Here’s what the drivers were saying after the rain-shortened race on Sunday won by William Byron:
William Byron—Winner: “Honestly, I don’t fully understand this one. It’s really a good feeling. I have never had a victory in the rain like this. … It’s cool. We went through so much throughout the night, spinning in the infield, wrecking the bottom of the car dragging it around the apron trying to stay in the lead lap. At that point you just don’t have the grip, so I was really pissed off in traffic. (Team Leader Rudy Fugle) made a good call to stop there and then stay out, and once we got to the front we were fine. We could honestly make the right decisions, block okay, take the lead from AJ (Allmendinger) and just be able to run the race. Just a crazy night.
Daniel Suárez — Finished 2nd: “I would like to have another chance,” he said. “That being said, I had two cars in third and fourth place, they also had to win. If they could pick anyone to help them, it wouldn’t be me.
AJ Allmendinger – Finished 3rd: “We had a racing car that handled very well. He probably didn’t lead very well. We probably had a little too much drag. But we kind of had this idea that we were coming with the handling, so once I got into the lead I couldn’t really defend because they would have such big points, but we could stay up front.
Michael McDowell — Finished 4th: “Obviously that incident on pit road with Martin got us out of the track position we needed, so we had to get a little creative there. I’m grateful to have I was able to recover but I really wish I had held those guys at the end. We had a chance on that restart, obviously, starting in the front row. I thought I executed the start pretty well, but I just couldn’t get rid of AJ (Allmendinger) like I needed to, but it didn’t work out. We were close, though.
Kyle Busch – Finished 5th: “It was really risky today in the Chevrolet Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen at Atlanta Motor Speedway. There was a lot going on – a lot of lanes and a lot of options. It’s all about momentum. If you break momentum or whatever happens it knocks you down or slows you down and you get knocked down by four or five guys The race tonight was all about minimizing mistakes and minimizing the number of cars passing you while you try to make moves. It was definitely a different game. Overall, I’m really happy with the (car). We adjusted to it at every pit stop tonight. We stayed on that set of tires and that’s it. “It was really good. I wish we could have continued. I felt like we were capable of more than a fifth place.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 6th: “It was a good day. We were exactly where we needed to be, but we didn’t get the breaks we needed. I was really happy with our performance and the quality of the cars we had. My Teammate Chris Buescher did a good job but just didn’t take the breaks we needed at the end.
JJ Yeley – Finished 7th:
Justin Haley – Finished 8th: “Atlanta continues to be a very strong track for this Kaulig Racing team. We pulled super loose, but Trent (Owens) made some big adjustments that got us back to where we needed to be for the start of leg two. It was a lot of fun running second there for a while and racing in the top five. We knew the clock was ticking and we thought we might have a good strategy there. Unfortunately that ended a bit too early, but overall it was a good day for Kaulig Racing.
Ryan Blaney – Finished 9th: “Some guys played the rain game before the end of stage 2 and that’s the chance we took and had to start at the back again and then it looked like we could run the whole race and then this rain came in. I thought our car was super fast. The Wurth Ford Mustang was really good, just a weird parting strategy with the rain that ruined everything and we just ran out of time.
Erik Jones – Finished 11th: “It was a day of ups and downs. We could have been a bit more advanced with some of the things we did, but for the most part we got our bed set up fine last night. So, It was a good day. The car is getting faster every week, and I hope we will continue to do so. I think today was a good day overall.
Denny Hamlin – Finished 14th: “We were pretty loose to start the day. The more pit stops we had, the better we got our Coca-Cola Camry. Honestly, I was exactly where I wanted to be – near the top five – when we got kicked out there. I was trying to get stage points – I knew it was going to be a race until the end of the stage, which turned out to be pretty much it. We lost a few stage points and finished somewhere in the mid-teens. We didn’t have enough time to get back up, but luckily our car wasn’t damaged too much and we were able to salvage something.
Chris Buescher — Finished 15th:
Aric Almirola — 18th:
Austin Dillon – Finished 21st: “We really struggled all weekend with the handling of our Dow Salutes Veterans Chevy. … The car looked amazing, but our Chevy’s balance was tight in traffic and loose sideways at times. We made some tweaks to help with the handling, but we needed all the turns to bring the car to the front.
Noah Gragson – Finished 33rd: “We started really tight and (team boss) Luke Lambert and the No. 42 team really made some big changes in handling. We were going that far and were in the top 10 at one point. The car just came out from under me in turn 3 and it bends the toe pretty well The guys did a great job getting it to where I could drive it and get some speed but our day went downhill. finished after that. We probably could have taken a few more places if the race lasted because it was getting crazy.”
Kyle Larson – Finished 36th: “Yeah, on the spin – didn’t see a replay, but I think I was just late and slow to protect the top, and No. 43 (Erik Jones) must have been really close to me and freed me . I spun and got the flat. And then I thought we were gonna get a chance to drive to my pit and change the tire. We changed the right rear and didn’t change the front right. And then it exploded on the apron and I had to lose a lap for the damage. I just had a little tire rub and finally it finally gave way and I’m entered the wall.