Here’s what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race on the streets of Chicago:
SHANE van GISBERGEN — Winner: “When we had that back strategy back to 18th I started to worry a bit but had some full stands on some people, and the racing was really good, everyone was respectful. It was tough but a lot of fun. The fans in Australia and New Zealand, the response this week and the coverage has been -- I can’t explain it. Like the response and the support I’ve got from everyone and even over here how welcoming everyone is, I can’t believe it. Dream come true.”
JUSTIN HALEY — Finished 2nd: “Obviously a really good day, really good finish. Not a great weekend. I put the team behind yesterday. We really were struggling at some of the braking zones and I got in the wall and had to stay late last night, didn’t get a chance to qualify. We repaired it, and I wrapped like half the car myself. I feel like that was pretty cool. We started last today and I felt like we had good pace. We just -- yeah, Shane was just better. He had 16 or something lap better tires. Just a world-class racer. He was very calculated, very precise, and very smooth. He wasn’t overdriving it. He was very calculated. For someone to come in and race like that was just incredible. Very clean, as well. Our race for the lead was clean, and he gave a lot of room and very respectful.”
CHASE ELLIOTT — Finished 3rd: “I’ve just struggled. Just wasn’t very fast and was trying to just get comfortable finding more pace, and I felt like I was just starting to get a big chunk of what I needed. Then obviously made a mistake and put us in a really big hole and I crashed again today and got super lucky. For me personally, I’ve just appreciated everybody digging in and putting this car together. I hate I put them in that spot to begin with and then crashed again today and got super behind, and obviously we were one of the beneficiaries of the race distance having to be shortened because it was going to be dark. So we went from not being in our window to me crashing that second time and us being on pit road and fixing it to fueling up one more time and getting us enough fuel to get to the end. A long weekend, but a decent result considering how bad of a job I feel like I did for the past 48 hours.”
KYLE LARSON — Finished 4th: “(Shane van Gisbergen) put on a show and it was cool to see, and I think when a guy like that can come in and kick your ass at your own game, it shows that we all have room to improve. I’m curious what he thinks about us. He obviously passed a lot of us, so I’m curious if he thinks we all suck or if we could actually like compete, if we weren’t really that bad. We come from a different background than him, but it was great to see, and I hope the fans enjoyed it. Congrats to him and the team and Justin Marks. That was really cool to see.”
KYLE BUSCH — Finished 5th: “Today was eventful for sure to start. Just trying to get all you can there early in the race and try to make some passes when other guys are being a little bit tentative and seeing some areas where you can try to pounce on them and just got too much in the braking zone there for our car and slid all the way into the tire barrier. So unfortunate right then and there in that part of the race to have trouble, but honestly the rest of the day we were mired back in traffic, wasn’t really able to make up a whole lot of ground in order to make our moves to come forward. We had a hand dealt to us there late in the going where we thought about the race getting shortened and pitting and getting ahead of some of those guys, so we did that and was able to flip the field and get ourselves back up front.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC — Finished 6th: “The entire 2 team started the day with very wet shoes and socks. I know everyone was kind of in that same boat, but these guys have been working their tails off since I hit the same wall twice yesterday. I’m just really proud of the team, not just the effort. I mean, (crew chief Jeremy Bullins) made a great strategy call and had great forethought with what was gonna happen with the weather and the timing and everything. We kept it off the wall and was able to have some speed at the end of the race to really contend inside of the top 10 and really earn a good finish.”
MICHAEL McDOWELL — Finished 7th: “It was a wild race – starting in a decent amount of rain and then drying out. Even when it was dry though, there were wet spots which is pretty crazy. Unfortunately, with the race being shortened, our strategy wasn’t for that, right? So, we ended up restarting like 18th there. Happy to pass a lot of cars to get back there, but we just didn’t quite have enough to get to the front.”
JOEY LOGANO — Finished 8th: “It was hard to race. I mean, there were some passes made. It’s not probably any harder than any other track that we go to. Overall, I’d say this was a success. I’d say more cautions than normal on a road course because of the walls, but hey, we got it in today. That was good.”
TY GIBBS — Finished 9th: “It was really good. I felt like we had a really fast Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry. I think we had a really good points day. We got in the fence there a little bit from the 22 (Joey Logano) and hurt the right rear a lot so I couldn’t really make a charge back up front. I feel like we could maybe have had a top-five day. It was good to finish ninth, so we’ll just keep going.”
CHRIS BUESCHER -- Finished 10th: “It was pretty smooth for us in our Fastenal Mustang. I’m proud. We made some good changes after practice and had a fast race car there. We strategized to go to 100 laps and that call kind of mid-strategy really got us. I felt like then just trying to figure out all the cars getting spots back. I don’t understand. It felt like a lot of things didn’t make sense to me today, but the course was pretty decent. At the end of the day it was pretty decent. It put on some decent racing at certain times and in different spots. I think we had a better car than where we finished, I know we did, but we just got caught up in the way the race played out. I can’t believe we raced today, either. Congratulations to van Gisbergen. That’s pretty impressive to come to your first race and run that well and win the thing. He was really good yesterday, so that’s pretty impressive. Congrats to them. I’m proud of our team. That’s another top 10, but that should have been a better day and I don’t feel like we got any way to show it.”
DENNY HAMLIN — Finished 11th: “We had a really fast car. We were extremely fast, and we’ve made such huge strides on road courses, that was a lot of fun. I wish I didn’t give up the track position early in the wet. Once we got dry this thing was just so fast. Then, we got flipped (in the running order) because they changed the end of the race. There were 15 cars there that unfortunately ended up with a better strategy that was unplanned. I’m pretty happy with our Yahoo Camry and I’m looking forward to going to the Indy road course now.”
ARIC ALMIROLA — Finished 12th: “What an awesome event. It’s almost dark out and the city’s lit up. Amazing event. My hat is off to NASCAR, the city of Chicago, everybody who thought about putting on this event. What an amazing event. I’m glad to have a good run, too – the start of the turnaround of our season, hopefully. It was pretty dicey there in the wet. I’m not going to lie. I was tiptoeing around just trying to not crash, trying to survive, and I’m so glad that it finally dried out and we got slicks on and got those rain tires off. I was way more competitive in those conditions. Just super proud of (crew chief Drew Blickensderfer) and everybody on this Smithfield Ford Mustang team. We’re grinding. We’re fighting and hopefully this is the turn we need to go get us a win here in the next few races.”
ERIK JONES — Finished 16th: “It was a good day for the DraiverChevy. Just got up there and were in a good spot, then got a little behind and crossed up on pit strategy when they shortened the race. Lost a lot of spots there through that cycle and just never could get them back. Only had 25 laps there and a lot of them were yellow, so it kind of is what it is. I thought we had good speed, a good car. Just got mired too far back in the pack to try and get back up front and contend. Solid day, though. Good car and had a lot of fun.”
CHASE BRISCOE — Finished 20th: “Truthfully, for a street course, I think it raced better than I thought it would. There are definitely parts that can be improved like widening the track and other certain things. But, all things considered, it surprised me compared to what I thought it was going to be. I thought there were a ton of fans here, and I thought the event was cool. I would have loved for the weather to cooperate, so we could have seen what this event could’ve really turned into. Because, there were still so many people out there for how bad the weather was. Hopefully, we can do it again, do a couple things better, and put on an even better race.”
JENSON BUTTON — Finished 21st: “I was enjoying it until I got turned around on the way into the pits. It was a real shame. I think we pitted at the right time. We went from wets to dries. It was a tricky choice. I couldn’t see out of the wind screen it was so dirty, but I think it was the right choice. When we got turned around we lost 15 place plus, so that made it very difficult, but it was fun out there. I had some good fights. I got overtaken by some, but I overtook a lot more, so it was enjoyable. There’s definitely a bit of work for us all to do to challenge the Toyotas especially.”
NOAH GRAGSON — Finished 25th: “Today was kind of crazy - it the course was so different than yesterday - I really had fun yesterday and today was just so different. It was definitely a learning experience for sure. We had good speed in qualifying and had an incident early on. Lost two laps and then got them both back so we battled a bit. We had a lot of fun with Wendy’s this weekend and it was so cool to see how many fans stayed through all that rain to watch the race. I’m proud of what all we did with Wendy’s for bringing out the Baconator to Chicago. We had a fast No. 42 Chevy last time in Atlanta so just looking forward to next week and getting back there. Overall a fun weekend, just wanted a better result.”
AUSTIN DILLON — Finished 36th: “Unfortunate ending to an exciting day. Road racing has never come easy to me, but the work and effort has started to show up. Proud of the fight today by the No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevy team. As far as clipping the wall, I knew it would be an issue. I even talked about coming to this place knowing you can’t peak out to get more air. In this instance, I didn’t feel like I peaked out, just had my car setup for an early apex, it was turning and just caught the wall. Thankful for our partners at Get Bioethanol. We had the green machine rolling pretty good. We will keep fighting.”