Auto Racing Digest

What Drivers Said: Richmond Raceway

It wasn't what drivers had to say after Sunday's Toyota Owners 400, it's how few did actually say something

Michael Eubanks

What Drivers Said: Richmond Raceway
What Drivers Said: Richmond Raceway /

Denny Hamlin - No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota - WINNER: What does this win mean to you? “It was just a matter of time. We weren’t just going to hang back where we were, but everyone worked so hard on my JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) Toyota Camry team. First and foremost, I’ve got to thank my sponsors – SportClips, FedEx, Coca-Cola, the Jordan Brand, Toyota – such a huge partner of ours, and our new sponsor – Logitech. Great to have them on our car now. You just have a tough season and things aren’t going well. It seems like everything is not going your way and the law of averages say things are going to work out and we’ll get our performance better and today’s the day where it all matched up.”

What is it like from your seat with a strategy race like that? “I just rely on the crew chief (Chris Gabehart) and his information to me says we are going to be racing this guy and this guy. As long as you run this pace and do everything you can in traffic, you’ve got a great shot to win. I don’t pay attention to where we were or anything. He told me where the leaders were. I just drove the car as smooth as I could.”

What does it mean to you to win again at your home track? "I love it. I love this track and the techniques that it takes to get around here. I watched some of the greatest short track racers in the world at Southside Speedway and Langley. I’ve learned so much from those guys watching from the stands. When I finally got the opportunity to apply it for myself, I did."

Denny Hamlin celebrates after winning the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
Denny Hamlin celebrates after winning the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

Kevin Harvick - No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford - Finished Second: “I’m just really proud of everyone on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for just staying in there and having a great strategy and doing everything that they did all day. It was really the first clean day that we’ve had all year. The cars have been fast and had a shot there at the end. I wanted to be close enough with the white to just take a swipe at him, but the lapped cars kind of got in the way and I lost a little bit of ground. Still, it’s a great day for us and hopefully a little bit of momentum in a positive direction.”

Stage points in all three stages for a solid day? “Yeah, it was a good day. We kept chipping away at it and they had the right strategy to win the race and just wound up one short. We finally had a day where nothing went wrong.”

If the race went a little longer what would have been the result? “That wouldn’t have mattered. The race is what it is as far as distance. I’m just really proud of everyone on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang. They did a great job. I was hoping to have a shot there when we took the white to be close enough to at least get to his bumper, but I got stuck behind a couple lapped cars there and never really had a chance. It’s still a great day for us. The cars have run good all year. It’s really the first clean day that we’ve had with nothing going wrong, so that’s a good thing.”

What is the takeaway with this car on a short track? “We’ve run good at both of them, so hopefully that continues.”

William Byron - No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet - Finished Third: “Thought we probably did the best job we could. It didn’t quite work out. I thought there at the end they told me I was just racing the 19. I’m like ok I got him, but then the 4 and the 11 were on a totally different planet. That’s just part of it. There wasn’t anything I could do about them, so it was probably four or five to go and Brandon (Lines) was coaching me on keeping the tires underneath it and having good exits and entries. Especially making those guys go around me on the top was definitely better. The times that guys would get underneath me was really, really hard to get back connected and get a good lap put together. The middle of the race we were terrible and we just couldn’t get in the corner at all and if you can’t get into the corner you can’t put consistent laps together. It’s nice to have a run like we had today.”

Martin Truex Jr. - No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota - Finished Fourth:  How frustrating was it for you in the end with all of the different strategies? “It’s frustrating, but it’s part of it. It’s part of the whole day. We did good there for a while. James (Small, crew chief) did a great job all day with the strategy – getting us up-front, getting us the lead. Our Auto-Owners Camry TRD was super-fast out front. Super-fast in clean air. At the end there, I think we just tried to gamble on beating the 24 (William Bryon) and then he ended up doing our strategy and we both screwed up. Heads up the other way, I think we had the best car, but it doesn’t matter. Overall, just really proud of our guys and big step in the right direction for Phoenix. Completely different mindset coming here, after today what we can do going forward. Excited about that. Thanks to everybody at TRD, Toyota, everybody back at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) for working their butts off. Very strong day for our team.”

Kyle Larson - No. 5 hendrickcars.com Chevrolet - Finished Fifth: “I assume we netted out good with our strategy or better than we were. I didn’t think those guys the 11 and the 4 were going to get to us, but then all of a sudden, our tires kind of fell off a cliff there and got really slick. We just kind of had to nurse it home. Glad we got a top-five after three bad finishes in a row. We will move on to Martinsville and try to get a good run there.”

Christopher Bell - No. 20 Sirus/XM Toyota - Finished Sixth:

Ryan Blaney - No. 12 Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford - Finished Seventh (led most laps -- 128): “It’s tough. There were a handful of cars that could kind of run up and run in traffic pretty good and we just weren’t really good enough to run in traffic. Once we lost track position I struggled a little bit, but it’s nice to win a stage. It’s cool to get the pole and good stage points. We finished seventh, my best finish here. Overall, a fun day. It was kind of frustrating because we were running so good early. I wanted to run better, but I can’t complain about it too much. Overall, not a bad day. We just have to find a little bit more speed, but it was nice that we kind of put together some decent notes and have an OK run at Richmond.”

You had a back and forth with the No. 1. How did you view that exchange? “I was inside of him into three and I kind of got loose and washed up half a lane and we never touched. I went down into one and he just decided to send me, so the next restart I sent him, so now we’re even, I guess.”

Kyle Busch - No. 18 M&M's Toyota - Finished Ninth:

Austin Dillon - No. 3 Breztri Chevrolet - Finished Tenth:

Chase Briscoe - No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford - Finished 11th: “We obviously had a really good starting position, but in the beginning we fought a lot of balance issues and I think we fell all the way to 28th from fifth. It wasn’t looking the greatest, but we just continued to get our car better. That’s definitely the farthest off we’ve been all year and to still be able to finish 11th is a good day. We got lucky and got a quick caution and was able to get the lucky dog, and from there our car was actually driving pretty good and was able to drive up in the top five at one point. We just tried the gamble strategy with the win already and it didn’t work out. To finish 11th, we probably could have run a little bit better if our tires had held on a little bit more, but after being 25th at one point and a lap down with about 200 to go, we’ll definitely take it.”

Brad Keselowski - No. 6 Violet Defense Ford - Finished 13th:

Daniel Suarez - No. 99 Commscope Chevrolet - Finished 16th: “It was a tough day. I just feel like we missed it the entire weekend. We didn’t have the speed yesterday. We didn’t have the speed in qualifying. Today was a battle. I feel like we were OK in the long runs at times, but overall, we just didn’t have a lot of speed. We just have to go back home and try to learn what we did right, what we did wrong and come back strong.”

Joey Logano - No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford - Finished 17th:

Harrison Burton - No. 21 Motorcraft/Quicklane Ford - Finished 18th: “It’s frustrating because I feel like we were better than 18th, but track position is really hard to get here now. We struggled with being aero tight behind guys, so it was really hard for me to kind of move forward throughout the run because of that. I felt like we had a pretty decent Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang. If we keep going in this direction, I feel like we’re getting a little better every time. It’s good to start running up with guys that we should be running with and building that direction.”

What happened late when you were three wide and smoked the tires? “I’m not sure exactly what happened. I know the 9, I think we were four-wide or something. There’s just not a lot of room, so got hit and then smoked a tire, but, other than that, a pretty smooth day so we’ll take it.”

Ross Chastain - No. 1 iFly/Onx Homes Chevrolet - Finished 19th:

A.J. Allmendinger - No. 16 Action Industries Chevrolet - Finished 27th: “That was a tough day. The guys did all they could to try to make our No. 16 Action Industries Camaro ZL1 better. I just fought super loose in and burnt the rear tires off it. I wasn’t ever able to get a good balance. We made the best of what we could, it just wasn’t very pretty. Our pitstops were really good – our guys did a great job all day. I just need to be better, so we will keep trying.”

Justin Haley - No. 31 Leaffilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet - Finished 29th: “We couldn’t catch a break today in our LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL1. We bounced back early from our drive-through penalty but struggled with an ill-handling car for the majority of the day. We had a pit-road issue on our last green-flag stop, which really sealed our fate for the end. I’m looking forward to getting to Martinsville and putting today behind us.”`

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Michael Eubanks
MICHAEL EUBANKS

Oregon-based Michael Eubanks covers IndyCar and other series for AutoRacingDigest.com. He previously was IndyCar beat writer for NBCSports.com's MotorSportsTalk site. He can be reached at MichaelEubanks94@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @MEubanks_writer.

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