What drivers said at Charlotte after the Coke 600 won by Ross Chastain
Ross Chastain — First: “”That’s the dedication it takes from Trackhouse. There were people that had Saturdays off, and they came in for this Chevy. To drive on that final run and pass two cars that had been way better all night … Holy cow, we just won the World 600!”
William Byron — Second: “He was catching me, I was trying to just defend and was getting a little bit tight. Disappointning. Just to lead that many laps and such a great effort by our whole team, and I could have anticipated that last run better. Just sucks. We’ll just keep going and keep trying to put races together like that. It will be good in the long-term I guess, but I really wanted this one. Yeah, just a bummer, right? Try to learn from it. Yeah, it was tough there at the end. He was catching me, and I was trying to. Just not quite enough.”
Chase Briscoe — Fourth: “Yeah, on paper, started first and finished third, but there is a lot more to the story. We made it a lot harder 600 miles than we probably needed too. We just had that penalty early and it kind of put us behind. When you start from the front, you kind of set your car up for clean air, we didn’t anticipate 37th. It just took us forever to just slowly creep up on it. We were kind of out of adjustments. So overall, we were probably a third-place car, realistically – just wish we could have got some stage points. Overall, a good finish, I wouldn’t say it was a great night. Honestly, that is just been how our season has gone – we’ve gotten really good finishes, but we’ve not just had very good day. So, hopefully, we can put one of those all the way together here soon.”
AJ Allmendinger — Fourth: “The No. 16 Chevrolet was good all night. We ran inside the top-five, top-six through most of the race. We needed a little bit more to get to the next level, but I’m super proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. We had a tough three weeks there, but it’s great to come back and show up with a lot of speed. I told Sgt. Nicole Gee that’s on the side of our race car, I told her family I was going to do everything I could to try to get them in victory lane. It was close! It meant a lot to be able to meet her family. We know what this day is truly about, so I’m proud I could give her a great ride. Almost got all of us to victory lane.”
Brad Keselowski — Fifth: “We had a really good car. We got mixed up in some of the different stuff in the midpoint of the race and just clawed our way out. I feel like if we could have got to the lead, we could have won the race. I wish it was a 700-mile race. You feel like you earned it. Some of these races you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I earned it.’ Today, we earned it. Just getting to the lead dictated so many things and we weren’t able to get there, but I think we had the effort to do it. By the end of the night, I thought we were one of the best cars, if not the best. I just wish it was a 700-mile race. We’ve been really competitive the last few weeks and I feel like it just hasn’t all come together and it still hasn’t all come together, but this car has got the speed to win the race and I need to go get it. This car was good enough to win. We just weren’t able to put all the dots together and some of that falls on me for sure.”
