By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
Bristol, Tennessee — With the first cutoff race in the NASCAR playoffs, the playoffs will be cut from 16 drivers to 12, and they were honest with the press about the pressure and adjustments to round two.
NASCAR: They Said It at…. It’s BRISTOL Baby!
Denny Hamlin on JGR Racing’s dominance
Do you come in thinking if you run well this weekend that every track is a Joe Gibbs Racing track?
“Certainly, we have a good shot at it. I think that the Gibbs team in general doesn’t have a weak track, but we had weak performances earlier in the year. If you look at Las Vegas, I don’t think any of our cars were fast at that race. I can think of one or two other races in the beginning of the season where we all kind of struggled, and they were all tracks where typically we are pretty strong. I think we’ve hemmed that up a little bit, where we’ve identified some of the philosophies that we did that weren’t right, and so now, certainly, every weekend we go there and one of the Gibbs cars should be in the top-three or so in speed and have a shot to win.”
Ross Chastain on the atmosphere at Bristol
I know there’s a lot on the line tomorrow night in general, but the Bristol Night Race, what is the atmosphere of this event and competing in it as a driver?
“Sunny, no clouds. Yeah, it’s incredible walking through the tunnel… it never gets old. For me, I equate it to driving through the tunnel at Daytona and driving down to Darlington. But here, it’s pulling up and seeing the stadium and then also walking through the turn three tunnel. It just never gets old. It’s so cool looking up at the banks and then the steepness of the grandstands.“
Austin Dillon on Night Racing
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
What’s night racing at Bristol Motor Speedway like? “Night racing at Bristol Motor Speedway is special. No other crowd like that. The energy is electric going into the Last Great Coliseum. I can’t wait to get there and run all over that track. It’s a fun one. I think every time you walk inside that place you get goose bumps. You get excited. The adrenaline is always pumping. I love going to Bristol.”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
What is it like to race at Bristol?
“Bristol’s one of my favorite tracks, if not my favorite. I love going there, it’s obviously a great place. It reminds me of the local short track atmosphere that you get on Saturday nights, growing up racing late models and things like that. It’s a lot of fun, I love the banking, I love the concrete and just the nature of that place. It’s gotten a little bit tougher over the years to be as good as I once was there. Everybody’s kind of picked up on it. It’s definitely one of the coolest tracks that we get a chance to go run on. And obviously, the speed that you carry there and the close nature to action, whether you run the bottom or whether you run the top, there’s just a lot of options.”
Connor Zilisch, No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet- Xfinity Series
How confident are you that you can continue this run as the Playoffs start at Bristol?
“Honestly, this is going to be tough to keep up. It’s rare that you can go on a run like this. Four wins in a row is awesome for sure and that’s wins in seven of the last eight races for our WeatherTech Chevrolet team. Every week I think this is the week where it’s going to end but every race Mardy Lindley and the guys bring a winning race car. My pit crew and team execute. Everyone does their job, and we end up doing burnouts on the frontstretch at the end of the race. It’s awesome to be able to do this and win this many races. This is the most wins by JR Motorsports as a team in a year and that’s really cool.”
Roy J. Akers covers NASCAR for www.skyviewsports and is the host of the Zoomcast High Banked Fury on YouTube and where podcasts are found.
