What NASCAR drivers said after William Byron's Martinsville win
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Here's what drivers were saying after William Byron won Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville Speedway in overtime.
William Byron — Winner: "It's pretty awesome. Bad ass to win at Martinsville. We've been struggling at the short tracks. Just kept inching up on it. I got a great team. They just kept my head in it. It stunk to do a restart there at the end like that, but that's the way it goes."
Kyle Larson — Finished 2nd: "Just a great day for Hendrick Motorsports. It's been a great 40 seasons for them. Really cool to have 1,500 people here from Hendrick Motorsports to celebrate. Congrats to William. He did a really good job. Kind of schooled us all there after that green flag stop. Did a really good job passing all of us. He was able to set a good pace, still get through traffic good. My car felt really good. I think we were all kind of the same speed, honestly. Just lost a little bit of track position there in the second stage. Was never able to overcome it."
Martinsville Speedway Cup results: William Byron wins
All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished inside the top 10 at Martinsville.
Chase Elliott — Finished 3rd: "I feel like throughout a lot of the season this year, we've been working in a good direction, working really good together. Pit stops have been really good. Alan (Gustafson) has been calling really good races. All that stuff has been going in a really positive direction, in my opinion. I think if we can just keep producing that, we'll get our turn one day."
Bubba Wallace — Finished 4th: “Yeah, hats off to everybody at 23XI. I appreciate all of the effort. We do a lot of stuff during the week, and I’m finally starting to understand that it all pays off. You’ve got to give the effort, because these guys are busting their ass. It is days like this that you appreciate it. I appreciate all of these McDonald’s guys — and the men and women at the shop. We needed that. My Toyota was strong today. We lost a little bit on that last stop. We got too free, but all-in-all, I was content in finishing sixth, and that’s why you never give up. Top-five — good day, and we will go on to Texas.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 5th: "We got good at the end. It was an uphill battle for sure. We had the issue on pit road and had to restart in the back and nobody could pass anybody. Jonathan (Hassler) made a good call to put two (tires) on it at the start of the third stage and we kind of established ourselves a little bit back in the top 10. We were able to work on our car again once we got a little clean air and seeing what the car was doing and how to get it better."
Joey Logano — Finished 6th: "It was a solid day. I think we got fifth or sixth place points in each stage, somewhere around there. We led a bunch of laps. We got out front, but the tire came apart at the end of that stage there, which cost us a stage win, unfortunately. We took that risk to do it and ended up in the same spot that we were going to be, so really no risk there. After that, we kind of lost control of the race, and once that happened, once you lost the lead, nobody was going to pass anybody. The only car I saw passing was the 12. That was pretty impressive. The rest of us just followed each other all day.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 7th: “From where we started — 19th — if you would have told me that we would finish seventh with our MoneyLion Toyota Camry, I would’ve been really, really happy with that — so naturally this whole group is. We just had to chip away at it all day long. We didn’t do a good job in qualifying so that set us behind. It definitely seemed at the start of the race, our car was really, really strong and as we went on the handling kind of went away. It got harder and harder to pass, but we did the important stuff right. We didn’t make mistakes and we were able to capitalize on others’ mistakes."
Ryan Preece — Finished 9th: “We had a really good car. I wish we didn’t qualify so bad. I know the 24 started back there with us and was able to get there probably with the help of a lot of things. At Martinsville last year we had a good car, but not that good of a car, so we are definitely working toward something. I am really happy with the direction, finally, that we are going in and I think we are going to be a lot better moving forward.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 10th: “I am frustrated. We ran 10th but that was the worst 10th. We were better than that all race long, so that is frustrating. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We lost a couple of spots on pit road and then ran long and lost a lot of track time there. I thought our car was good enough to for sure run in the top three. I don't know what the leaders had at the end. You just can’t pass, so if you were able to get the lead, you were going to hold it if you were somewhat decent. We need to figure out how to execute a little better. We had good speed, we just need to capitalize on it better.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 11th: “We were just trying to do anything we could to steal one with our Sport Clips Toyota. We needed so many cars to do it — even still — the tires didn’t wear enough to matter. We saw when Joey stayed out on those 80-lap lefts and led most of the stage. Tires didn’t wear, and we just struggled to pass all day. Once I came out of that cycle — third or fourth — that’s kind of just where I stayed.”
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Kyle Busch — Finished 16th: “We made an improvement this weekend from how we ran last year at Martinsville Speedway. The first run of the race the Lucas Oil Chevrolet got looser as went. We pitted for tires and adjustments and the next run we were a little free everywhere but tight at the three-quarter mark of Turns 3 and 4. At the end of Stage 2 we pitted again but the adjustments didn’t seem to work, and we lost track positions. Crew Chief Randall Burnett and the guys kept working and never gave up. We made the car better by the end of the race and we were able to get a decent finish, but we still have work to do to get to where we want to be.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 20th: "Started out struggling with the balance of the car, went a lap down, and during the second stage got the ‘Lucky Dog’ and started rolling pretty good. It just seemed like the track changed a lot with the rubber being laid down. We found a good balance to start the run, but to end the run it gets super loose. But still proud of everybody on the Overstock team. It’s not our standard, but we’ll keep working to get there. It was a tough race, but had a lot of fun, too.”
Josh Berry — Finished 25th: “The car was fun. The field basically ran the same speed and you just can’t pass."
Josh Williams — Finished 27th: "We survived today and got to complete all the laps. Overall, it was an up-and-down day, but thankfully we gained a few spots during the green-white-checkered there at the end. Really proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing, as I continue to learn and compete at the highest level.”
Daniel Hemric — Finished 28th: "Today was a hard-fought one. We started out super tight, and I felt like I just killed the right-side tires early on. Trent (Owens) made some great calls, and we continued to get the No. 31 Cirkul Chevy close to where it needed to be during the second stage. We tried gambling a little and running long during the final stage, but unfortunately, we never caught a caution. I’m definitely proud of the hard work this team put in this weekend that we can bring back here in the fall. We definitely made the car more competitive and are going in the right direction.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 24th: “Long day for the Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off-Road Chevrolet team at Martinsville Speedway. We had a problem with a left front tire locking up and I think the power steering was going out pretty much the whole race. When it went out with about 200 laps to go, I had to fight hard to gain positions. I can at least say I finished the race with no power steering, I’m going to be a little sore tomorrow, but we'll keep fighting. It's not the finish we wanted today, but we will go to Texas Motor Speedway next week to try and regain some momentum.”
