Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race on the streets of Chicago.
Shane van Gisbergen — Winner: “What an amazing weekend for me. Lucky guy to drive some great cars. I thank Trackhouse, WeatherTech Chevy and all these guys and girls here, what an amazing weekend. … There were some really fast cars, and we just seemed to get it right and make no mistakes, be smooth every lap. Really cool. … It was very hot this weekend. The track was very slick and the times were a lot slower and the margin for error was very tiny.”
Ty Gibbs — Finished 2nd: “My team called a great strategy and got me in position to get me up front to compete for the win. It worked out for us today, so I’m glad to have a good finish, but we wish we could have gone for the win.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 3rd: “Each year we’ve been here, the situation has kind of been the same. We’ve had some sort of tire advantage all three years and just come up a little bit short. The first year obviously we came up big short because I just drove it in the tire barrier into 6. But this time around, the last five, six laps were really good. We just on that second to last restart, the 8 got — I think it was the 8. A couple cars got turned around and we were in the wrong lane and had to check up quite a bit. Cars that were on our similar strategy got ahead of us, so I had to — took me a few laps to get by those cars on equal tires before we could start chewing through those cars on older tires. Had to be aggressive. A lot of those cars on older tires weren’t wanting to give up the spot, but when you’re on those newer tires you’ve got to go because you’re hoping you’re able to run the leader down. It’s truly hard to say how much the 88 was coasting there, but we were catching him at a pretty good pace, and I think with two or three to go he picked it up a little bit, and we were still faster. But obviously he had a 3-second gap there with two to go, so comfortably in front. But it was nice to be able to restart 18th or so and even with the issues we had and the damage we got on the car, be able to drive back to third there. All in all, it was another really solid day for us here in Chicago.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 4th: “Just a good job by the team. I had some pace and really the whole Progressive Toyota team did a great job. I’ve got to thank the whole team for working hard to kind of get us back to where we were running there. Truthfully, that’s where we were at on pace. It wasn’t a crazy strategy or anything like that. Just thought the car was really, really good. I would’ve loved to not have to save fuel with the No. 54 (Ty Gibbs) and the No. 88 (Shane van Gisbergen) there just to see how far off I am and how much I stack up. I’m really happy overall with the day. I was really saving (fuel) the entire run and was running good lap times. Truthfully, I felt pretty good all day. We marched forward all day long. The car had pace in it and that’s the key to getting a good finish, but beyond that once I was able to get towards the front I could save and take it easy on my tires. I would’ve loved to have been on equal tires just to see how far off I am from the front two guys. It just didn’t seem like that much.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 5th: “Our day started out pretty good. We got a good jump on the initial start there and was able to roll forward and get to third. We tried to go long on that first set of tires, and with those couple of cautions, it didn’t fall into our favor. That put us on old tires and I spun out getting into (turn) seven. We just didn’t have any left-rear grip. That’s something we’ve struggled with on this car, and it just bit me there. The No. 8 Slurpee Chevrolet team rallied and we were able to rebound. We pitted a couple of times there at the end and had some fresh tires late for some of the melee that was going on in front of us and made up some spots. Our Chevrolet was definitely a top-two or three car, but it’s good to come home with a top-five finish.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 7th: “We had a really, really good car. We took stage points there and it was really, really tough to pass, even tires held on really well. Ultimately, a really good car. I’m excited for Sonoma. I’m excited for road racing. If there wasn’t such a jumble up sometimes with how you have to play for points or stages, I feel like we had a really good car.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 8th: “I passed him (Bubba Wallace) clean, or what I thought was clean. I just followed when the No. 45 passed him. Then he shipped us into (Turn) 12; ran us into the fence in (Turn) 1 and ran us into the fence off of (Turn) 2. And then we just sort of pin-balled off of each other and he ended up on the worse side of it, but we’re just trying to go straight off the corner. I don’t know why we did that. … I wasn’t expecting that to happen or to get raced like that, but we did. We just have to move on from it and keep digging. I don’t really know what I could have done much different. I just got into the fence there and you’re kind of along for the ride. It’s just frustrating.”
Austin Hill — Finished 9th: “Massive day for our United Rentals Chevrolet. The Cup Series isn’t easy. To only have five races with the No. 33 team and leave with a top-10 finish is huge for our group. We started 30th, drove up a little ways and played some strategy to gain even more ground. I feel like I won the race honestly. I was upset with finishing fourth yesterday in the Xfinity Series race, but to finish ninth in a Cup race feels like I won it. Hats off to RCR, ECR and everyone on this team. We put our heads together, called a great race, took tires when we needed to, and stayed out when we needed to. At the end, it was good enough to get up there and battle with the guys to finish inside the top 10.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 12th: “I thought overall it was a pretty decent day. It was nice to win that stage. I knew we were gonna lose track position, but we were fine. We made up really good ground on the restart in the third stage and then I hit the inside wall in 11 and popped the right-front tire. We had to work our way back from there, but, overall, it was a decent recovery.”
Zane Smith — Finished 14th: “I hate we had to knock another Ford out, but it’s super cool to advance (in the In-Season Challenge). I know going up against Chris (Buescher) the odds were stacked against me with how good he is on road courses. I did everything I could to not advance today. We had a really good car to start and then I got blind behind the 12 and then nicked the wall and got a pretty good amount of damage that put me back there in the hornet’s nest. I just kept getting hit and it was chaos, but, fortunately, I was able to escape some of that chaos and get aggressive towards the end and get a top 15 and some stage points and advance in the bracket, so I’m very happy about this.”
Ty Dillon — Finished 20th: “We survived and advanced! This No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team is just a tough team – we never quit. We don’t even know how to. I’m just so proud of Kaulig Racing and our No. 10 team. … This race was tough on us. I felt like halfway through the race, we were rolling pretty good and we could have had a chance at a top-15. I clipped the wall again and knocked the toe out and kind of bent the ball joint pretty bad. I was just kind of hanging on and hoping we could get everything we could there at the end. We’re just going to keep working hard; put pressure on who we’re facing next and see if we can keep it rolling.”
Michael McDowell — Finished 32nd: “The throttle cable just broke. I don’t know what caused it or how it got to that spot, but that’s what happened. I feel like we had control of the race. I think it would have been a battle, no doubt. I felt like any time I could open a gap on SVG, I could. We were just working on our strategy. We knew we were going to one-stop it, so I was taking care of the tires and doing all the things I could. I was behind the pace car and the throttle stuck wide-open. Luckily I got to the switches fast enough before I ran into something, and then a cable broke after that. It’s just a shame. We had a great No. 71 DePaul Chevrolet. We’ve got some good momentum heading into Sonoma next weekend.”
Cole Custer — Finished 33rd: “Overall, it was a really hard fought day, and our guys worked extremely hard to get us back out there,” Custer said. “We definitely got our car better throughout the weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do at Sonoma.”
Josh Berry — Finished 34th: “Without seeing a replay, I feel like the 43 just kind of overcooked the corner and got us there. It’s just disappointing. We were having a really solid day and made our way forward. We were running well, so we’ll just keep on going and trying to get better and go on to Sonoma.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 36th: “Disappointing day in the No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE Chevrolet at the Chicago Street Race. Crew chief Richard Boswell and everyone on the RCR team brought a really fast Chevrolet to the streets of Chicago. We qualified 10th and thought we would be a contender today in the race. A car spun in front of us on the first lap and it ended our day before we could even get it started. It’s a shame and I’m just at a loss for words at this point. We’ll just keep bringing cars like this and hope our luck turns around for us at some point.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 37th: “I didn’t see it until the last second. I slowed down and I actually felt I was gonna get stopped and then I just kind of got ran over from behind. It’s just a narrow street course and sometimes there’s nowhere to go.”