Here is what drivers have been pronouncing after Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen:
William Byron — Winner: “Yeah, we seem to go through that summer slump in July and August, and for some reason we just can’t quite put the races together. I think it’s the race tracks itself. Yeah, just came this weekend with a good mindset, focusing on trying to get ready for the post-season, and we’ve had fast cars, we just haven’t executed races, but today was flawless, and just Rudy (Fugle), everybody, all the spotters. Thanks to everybody. This is a cool win.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 2d: “Yeah, I’m happy with my day. It takes me a while to get going, and with McDowell there at the beginning, like he’s just ready and he’s on kill, and I’m kind of working my way into it. I just lost the lead because I looked at the 24’s back bumper the rest of the day.”
Hamlin runner-up to Byron at Watkins Glen
Denny Hamlin is “happy” along with his day after a second-place outcome at Watkins Glen International, his first top-10 end on a street route within the Next Gen automotive.
Christopher Bell — Finished third: “I’m happy that we finished third. The regular season points battle is super, super tight and the guy we’re trying to pass is sitting on the front stretch. He showed up and won the race. I’m really proud of this 20 group. They made some awesome changes overnight and overall, this DeWalt Camry was super fast all weekend long.”
AJ Allmendinger — Finished 4th: “For our race team, the playoffs would be great to get into. Our ultimate goal is to keep building and get better. The last couple of weeks we’ve had some speed and struggles. Then we’ve struggled with speed at other places. It’s about building. Of course we want to win. We want to get in the playoffs. We’ll lay it all on the line next week doing it. But it’s just about building momentum and trying to get better.”
Ty Gibbs — Finished fifth: “I felt like we were really fast. We had a really fast Monster Toyota Camry. I just didn’t do a good job getting through the guys in front of us. I feel like we were much faster than the three in front of us. And I just couldn’t get by them.”
Chris Buescher — Finished seventh: “I knew we had the speed in our Fastenal Mustang, and I’m proud of everybody for what they did today. It was certainly a better car than we had last year – did it more on speed than strategy. I’m proud of that. It wasn’t a race-winning day, but it was certainly good, strong and competitive in a lot of different areas.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished ninth: “Overall, not a bad day. We didn’t qualify very well – at all. We kind of had our work cut out for us, but Jonathan (Hassler) did a really good job of getting us better all day – from practice to qualifying, and into today. We passed some guys in the beginning, did a couple good pit calls there under green and then had a good caution fall our way there.”
Joey Logano — Finished tenth: “We executed a better race this time, which is nicer than last week, which is good. It just wasn’t really good, in general. I wasn’t fast. We did a good job as a team – just slow. That’s the bottom line. We have to go faster.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished twelfth: “I’m proud of myself. That’s the first time I felt proud of myself at a road course race. I just executed and didn’t lose focus — maybe one time. And, that’s the difference maker. You’ve got to stay on it at these places. Just hats off to my team for sticking with me and believing in me on these road courses. I know we still have one more to go, but we wanted to maintain our gap and not lose too many and we gained.”
Wallace nonetheless on playoff bubble sooner than Daytona
Bubba Wallace thank you William Byron for attaining victory lane so there wasn’t a brand new winner and says it is the first time he is ever felt pleased with himself after a street route race as a result of he “executed and didn’t lose focus.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished fifteenth: “We’re really excited. A good weekend for us here at Watkins Glen — to get both RFK cars into the NASCAR Playoffs starting here in two weeks. There is a lot of momentum building. I’m happy for everyone at RFK and happy for everyone on the No. 6 car with our Build Subs Ford Mustang. We’re in a great spot with the best yet to come.”
Mike Rockenfeller — Finished nineteenth: “Starting from 21st and only finishing 19th is for sure not what we were hoping for or what I was hoping for. On the first pitstop, we had an issue on the left side with the jack and we lost a ton of time there. That probably cost us eight spots, but that’s how it is. The car was tricky to drive but for sure we learned a lot again in the race.”
Kevin Harvick — Finished twenty first: “I wish we could have won a race before now. We’ve had our opportunities to win a few. We struggled on the road courses but other than that, it’s been okay. We just need to get our cars running better to really do anything.”
Erik Jones — Finished twenty ninth: “Not a very good day. I started in the back, had an issue and went to the back again. That’s pretty much all we had. It went all-green. I hope next week at Daytona will be better. It’s the last shot to win and try to get in the playoffs. So we’ll try to go do that.”
Michael McDowell — Finished thirty sixth: “Just the highs and lows of motorsports coming off of last weekend. But, I’m still really proud of my guys. This Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang was really fast. Had that penalty early, and we were still able to drive back through the field. Really proud of this team we have. Just wasn’t our day — a couple of pit road penalties, and the engine just shut off there. Not sure if it was the engine or electrical. But, I just came out of the carousel and it shut off.”
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