Special to RacedaySA.com
A.J. Allmendinger – “We started off fighting what we fought all weekend just tight. Some of that was a little bit expected. Knowing what this place does, we tightened the car up a lot and tried to do a couple of things to help it turn, but we had tightened up overall. We started really tight like usual Randall (Burnett, crew chief) and the guys they kept making the right adjustments. We actually had one run I thought we were really good. We tried to go the same direction on that change and I think we got over the limit and we blowed the right front out, I could feel it. I pitted and that got us kind of out of sequence. At the end there I thought we were decent. I think we salvaged the best finish we could salvage out of a rough weekend that is all you can ask for.”
Aric Almirola – “We battled all day and it was kind of a struggle. We just never could get the proper handle on the car. We fought balance all day and just struggled on pit road. That has been our Achilles heel all year and again it was today. We can’t lose five spots on pit road, especially at a place like this, it is too hard to make it up.”
Ryan Blaney – “That wasn’t bad. We fought really hard all day. We got a lot better throughout the day. We didn’t start out that great and we just got better as we went along. The guys did a great job with two tires at the end and I thought about staying out but we wouldn’t have been on the first two rows I don’t think so we had to come in and get two and I think it picked us up one spot. It was a good day and a good job by everybody on this Motorcraft Quick Lane team and a top-10 car is all I could ask for.”
Kurt Busch – “It was a good run, it wasn’t a great run. Thanks to all my guys. We tried hard, we worked hard and it’s just a matter of getting that grip later in the day. Kevin Harvick is a master here at Phoenix, congrats to him. We were close. We will keep chipping away at it.”
Kyle Busch – “We had a really good car today and we ran upfront for a bunch of the race. I’m not sure if we could’ve beat the 4 (Kevin Harvick) or not but given some different circumstances maybe. But, overall the Skittles Camry was good. Missed it just a little bit on the long runs for sure. We just can’t quite keep up as good as those guys can on the long side of the run, so that’s kind of where we lost it today. I also screwed us up a little bit on pit road but we were at least able to overcome that.”
Landon Cassill – “The two tire call at the end was smart and we got good track position. Donnie did a good job all day giving me the adjustments I needed. We made the car better and took a wave around early and had to keep taking it but it ended up working in our favor just because the car was so good towards the end of the race that it made up for the lost time from the cautions not falling our way. It is good progress for our team and I am really happy with it.”
Austin Dillon – “Solid day we ran right there 10th all day. At the end Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) made the call to stay out. It was a gutsy call. I think right there at the end the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) kind of spun his tires and didn’t get going. The No. 18 (Kyle Busch) put me three-wide, so glad to come out with ninth after that. We gained a spot overall. We probably could have had, maybe two more spots really, just a fun race. I’m looking forward to this year. That was enjoyable right there.”
Ty Dillon – “It was a solid day. It was exactly what I wanted as a driver coming here. We stayed on the lead lap and finished in the top 15 and brought back a car these guys can improve. I learned so much today as a driver. Just can’t thank Stewart-Haas for the opportunity. It was a lot of fun working with these guys. I look forward to doing it again.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. – “Yeah, I was surprised we finished as good as we did. I thought that was a good move to not pit. If a couple more guys don’t pit and we get another guy on the outside in the second row we was in good shape. I would have loved to have had the top, so I could get them guys on the bottom and hold them down, but I had the bottom and new tires on the outside of me a situation. But, we finished really good. I don’t dislike the call to stay out. We had an awesome car and that’s three weeks in a row I’ve enjoyed the hell out of driving it. I had a fun day and we ran great; really, really good. I’m proud of my guys.”
Carl Edwards – “I should’ve wrecked him. No, those guys were doing a great job all day. They hung on with those tires but we were faster so I thought, ‘Man, I’ll just move him out of the way and get by.’ I just didn’t move him far enough and then he got up the door and I thought I was trying to time — I thought ‘I think he’s going to beat me.’ So, I tried to sideswipe him before he got there but I needed to be in front of his front tire. Anyway, just a fun race. Man, I wish we could’ve won that thing. Dave Rogers (crew chief) did a great job. I’ve got to thank Stanley. They’re onboard here. Hopefully everybody that damaged their stuff could use some Stanley Tools to fix it today. ARRIS, Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Subway, Comcast, XFINITY, all of our sponsors. I wanted to win that thing but you win some and you lose some. It was a good race.”
Chase Elliott – “I felt like it was a solid day for us. I was just happy we finally put a day together and got a finish that these guys deserved. I feel like we had a good car. We made gains on it all day long. That last restart, obviously, was pretty wild. We tried our best. We gave up a couple of spots, but we will take it and move on to Fontana.”
Denny Hamlin – “Yeah, it was a great effort for our whole FedEx Freight Toyota team. Just I thought we had a car that could win. We really did a good job back there – pit crew did a good job down the stretch there. So, overall I’m very proud of our program. We’ve really come a long way on this race track. Obviously this is a very pivotal race track when it comes to getting to Homestead so we want to run good here and this is a good step. I was actually rooting on Carl (Edwards) going ‘Get him.’ But, we’ve been on the other side of that photo finish. Awesome that this rules package creates this kind of racing and some of the finishes that we’ve seen so far this year.”
Kevin Harvick – “Well, I knew he was better through (Turns) 3 and 4. That was not the car that I wanted to see behind me. I knew I could beat him down there and I tried to protect the bottom in (Turns) 3 and 4 and I just missed the bottom with all the rubber build-up on the tires and everything. But, all in all, I knew I was going to be on defense down there. I got up too high and wasn’t able to stay on the bottom like I wanted to and then he got into me, like he should have, and I needed to get a good run off the corner and I was going to have to get into his door and it worked out, just barely. I just want to thank Jimmy John’s, Busch, Chevrolet, Mobil 1 and everybody at Stewart-Haas for everything that they do.”
Kasey Kahne – “We had a right front tire go down. It happened earlier in the race but a caution came out and I thought it was the engine at the time because of the way it kind of vibrated and changed the tone of the engine. Come to find out it wasn’t the engine and it was the tire. We’ll look at what we are doing since it happened a couple of times. We had a car capable of running in the top 15 and we were really good early. The longer the race went I felt like I got looser. I used a lot of brake during the entire the race, which I was surprised about. Yesterday in practice I didn’t have to use the brake hardly at all and today with different grips I used it so much.”
Brad Keselowski – “We ran in that 10th place range pretty much the entire race until we cut the tire. That was unfortunate and we aren’t really sure why but there isn’t anything we can really do about it. It is hard to say really where we would have been if that hadn’t happened. The Alliance Truck Parts Fusion was probably about a 10thplace car, but you never know how things would have played out without the tire issue.”
Kyle Larson – “Our day was not great. We ran 16th to 20th the whole time. We were able to be the first car on four tires on the last restart and I was surprised it wasn’t really an advantage at all. The No. 43 (Aric Almirola) got into the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) and shuffled a few cars out of the way for me so I was able to sneak by on the bottom to finish 12th. So, we finished a lot better than we ran. I’m happy about that. We needed a day like this after the last couple of races. So, we head to Fontana a track where I’m normally good at and then hopefully get a top 10.”
Joey Logano – “We just didn’t quite get the luck on our side today. We created our own luck as well. We need to clean it up a little bit. We need to clean up the mistakes we have had here at the beginning of the season on everybody’s front. We still have speed. We were close today. At times it felt like we were a third place car, and we were running up there around third. We just still have work to do to catch the 4 and 19, they were the class of the field.”
Paul Menard – “I’m not really sure. We were okay that last run. We fired off pretty decent and started getting really tight at the end. I don’t know if a left-front tire blew or what going into (Turn) 3. I don’t know if something broke or if a tire blew. We are going to check it out. I’m curious about it.”
Ryan Newman – “We just blew a right-front tire. It must have melted the bead or something. I don’t know if something failed in the cooling department or what the deal was. I didn’t do anything any different than I’ve ever done here before. Just definitely blew a right-front tire out and that was the end of our day with the Grainger Chevrolet.”
Danica Patrick – “We didn’t start out as good as we needed to this weekend and that hurt us in qualifying on Friday, but my racecar was good today. The guys did a good job with the changes, but we went a bit too far on the second-to-last stop. That hurt us on the long green-flag run, and we ended up a lap down. I hate that we didn’t finish any better than we did today, but I’m glad we were able to come back and get a solid run after starting so far back.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – “We were really tight and I was having to use too much break and I think we got the tires hot and once we did that the right front gave out from having to use too much brake. The cars were a handful. They were fun to drive. We just didn’t quite have the Fastenal Ford dialed in like we needed to today. We were really tight, therefore we had to use too much brake. Our setup was pretty tight and we had to use a lot of brake. Therefore I was getting the right front tire hot. The Fastenal Ford just wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be today. We made good adjustments and were gaining on it, just not enough. We had to use too much brake. I feel like we got the tire too hot and blew it. We have to get it dialed in a little better next time.”
Martin Truex Jr. – “Our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota was never the same after the first pit stop. “From that point on we couldn’t get going to overcome some of the slick turns. We had a shot at the end to gain a few spots when the caution came out for a green-white-checkered finish but got bottled up in traffic.”
