What Drivers Said: Watkins Glen

Here's what several NASCAR Cup drivers who took part in Sunday's Federated Go Bowling at The Glen had to say afterward

Editor's note: Toyota driver quotes were unavailable and only a select number of Ford and Chevrolet driver quotes were made available after the race

Kyle Larson - No. 5 hendrickcars.com Chevrolet - WINNER:

Q) Tell us about the move to pass your teammate, Chase Elliott. We did see the right front locked up going into turn one.

A) “Yeah, I knew that was kind of my only opportunity. I'm not proud of it. But being in the inside lane or the right lane.. being the leader, choosing the left lane, it definitely wins out. But when it gets too late in the race, it's definitely risky.

“Like I said, I knew that was my only opportunity to get by him. I felt like our cars were pretty equal today. Had a lot of fun after the green flag cycle trying to chase him down. Kind of burnt my stuff up a little bit.

“The restarts kept me in it and kept our team in it. Proud of our guys. Good to get another win here at Watkins Glen and get some more bonus points going into the Playoffs, which we haven't had many of those this year. Hopefully this will build on some momentum and we can keep racking up some more points.”

Q) If the shoe was on the other foot, would you want to have a conversation with your teammate?

A) “I'm sure, yeah, we would ultimately have a conversation. We have a competition meeting tomorrow.

“Yeah, I think if I was in his shoes; I would understand the risk that I'm taking choosing left lane also. Again, like I said, I'm not proud of it, but it's what I felt like I had to do to get the win.”

Q) Did you learn something on the restart before that you said you're going to try to take advantage of it on the final one?

“Yeah, all the restarts I was in the right lane yesterday with William (Byron). I always got myself in a bad spot where my angle was pinched off. We'd always make contact and I'd end up sideways and get passed by people.

“I knew everybody's aggression was going to be higher as each restart went on. I didn't want to put myself in that position again to get passed by AJ (Allmendinger) or Joey (Logano), who were really aggressive behind me.

“Yeah, it's just part of racing at road courses, especially this year it seems like. Again, not proud of it, but we did what we had to do.”

A.J. Allmendinger - No. 16 Action Industries Chevrolet - Finished Second:

Q) You had a chance there on those last couple of restarts. Would you have done anything differently?

A) “I don’t think so. Obviously, Kyle (Larson) drove it in quite deep to get the lead there on Chase (Elliott) and I was getting shoved in the corner. Maybe if I could have gotten the car squared off a little bit earlier in the corner.. but obviously I was getting run into so hard that I was happy just to keep it on the race track and not have anybody next to me off the corner.

“Just proud of everybody at Kaulig Racing. This is absolutely one of the most fun cars I have ever driven in my life. I was hustling it and it was fast. The Action Industries Chevy, can’t thank them enough. To finish second in a Cup race in your first year as a team isn’t bad. But god, when you are that close, it’s disappointing.”

Joey Logano - No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford - Finished Third: “It was crazy and I am ecstatic about what we did. We got the stage win, and usually, if you get a stage win here you bury yourself, which we did. We were 27th at the start of the third stage. We passed a bunch of cars and got to 17th and then we got stuck around 15th or so. I have to give it to Paul (Wolfe), he put two tires on it and gave us some track position and then we had a couple of more good restarts and it ended up as a top-three. Pretty good.”

Chase Elliott - No. 9 Kelly Blue Book Chevrolet - Finished Fourth:

Q) Kyle says he's not happy about the way the pass happened. He also said if he was in your shoes, he would have understood the risk of restarting on the outside. Did you consider that risk on the final restart?

A) “Just a huge congratulations to Kyle (Larson) and everybody on the No. 5 team. Congratulations to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for getting another win. Appreciate Kelley Blue Book for being on our car this weekend.”

Q) He says this would be discussed between the two of you. What would you like to say to him?

“Congratulations. He did a great job. Seriously, they deserve it. Looking forward to going to Daytona next week and trying to get one for our team.”

Q) Your first conversation was with Mr. Hendrick; was he able to console you at all on the loss today?

A) “Just congratulated him. Like I said, always good to see HMS win. The boss deserves all the wins, all the great things that go on with this company. Proud of that. Looking forward to next week.”

Daniel Saurez - No. 99 Princess Cruises Chevrolet - Finished Fifth: “Our No. 99 Princess Cruises Chevy was good. It was a little bit tight, a little bit loose. I felt like we had to play with the balance of the car quite a bit. But overall, I felt like our car was good. Probably not a winning car, but a solid top-five car. With the right circumstances, we probably could have won the race, but we just spent too much time trying to gain track position.”

Michael McDowell - No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford - Finished Sixth: “It is disappointing. I don't think we quite had enough for the 9 or the 5. I tried to hold them off as long as I could, they just had a bit of pace on me. They were pushing me hard enough that I was getting wide and making mistakes. I tried to make a move on that second-to-last restart there and got a pretty good run on the 5 and went to the inside and it just didn’t work out. We got jammed up on the bottom and everyone was smashing into each other and we lost a couple of spots. That was pretty much it at that point. It is just disappointing. We’ve gotta win to get into these playoffs. But I am proud of everybody at Front Row. We had a fast car and we were in the hunt. It just wasn’t quite enough.”

Chris Buescher - No. 17 Fastenal Ford - Finished Ninth: “We had a really good Fastenal Ford. I am so proud of everybody. Just didn’t need that caution at the end. We needed a green flag run. We were running down the next several ahead of us and we had tires. That was working for speed. I don't know if I could have gotten to the lead with green flag runs but it definitely would have been better than we finished. It didn’t play out the way we needed it to, but still a really solid day.”

Erik Jones - No. 43 FOCUSFactor Chevrolet - Finished Tenth: “Best road course car we’ve had all year. Thanks to the 43 guys, the hard work is paying off. We need to qualify a little better, but a good day and finish for our FOCUSfactor Chevy. Honestly, I was kind of hoping for more rain. I was having fun when the track was wet. Watkins Glen is one of my favorite road courses, so I’m glad to leave with a top 10 and head to Daytona next weekend.”

Ty Dillon - No. 42 Allegiant Chevrolet - Finished 12th: “I’m really proud of our result today with our Allegiant Camaro ZL1. We’re just building momentum, man, and it takes time in this sport to build relationships with a lot of new people, but it feels like Jerame (crew chief) and I are starting to click. The last three weeks, we’ve been running really strong and doing what we want to do. We cashed in a lot of stage points today, but were also able to turn it around and finish 16th. That’s really hard to do on these road courses, and we did it. Really proud of our effort, we’re building momentum at a good time.”

Kimi Räikkönen - No. 91 Recogni Chevrolet - Finished 37th:

Q) Kimi, you were involved in that incident out of the bus stop. Was there anything you felt you could have done different there to avoid it?

A) “I wasn’t really involved with it. I had a good line there, but everybody seemed to be coming on the left of me, and unfortunately I had no time to react. The first impact, somebody hit the tires or the wheels directly, the wheels spun and something was wrong with the race car, but that how it goes.”

Q) I know it was shorter than you wanted, but did you enjoy yourself here in the NASCAR Cup Series?

A) "Yeah, it was good fun. I felt more confidence all of the time. We had some good laps. It’s a shame. The car felt like it had a lot of speed, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”