Clint Bowyer, driver of the #14 Rush Truck Centers Ford, and Daniel Suarez, driver of the #19 Subway Toyota, race during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 26, 2017 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images)

CLINT BOWYER – “It was just a good weekend.  I appreciate everybody’s hard work at Stewart-Haas Racing.  Having these teammates and having this group behind you, the organization and the teamwork, it’s just amazing to be a part of it at this point in my career.  Thanks to Rush Truck Centers for making this possible.  Gene Haas and Tony Stewart for giving me this opportunity.  It means a lot to me to be in this 14.  I have a lot of fun with these guys.  Buga and all these guys mean business.  It’s a confidence thing right now, a momentum-builder and we’re getting closer.  Obviously, this is a good track for me.  I wanted to win that damn thing, but to come home with the wild finish and everything that it was, we’ll take it.” 

JOEY LOGANO – “It was up-and-down for sure.  Our car was really good on the short runs just like yesterday.  Our car was good on the short runs and not good on the long runs.  We would lose too much time.  We tried to short pit them and got caught with the caution and got stuck down a lap with 20 to go or so.  We were able to recover and at one point I thought we were gonna win the race and had some trouble on pit road and lost some spots again, but we were able to make some of them back up and end up with a top-5 out of it with the Auto Club Fusion.  It was up-and-down to say the least for the whole weekend for me.” 

KEVIN HARVICK – “I feel like we won.  Those are the days that championships are made out of right there.  To wreck before we even get to the start-finish line, I don’t know exactly what happened in front of me, but, obviously, we got a caved-in grille.  They did a great job fixing it.  We got some wavearounds and made the car better and made something out of the day.  That’s why these guys are who they are and won championships and races because they can make days like that happen.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – “We struggled.  We just don’t have the overall grip and speed in our cars, but we’re working hard. Everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports has been working really hard.  It’s a big improvement from Atlanta.  We gained on it when we went to Vegas and then we’ve kind of gotten flat and stagnant and we haven’t been making as many gains and strides since Atlanta, so we still have some work to do.  I’m proud of the effort, we just have to dig deep.  We have to keep working hard and get speed in our car and more grip in our car so we can go and compete.”

RYAN BLANEY – “I thought we were not great at the beginning, kind of faded at the end of the first stage.  I thought at the beginning of the first stage we were really good.  We drove up there. In the early part, we seemed to fade late in runs.  In the middle part, we had equipment leave the pit box and that put us in a big hole back there, but we did a good job fighting back, putting ourselves in a decent position to have a good finish and a decent shot at (the win).  Most re-starts worked in our favor except the last one. We just got put three-wide there and kind of got hurt.  Overall not a bad day for us coming back from that pit road penalty. That was pretty good.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR. – “It was definitely not the situation we wanted to be in, but we thought more guys would stay out there. I think we only ran a few laps. It was definitely a disadvantage at the end and just really tight. Holding on for fourth was good for points. Overall, it was a good day for everybody, we just had that one pit stop and I slid a little bit – a foot or so further than I had all day. The guys got the air hose caught on the splitter and we lost six spots or whatever it was. All in all, it was a good day and we ran up front and led laps. The 42 (Kyle Larson) and I felt like we were the class of the field – he just got it done and we didn’t.”

DANIEL SUÁREZ – “I think the result is very good. That’s exactly what we are here for, but we have to keep working the race in general. I feel like we were not great – we were just okay – and then in the last couple of rounds in the last couple adjustments the car was much, much better. I wish it was like that the whole race and if it was going to be like, we were going to be running in the top-10 like we finished the entire race. We have to keep working. I know that there is room to improve it still, but for now we’ll take the top 10.”

ERIK JONES – “We were fast. We just don’t complete the races that well, so we have to go to work and get a little bit better and figure out how we ran all day.”

DENNY HAMLIN – “Race was pretty good. Our cars were a little bit slow overall. I mean, that’s the biggest thing know is that our car’s just slow. We’ve got to work on that and try to get our balance a little better and get out engines a little bit better and we’ll be alright.”

MATT KENSETH – “Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t do the best job getting through the gears and I think the 1 (Jamie McMurray) got snuck outside of me, so I was trying to leave room for him on the top and then I just got hit in the left rear quarter panel off of Turn 2 and got spun out and I was just kind of along for the ride.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – “We were tore all to hell.  It’s unfortunate.  Got tore up there real early in the race and went all the way to the back.  We clawed all the way back up to second.  I don’t know if we had anything for Kyle and those guys.  The car was tore up pretty bad, so to get that kind of finish is respectable.  Certainly, we want to win.  I felt like we had a shot to do just that, but it didn’t come together.  That’s the way it goes sometimes when you have a 36-race season.  You’re gonna have some adversity and days that don’t go your way, and that’s a little bit of what today was for us, but we made the most of it so I’m proud of our guys for that.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY – “Our team and our whole organization has done an amazing job to get to the point that we are. It’s not one thing; it’s hundreds of small things. I’m so happy for all the guys at our shop that have worked hard. In our sport, every team works hard; and you’re not always rewarded for it. It’s awesome to be rewarded for all the work.

CHASE ELLIOTT – ‘Yeah, we were just trying to do something different. I thought that was going to give us the best chance of winning. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) did as well. We had a good NAPA Chevy and we were on the same page. He made the right call. And, you can’t control when the caution comes out. So, that’s just part of it.”

AUSTIN DILLON – “I wish we could have done more with the position we were in with tires. On the outside lane, we cannot fire off the first couple of laps.  We struggle with that and I’m going to start practicing it and figuring out why we can’t turn. I’m proud of my guys, but I guess we just wanted more.”

RYAN NEWMAN – “It was a tough and long day for us. We got a hole in the front nose on the first lap that cost us our track position. Then we battled an extremely tight-handling car that put us a lap down. We finally raced back onto the lead lap with 19 to go. It certainly wasn’t the finish we wanted but it was a decent recovery.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – “We definitely started off really loose which, kind of thought we might just going into the race just trying to get on the other side of it.  I was still a little bit tight trying to roll the center, which is kind of where we have been struggling a little bit, but made good adjustments and thought we got the car as good as we could have gotten it.  It was kind of right in that area.  I thought we maximized the speed of the car today and wish we would have had one less yellow.  I really thought I had made a good move and gotten clear of the next group behind me and thought maybe we would pick off a couple more.  Just that wrong if you do, wrong if you don’t kind of scenario.  Didn’t pit on the last one even though we only had a lap and a half on tires, it just… all the guys behind me for the most part had tires.  I knew my only shot was to get clear off of Turn 2 and I got pinned three-wide and from there all the guys with the new tires were kind of able to eat me alive.  Disappointing, I thought we were going to get a little bit better, but the West Coast swing has been really tough for us.  We have learned a lot.  I think we know where to work on and hopefully we continue to get better.”

TY DILLON – “My No. 13 Twisted Tea Chevrolet team fought hard all day. We really struggled with the balance in the first two stages. I was tight through the center and loose on exit. Crew chief Bootie Barker worked with different adjustments to get us where we needed to be. Our Chevy SS was the best it had been all day there in that last segment. We made a strategy call and stretched our gas mileage to try and make it with only one green-flag stop to end the race while the leaders would need another, but late-race cautions kept that from working. We battled hard and, despite handling issues, it was a good end to the day.” 

CHRIS BUESCHER – “It was a long afternoon in our No. 37 BUSH’s Beans Chevy. We got a decent starting spot, but got shuffled back early and struggled to gain spots back. Then on the last restart everyone got fanned out from another car getting in the wall and we just lost all momentum. Next week we’ve got a completely different setup as we go short track racing and I’m looking forward to racing with the short track program at JTG Daugherty racing.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON – “Man, we definitely didn’t have the fastest car out there today. I think we used up all the good luck in the season finale last season. We battled all day long to get back on the lead lap, but we have got some work to do.  I’m looking forward to spending the week with my girls and heading to Martinsville next weekend with this Lowe’s team.”