cleaned it up on pit road, and we had great strategy with those two tires to get us back to clean air at the front of the field. Really wanted to go battle (Ryan) Blaney there. We got to second, just got a little too loose, and couldn’t hold those guys off. Really cool to do a Cup race here in Iowa after all our success and to do it in front of a great crowd.”
Joey Logano — Finished 6th: “We put ourselves in position there to win the race with the two-tire call. I just didn’t re-fire good on two. I tried to race Blaney and couldn’t hold him off and then I just kind of got swallowed up by a couple cars pretty quick. We just didn’t have enough fire-off. I think if I could have got out front, I probably would have been OK, but I couldn’t get out there.”
Josh Berry — Finished 7th: “I thought we had a really good race and a really good car. To score stage points like we did, we had some great restarts in there and just that last restart didn’t really go our way. We lost a little bit of track position and just could never get it back but, all in all, just really proud of everybody on the 4 team. They did a great job. That was a lot of fun, for sure. We’re going to keep digging to keep getting better.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 9th: “Honestly, during the race, I was so confused. I didn’t know exactly what happened. I didn’t know if I went up, or if he came down. I just saw the replay for the very first time and I noticed that the No. 6 (Brad Keselowski) was the one on the outside. He had like a quarter of a car from the wall. He was trying to pinch down the No. 5 (Kyle Larson), and the No. 5 had another quarter of a car to the No. 6. Tried to pinch me down and I just expecting those two guys to be closer to the wall like everyone else. I’m definitely the one that made contact with the No. 5 and I take responsibility for that.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 10th: “We just kind of ran in that eighth to 10th place spot for pretty much the whole race and sometimes a little worse. That’s kind of what we had and we just executed around it.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 16th: “Just a long, hot day. Struggled. Fine-tuned on the car, just kind of loose in, tight center all race, never really got it to where we needed to. Got turned by the 42 (John Hunter Nemechek), just really eventful stuff. Rebounded, saved fuel at the end for 16th.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 19th: “Our team brought a solid Get Bioethanol Chevrolet to Iowa Speedway this weekend. Our pace in practice on Friday was good, but on Saturday, when we were the first car out for qualifying on a green track, it affected our lap. Justin Alexander and the No. 3 Get Bioethanol team made good changes overnight and we fought hard all race long. We started out tight and luckily got an early caution, which allowed us to make a pit stop to work on the car. We had to manage our tires all night. We made a strategy call late for fuel only, which helped us pick up positions when others had to pit. We did not know what to expect with this tire and the surface, but I believe we produced a good race for the fans in Iowa and it was great to see everyone from Iowa Corn and Get Bioethanol at the race to experience the first NASCAR Cup Series race for the state.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 27th: “Yeah, it was a tough day overall. We just didn’t have what we needed there to finish it off. We fired off good, but lost the balance and never found our way back from where we started. I’m proud of the team and how hard they fought all day to try and give me the racecar car I needed. I have to thank Morton Buildings for being on the car this weekend. We’ll re-rack and go at it again at New Hampshire.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 28th: “We were really good in the beginning, obviously. The first pit stop, lost like 10 spots and it was just downhill from there. Everything that could go wrong kind of went wrong. Pit stops again later in the race, kept losing spots. The caution comes out at the worst time and traps us. Then we were going to be able to wave around and the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) stays out and we were one car behind him. Just kind of anything that could go wrong went wrong. We definitely should’ve run better than 28th, for sure.”
Kyle Larson — Finished 34th: “It’s hard to say how the rest of the race is going to play out. No doubt I run top four. I felt like by far we had the best car. I feel like that one got away from us. Wish I could have that restart back.”
Larson looks three-wide, gets turned at Iowa
Kyle Larson looks three-wide exiting Turn 4, but the aggressive move results in a torn up race car as the No. 5 gets turned into the outside wall with Denny Hamlin also receiving damage.
Kyle Busch — Finished 35th: “I don’t know what happened, but Next Gen parts and pieces broke. Something in the left-rear suspension – I don’t know if it was a toe link or what it was, but it changed the skew of the back of the car and it was just undrivable doing that. We came in and fixed it. Rolling back out, we broke the belt. I have no idea, but frustrating, for sure. Not what we wanted for all of our No. 8 Zone Chevy guys; everybody from Kwik Star. We were having a pretty decent day. I thought we had a top-10 run going. We had an opportunity there to score some points, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
AJ Allmendinger — Finished 36th: “I told my team the lap prior, two laps prior, that I thought we were going to blow a right front. The angle was a lot better, so I got it slowed down enough that I didn’t feel anything inside the car.”
