By Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net
Starting the playoffs with Darlington is both exhilarating for those drivers who pull off the race with lodas of points or a win like Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick. It also is a gut punch for drivers who finish at the rear of the field. (SVG, Alex Bowman, and Josh Berry).
This is what they said post-race.
Chase Briscoe — winner: “At the end, that was way harder than it needed to be. Man, what an incredible Toyota. It was fun to finally be behind the wheel of it. So cool to win two Southern 500s in a row. This is my favorite race of the year. Just because every time we come here, the place is sold out, the atmosphere here is like nowhere else.A great way to start our Playoffs. That was a lot of fun. I think this is definitely what we’re capable of doing. We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that. The potential has been there from Day One.”
Tyler Reddick — second: “The one time we got ahead of (Briscoe), we were just a little too tight, and he was able to get back by us. I think he were better than he was on long runs, he could just fire off a lot better. That was the difference tonight. I could get close. It unfortunately seemed that last run, the balance wasn’t quite as good as it’s been. Overall a really solid night for points in the playoffs. But man, yeah, I really want to win here. It’s frustrating to finish second going for it. I wish I could have been just a little bit closer.”
Erik Jones — third: “I felt like we were probably a little bit better than both of them. I just couldn’t get the run. I thought I had (Reddick) there with five to go, there was a little bit of a hole, and he filled it. It’s hard to be that close. Would have liked to have had another (Southern 500). We were right there all day, good speed. We just need more of that. Hopefully we keep these cars rolling and get one soon.”
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet – Finished: 11th
“We were the best Chevrolet for a lot of the night. We were racing around the No. 5 (Kyle Larson), which we haven’t been doing much this year, so that was step one if we want to do anything this year in the playoffs. We had to be faster and we were. I was proud to be up there fighting with him and racing around him because he and the No. 24 (William Byron) have been the benchmark a lot of the year. To carry the flag for Chevrolet a lot tonight is something to be proud of. We just had a fueling issue there at the end and it took us back.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet –Finished: 23rd
“We started OK and then we just had issues throughout the race. We got too tight in that one run and just couldn’t overcome it. We kind of got it back going the other direction; made some passes and got up to around 18th. We hit pit road and the caution came out. It was just unfortunate. We just struggled with our No. 3 BPS/Winchester Deer Season XP Chevrolet and didn’t execute like we needed to. We just have to do better. But all-in-all, we’re not that far below the cutline. We just need to have a solid finish in the next two races of this round.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – Finished: 19th
“It was a good thing we were able to get those stage points early. I felt pretty average all night. We had a lot of stack-ups on the restarts. I’m not sure why, but we had a big one there in the final stage and we just struggled after that. I’m not sure if the splitter got bent up or what happened, but it just took all my problems and made it all worse. We also had radio issues and all sorts of other problems, so to have a bad race and still gain on the cutline is rewarding. Obviously, we want more on this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. It’s typically a good track for us, so I’m not sure, but we’ll regroup and hopefully rebound in the next two races.”
Chase Elliott — 17th: “It was a really long night. Yeah, we had clawed our way up to the top 10 and tried to run really long on that one run. Everyone was being real aggressive with short-pitting so we tried to run long. And then yeah, as soon as we did that, the caution came out. It was honestly laughable at that juncture. Just came in and had an issue on pit road, had to put our heads down and grind out a top last. Just keep pushing at it. It’s been a long night for sure. We’ve got to put our heads together to try to figure out how to be better at Gateway and how to go faster.”
Roy J Akers covers NASCAR for www.skyviewsports.net
