THE MODERATOR: We are going to kick off our post-race media availabilities. We are now joined by team owner Richard Childress and crew chief Randall Burnett.

We'll take questions.

Q. Richard, of your car ownership career, would you have to say this is the craziest win you've had in your organization's history?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Can you repeat that? I think I understood. Was this a hard victory?

Q. The craziest victory.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Crazy night. We talked about it, Randall, the team. Both of our teams talked today about entering the race a little conservative. We knew the tire situation. We played it out like it needed to be played out.

Randall and Justin both did a great job with our cars. Tyler did a great job tonight with the race car on the restarts.

Q. Randall, obviously you and Tyler have built a great relationship over the years. What is one of the greatest takeaways you'll have with your experiences working with him in the past few years?

RANDALL BURNETT: We've had some success together, obviously. I think the thing I'm most proud of is to see how far he's come in the four years he's been with us. His road course wins earlier this year, to finally get this oval win with RCR, I think is a big deal. We've been knocking on the door all year long and even before then.

Just really proud of his effort and the whole RCR group to pull together and win as many races as we have this year and compete so much.

Q. Randall, how do you approach these tire issues? We've had three races this year where we haven't had tire issues, then all Playoffs it seems like half the drivers... Seems like all the Playoff guys are trying to figure out how to survive more than Talladega now.

RANDALL BURNETT: Yeah, I start by holding my breath a lot. No (smiling).

We came into this race a little conservative. We got bit at Kansas the other week with one. I think we've had four tires go down this year while leading the race.

R.C. talked to me about it and said, Make sure you keep some air in the tires today. I tried to do that. A little bit more conservative approach this week. It's a fine line. Everybody knows the speed, pushing the limits of the tires.

With the low sidewalls, they're not as forgiving as the 15-inch wheel stuff we had before. It's a lot finer line, I think.

Q. (No microphone.)

RANDALL BURNETT: I mean, there's so many things that go into it, right? It's tire pressure, it's camber in the tires, it's where you're running on the racetrack. More often than not you see a guy that's leading blow a tire, it's because he has the cleanest air, the most air, most downforce on his car because he's out front. Sometimes it overloads the tire.

That's kind of where we're at with them.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Goodyear builds a great tire. This was a great tire that Goodyear built for us. Like Randall said, there's a fine line to push that limit. It wasn't the tire as much as it is trying to be as competitive as you can.

Q. Richard, what is it like, given all you've been through with Tyler Reddick, all the things you're trying to sort out for next season, to keep winning races with this guy?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: We just got to move forwards. We talked about winning races, racing for the championship. I really think this team is a championship-caliber team. They're going to win more races before the year's over. Hopefully both of them will.

Q. Randall, when you have an issue, when you see what other teams are going through, how did you have to adjust tonight? What did you have to do with the car? Were you having to adjust tire pressures throughout the night to avoid wrecking?

RANDALL BURNETT: Yeah, we were definitely keeping an eye on where we were at. Like I said, we came into the weekend a little conservative, knowing that there was some chance here that there could be potential problems.

We came into the weekend a little conservative. As the race went on, got even a little more conservative. Like when the sun went down after the rain, the pace picked up quite a bit, a lot more grip in the track. We were able to come up on air pressures then, just try to make sure that we didn't put ourselves in a bad spot.

Make sure you're not the first one to have a problem, right? We did that. Fortunately it worked out. The strategy worked out really good. The cautions fell for us at the right time. We were able to get back up through there.

Certainly an up-and-down day for us. We had a lot of problems early on. Was able to manage through and fight back through that.

Q. This is the same tire that will be used in Las Vegas. It's different tracks, different conditions. Probably will be hot there. What is the challenge or the concern with this tire at Las Vegas?

RANDALL BURNETT: Well, certainly, like I said, it's very camber dependent, very load dependent. We got to look at all that. We've got to go through all of our sim modelings and understand that, understand what the differences are from here to there.

Vegas is bumpy through one and two. That poses a concern as well. You have to add up all those things, make the right decisions for the weekend, try not to put yourself in a box where you're going to get in trouble.

Q. Richard, I don't see any Victory Lane cuvée up there. Is this more of a "thank God it's over" race or a "we're going to celebrate in a little while" race?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Well, we had the victory cuvée, but these ladies drank it all over here. See the empty bottles (smiling)?

But it is for your winning moments in life, and they done celebrate.

Q. Even though both your cars are out of the Playoffs, what are the mindsets going into Talladega, even the Charlotte Roval? Is it different when you're out of the Playoffs?

RANDALL BURNETT: No, win. That's what we want to do. We want to try to win as many as we can before the end of the year.

Talladega will be crazy, like normal I'm sure. Just kind of try to stay out of trouble and bide your time, try to be there at the end and win. That's our goal for the rest of the year, is to try to win as many as we can before it's over.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Same here. We just go into Talladega to win. We'll race just like we normally would there.

Q. When you see the unprecedented number of cautions we had today, how do you keep that crew motivated to stay on track?

RANDALL BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, all these guys are professionals, right? It's not real hard to keep them motivated, to keep everybody on the same plan. Obviously strategy was a big, big thing tonight with the cautions, the tires. Never knowing when the caution is going to come out, trying to put yourself in position to make the fastest stop you can at the last stop of the night, right?

Everybody got in their window, the caution came out right at the window when you could make it home by filling up with fuel. Everybody came and pitted. We were fortunate enough we didn't have to dump near as much fuel because we pitted a little bit before. We were able to take two tires, take advantage of that. Just get everybody thinking about that, our engineers, all that. We're talking a lot about that all night long, so...

Q. Randall, you saw guys spinning in resin, guys with tire issues. You can look at it as that was a mess or say everybody knew there were going to be tire issues, the people who planned it right were the ones who achieved. How do you look at today?

RANDALL BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, like I said, it's a little bit of a guessing game for us, right? You don't know what the line is on it, right? You want to be as close to the line as you can with them without stepping over it.

It's a struggle. It's very stressful for all engineers, all the crew chiefs, everybody up and down pit road. It's one of those things.

Fortunately we got it right tonight. We've been on the backside of it and got it wrong a few times this year and cost ourselves a win.

Fortunately, we made it work tonight. Just kind of go into it. It's a little bit of what we were learning about these cars, these tires, everything. I think the guys are doing a great job trying to learn from all these issues so we don't have them going forward.

Like I said, it's still a learning process.

Q. The team has been kicked around a little bit, but you haven't won once this year, you won four times. How do you feel about this team being on the rebound, able to accomplish some of the things you've been able to accomplish this year?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, first I think Randall doesn't give his-self enough credit. The call he made to pit when he did to get the track position was a major role in winning the race. The strategy going into this race tonight was all about track position. He made the right call.

I think you said you needed three seconds of fuel, that put you out where you needed to be. So he did a great job on his call.

But I think the teams, this car, we're adjusting to it well. A lot of teams are. It's a lot of tough competition. But I'm fortunate to be surrounded with a bunch of good guys that's out there to win races.

Q. (No microphone.)

RANDALL BURNETT: I'm really proud of how far we've came. With the Gen-6 car, we were behind on it. It's nice with this Next Gen car, we've kind of closed the door to that, right? I think that's been a big help.

We've done a whole lot of work. There's been a lot of effort at RCR to learn as much as possible about this car. We got some great people up there that push really hard.

It's great to see that we're winning races and being in the championship hunt. Obviously we got knocked out, missed it by two points. Had two bad races, and that's all it takes. It's unfortunate the 8 car is not going deeper into the Playoffs. I felt like we had a really good shot at going pretty far in it. Just came up a little short last week.

I feel like we got some really good tracks coming up, the Roval, Homestead, we were really strong at Phoenix. I don't think we're done winning with this 8 car yet.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you. Congratulations.

NASCAR PR

Denny Hamlin (10th) led Toyota with a top-10 finish at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday evening. Hamlin is currently sixth on the Playoff grid – eight points above the cutoff. Christopher Bell suffered two blown tires in today’s race and finished 34th. He goes into Talladega in 11th – 29 points below the cutoff.

Toyota Post-Race Recap

NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)

Texas Motor Speedway

Race 29 of 36 – 500 miles, 334 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

1st, Tyler Reddick*

2nd, Joey Logano*

3rd, Justin Haley*

4th, Ryan Blaney*

5th, Chase Briscoe*

10th, DENNY HAMLIN

20th, TY GIBBS

25th, BUBBA WALLACE

31st, MARTIN TRUEX JR.

34th, CHRISTOPHER BELL

36th, KYLE BUSCH

*non-Toyota driver 

TOYOTA QUOTES

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 10th

William Bryon said he wanted to show his displeasure but didn't want to spin you out. You wanted to see a penalty for that contact under caution. Were you surprised it didn't come out by NASCAR?

“I think the crew chief (Chris Gabehart) was wanting something. I guess we can just wreck each other under caution. I tried to wreck him back. Yeah, I don't think we touched. I got to look. I don't think we touched. Obviously, he sent us into the infield under caution.”

You haven't had any prior incidents. What is that conversation going to be like?

“I mean, you know, I keep hearing these guys. I'll just add it to the list of guys when I get a chance. They're going to get it.”

Is that later in the Playoffs or is this something that carries over to next year?

“It all just works itself out. We'll be racing each other at some point. He'll lose a lot of spots because he's racing me. This is hard racing, obviously. I'm fine with hard racing. 

But wrecking me under caution is obviously not what we were bargaining for. So, thanks to my FedEx Toyota team for bouncing back. Obviously, it cost us all of our track position. I thought we were in a great position to win until we got sent back to 20-something there.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 31st

What happened?

“I blew a tire. Simple as that. I guess the same thing as everybody else has been having. Man, I’m ready for this year to be over. Strong Bass Pro Shops Camry. Really strong car. Went to the back and passed a lot of cars today. Spun out in the first stage and I was like okay, what was that all about. Good car couldn’t do too much with it. Just kept going to the back and as soon as we got track position the unthinkable happens. It’s a shame. It’s a crazy day for sure – a lot of blown tires.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem-Smurfit Kappa Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 34th

Can you tell us what happened on the race track?

“Yeah, just the second right rear blown of the day – that was disappointing. I’m in a pretty bad spot now.”

How do you approach the next couple of races?

“I don’t know. Talladega – I guess we are going to go roll the dice. ROVAL, I think we will be alright. Road courses haven’t been our strength, but we have been good at a couple of them. I don’t know if we are going to be able to get out of this points hole, but we will give it our best.”

Do you feel like you can make magic happen at the ROVAL if you need too?

“I don’t feel great about it. I probably feel better about having something go our way at Talladega.”

Could you tell that you were going to have tire issues?

“No, I had no idea. To have two right rears go in the first half of the race is very strange. I don’t know. It’s a very disappointing day. We are probably going to be in a deep hole now.”

How do you feel about going to Talladega and the ROVAL?
“It makes our decision easy on how to play Talladega. We were hoping to come out of here good and be able to ride around and just survive Talladega. We are going to have to race and get some stage points and be up front all day.”

Do you feel like it is a must win situation now?

“No, but Talladega is going to be really tough.”

What kind of feedback was the car giving you to let you know it was a tire?

“I would get a slight vibration seconds right before the tire went. When it happened on the straightaway, I was able to get it slowed down before turn one, but the second one happened right in the middle of the turn. Very disappointing weekend. I was optimistic when they dropped the green flag. I had a pretty poor Saturday, but felt like we had a lot of speed in our Rheem Camry to make a day out of it, but unfortunately, tires didn’t work our way.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 36th

What happened?

“I was just getting closer to the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and I knew if I tracked him, followed him in the lower groove, I would lose ground, so I went to the high groove where I was making time in the spray and the sticky stuff, but it is not so sticky apparently. I crashed. I’m trying to go, trying to race. Banana peels out there for me. Too many conditions that you’ve got to be around or go around or figure out or be smarter about. I guess I wasn’t very smart.”

From your perspective, was that resin or just pushing the car too hard?

“I didn’t know as a race car driver you could push too hard, but certainly, it was a resin issue. I guess you would think being a hundred-and-something degree track temp it would be activated and ready to go, but I tried to get in it earlier than everybody else. I was behind the 11 (Denny Hamlin), catching the 11. If I tracked the 11 in the lower groove, I was going to lose time to him, so I just decided to go high and try to keep time or make time on him and it just snapped. Once these cars snap, they are gone. They are not like the old one where you have a little bit of time to react and catch it, but yeah, just trying hard trying to go and conditions are not ready. Banana peels out there it seems. When that stuff is not activated, it is just ice.”

TRD PR

Q. Kyle, you lost a lot of spots on pit road. Crew chief Cliff Daniels even apologized for the team not getting you what you needed. When that's out of your control, how do you handle situations like that?

KYLE LARSON: You try to shake it off the best that you can and go out there and put together some good runs.

We were able to overcome all the spots that we would lose on pit road. I felt like I drove from the back to the top five or six -- almost every run.

Really, really good car. Proud of the effort there at the shop, the piece that we brought here to Texas. It's good we were above the cut, but yeah, we're plus 16. I feel like we could have been plus 34 or something at least. Bummer there.

Potentially could have won the race, I think. We had the best car. The weather delay really hurt, too. I think we were by far the best when the track was hot. When it got cooler out, I got loose, everybody seemed to get faster. It was just harder to pass.

Yeah, bummer there. Proud of the effort back at the shop.

Q. Looking at the next week, Talladega, superspeedways are not your favorite thing, how do you approach that race?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, hopefully I would love to get some stage points, pat ourselves a little bit, cross our fingers and pray to God that we see a checkered flag.

NASCAR PR

Wingless Sprint Car contender Josh Young of Roseville scored his first career Western Midget Racing feature win during his debut appearance on Saturday night at Antioch Speedway. Young topped the 20-lap feature for WMR Presented by Masters Design and Construction.

Oakley’s Bryant Bell led a rare time trial session for the Midgets in their third appearance of the year at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds dirt track. Bell followed that up with a win in the first heat race. Terry Nichols of Delano won heat race two. An incident involving 2022 points leader Blake Bower prevented the 2021 champion from starting the feature.

Nichols and Lodi’s Nate Wait shared the front row for the 20-lap feature. Bell led the first half of the feature before Santa Cruz’ Logan Mitchell and Young entered the picture. Mitchell took over on lap 12 before Young, after starting fifth, ran past him to lead lap 17.

Young earned the exciting win while Mitchell finished a career-best second. Nichols finished third followed by Concord’s Adam Teves and Bell.

Western Midget Racing returns to Adobe Mountain Speedway in Glendale, Ariz. on October 1.

For more information on Western Midget Racing, visit them at www.WesternMidgetRacing.com or follow them on Facebook!

Western Midget Racing is presented by: Masters Design and Construction, Rockwell Security, Rams Racing, Hoosier Racing Tire, Extreme Mufflers, FTK, Blud Lubricants, and West Evans Motorsports.

September 24, 2022 – Antioch Speedway (Antioch, Calif.) Results

HEAT 1 (8 laps) – 1. 09 Bryant Bell HEAT 2 (8 laps) – 11 Terry Nichols

FEATURE (20 laps) – 1. 7A-Josh Young[5]; 2. 96-Logan Mitchell[4]; 3. 11-Terry Nichols[1]; 4. 35S-Adam Teves[3]; 5. 09-Bryant Bell[6]; 6. 20-Kyle Hawse[9]; 7. 20W-Nate Wait[2]; 8. 42-Cameron Beard[7]; 9. (DNS) 9-Blake Bower

WMR PR

Bakersfield’s Troy Morris III completed the sweep of the 12th annual Pat and Jim Pettit Shootout at Ocean Speedway with a dominating performance on Saturday night, driving to a half-track advantage to claim the $3006 prize after the 53-lap feature. Morris’ healthy win came before a healthy crowd at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, who also witnessed a IMCA Sport Modified thriller won by Fred Ryland of Brentwood along with San Jose’s Rob Gallaher completing a sweep of the Hobby Stock weekend.

“I was telling myself to be conservative. I didn’t want that right rear to go away. But man this car was good. I could put it wherever I wanted to. (Dad) was giving me the signal but it couldn’t get any wider so that was a good sign,” Morris said.

Martinez’ Nick Decarlo started on the outside pole of the IMCA Modified feature and the 2022 Antioch Speedway champion engaged in a side-by-side battle with 2020 and 2021 Ocean champ Cody Burke of Salinas. Decarlo was clear of Burke on lap four with the lead.

The caution flew on that lap when track champions Jim Pettit II and Livermore’s Brian Cass collided in turn one. The ensuing incident collected Anthony Slaney of Martinez, James Lipke of Yreka, and Ramona’s Cole Dick. All drivers were able to continue in the event.

Decarlo drove into lapped traffic by lap 13 and Morris began to reel him in using the low line. They ran three-wide through turn one with a lapped car sandwiched between them. Morris edged forward on the backstretch and completed the pass for the top spot on lap 18.

Morris’ lead grew steadily despite ferocious traffic to contend with. The race went non-stop over the final 49 laps with Morris lapping all but the top-six finishers. He cruised across the finish line with a significant 6.087 second lead over Decarlo for the coveted victory. Burke finished third followed by 2021 Pettit Shootout winner Bobby Hogge IV. Trevor Fitz of Camarillo rounded out the top-five.

Troy Foulger drove from 19th to sixth to earn the Hard Charger award. Ray Lindeman missing out on the transfer in the first B-Main earned him the Hard Luck award.

Fred Ryland of Brentwood prevented Cale Kanke’s attempt at four consecutive Pettit IMCA Sport Mod feature wins with a thrilling victory in the 33-lap feature. The win paid $1006 to Ryland.

Troy Morris III’s father Troy, Jr. led the way after starting on the outside pole position. Kanke used the outside line predominately to make passing maneuvers during Friday’s triumph and did the same on Saturday. He drove around the outside of Morris to lead lap 18. Bakersfield’s Nick Spainhoward was on a mission, advancing from 16th to third by lap 27.

Ryland looked inside of Kanke for the top position with six to go. They raced side-by-side until lap 31 when Ryland nosed forward with the lead. Kanke stayed up alongside of Ryland until the white flag, then tucked up behind him. Ryland led Kanke in a nose-to-tail formation across the finish line. Spainhoward finished third followed by Bakersfield’s Tyler Blankenship and Morris.

Grass Valley’s Andrew Peckham spun and was collected by his teammate Joe Antonetti in the final corner. It ended Peckham’s run from 18th to a possible top-six finish and awarded him the Hard Luck prize. Spainhoward was the Hard Charger.

Three-time Ocean Speedway champion Rob Gallaher won his first-career Saturday portion of the Pettit Shootout as he wrapped up a sweep of the weekend’s Hobby Stock competition.

Three-time defending Ocean champion Joe Gallaher was a part of a pair of minor incidents in turns one and two that put him behind the eight ball early in the race. Rob Gallaher led from the pole position while multiple cars within the top-ten suffered mechanical issues and flat tires. Bobby Motts of San Pablo stopped on lap 18 with a flat right rear tire in turn three, giving up a fourth-place position.

Gallaher drove ahead of the field on the final five laps for the win. Merced’s Chad Ragsdale and Newman’s DJ Keldsen both drove past Clarence Holbrook of Galt in the battling for second. 14th starting Mark Cooper of Scotts Valley finished fifth. Motts was awarded the Hard Luck while Sam Kennedy charged from 20th to seventh to win the Hard Charger.

12th Annual Pettit Shootout – September 24, 2022

IMCA Modifieds (53 Laps)

1. 07X-Troy Morris III[5]; 2. 17-Nick DeCarlo[2]; 3. 20-Cody Burke[1]; 4. 2-Bobby Hogge IV[11]; 5. 28-Trevor Fitz[7]; 6. 49-Troy Foulger[19]; 7. 1B-Tim Balding[10]; 8. 4Y-James Lipke[18]; 9. 7LC-Chris Crompe[20]; 10. 6-Jim Pettit II[12]; 11. 50-Michael Paul Jr[3]; 12. 55-Brian Cass[8]; 13. 28K-Chester Kniss[15]; 14. 14P-Ryan Porter[9]; 15. 22G-Paul Guglielmoni[21]; 16. 77-Fred Lind[4]; 17. 92-Les Friend[22]; 18. 77D-Cole Dick[16]; 19. 66-Kevin Pendergrass[13]; 20. 29-Andy Obertello[6]; 21. 4X-Anthony Slaney[14]; 22. 1-Shawn Natenstedt[17]

IMCA Sport Modifieds (33 Laps)

1. 7J-Fred Ryland[4]; 2. 33K-Cale Kanke[8]; 3. 212-Nick Spainhoward[16]; 4. 17B-Tyler Blankenship[5]; 5. 07X-Troy Morris[2]; 6. 188-Kenny Shrader[9]; 7. 175-Joe Antonetti[11]; 8. 38A-Todd Gomez[7]; 9. 15P-Andrew Pearce[6]; 10. 59-Randy Miller[3]; 11. 76-Mark Garner[13]; 12. 69-Nathan Rolfe[22]; 13. 132-Brent Curran[19]; 14. 42-Jeremy Hoff[17]; 15. 15F-Markus Frazier[12]; 16. 82M-Richard Ragsdale[20]; 17. 52-Jason Ryan Jr[21]; 18. 38-KC Keller[1]; 19. 30H-Orion Messina[15]; 20. 75-Andrew Peckham[18]; 21. 127-Jacob Mallet Jr[14]; 22. 17-Dutch Jantz[10]

Hobby Stocks (23 Laps)

1. X-Rob Gallaher[1]; 2. 83M-Chad Ragsdale[9]; 3. 01-DJ Keldsen[4]; 4. 2H-Clarence Holbrook[3]; 5. 29-Mark Cooper[14]; 6. 1-Joe Gallaher[10]; 7. 57-Sam Kennedy[20]; 8. 78-Jason Robles[16]; 9. 38-Ryan Hart[6]; 10. 69-Garrett Corn[11]; 11. 73R-Ryan Muller[7]; 12. 311B-Breck Smith[22]; 13. 55F-Shane Freeman[12]; 14. 17T-Taylor DeCarlo[13]; 15. 88J-Bobby Huckaby Jr[17]; 16. X1-Bobby Gallaher[21]; 17. 13-Bobby Motts[2]; 18. 31W-Steve Remde[5]; 19. 73B-Brady Muller[15]; 20. 83-Terry Campion[8]; 21. 56-Kevin Lesch[19]; 22. 28E-TJ Etchinson III[18]

Watsonville PR

Q. Joey, in the last run you had a vibration in the right rear. After seeing all the tire issues, how concerned were you?

JOEY LOGANO: Very, very concerning. It's always concerning when you're going 200 miles an hour and you can't see.

Kind of bittersweet moment. On one side I'm kind of frustrated it was like that, had a shot to beat the 8. On the other hand, I'm happy to finish the race and get a bunch of points with the AAA Mustang and have something for them going into the next few races.

We knew what we had to do. We had to score a bunch of points. And we did that, put ourselves in the points lead.

It's still not comforting, but better than being further back. So let's figure out how we want to run Talladega now.

Q. How do you run Talladega now?

JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, we got to see the checkered flag. I think that's the biggest thing. That's a lot easier said than done.

Hard to say at Texas here, just crazy race for everybody. You just cross your fingers, say a few prayers, hope it's not your turn when the tire blows out.

Like I said, very proud of our team today. Paul called a great race, putting four tires on when we needed, and then being able to put two on there at the end and cycle ourselves up there and having a shot to win.

So proud of that. Wish I wasn't shaking and it was a little tighter. Overall, you got to be happy with that.

NASCAR PR

Q. What happened off of turn two between you and Denny? Was that in his control?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, he ran me out of room. The toe link. We're lucky we finished.

It was really, really hard contact. It wasn't like just a light contact or anything like that. Yeah, I didn't mean to obviously spin him out over there. Obviously I'm pissed off, just not going to get run like that.

We've always raced so well together. I don't know what it was all about. The 19 took his air away, he ran out of racetrack, so he chose to run me out of racetrack completely.

Again, look, it's not like it was just contact. I thought we were going to be done. Yeah.

Q. You ran into him on purpose off of turn four?

WILLIAM BYRON: I mean, obviously, yeah, I went to go show my displeasure. I didn't mean to hit him and spin him out. There's a ton of guys that do this and go do something like that. I see it all the time.

Yeah, I'm just not going to get run like that. Yeah, there's really no reason. We're running second and third I think. Had a shot to win. Killed our car, for sure. That was a bummer.

Q. Will you talk to him about it?

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I guess so. We'll probably talk. Look, we've never had issues, so I didn't really get it. I'm not just going to be like, Oh, don't normally have issues with this guy, I'm not going to be mad about it.

Yeah, it was uncalled for. Feel like we handled it.

NASCAR PR

Q. Denny, William said he wanted to show his displeasure but didn't want to spin you out. You wanted to see a penalty for that contact under caution. Were you surprised it didn't come out by NASCAR?

DENNY HAMLIN: I think the crew chief was wanting something. I guess we can just wreck each other under caution. I tried to wreck him back.

Yeah, I don't think we touched. I got to look. I don't think we touched. Obviously he sent us into the infield under caution.

Q. You haven't had any prior incidents. What is that conversation going to be like?

DENNY HAMLIN: I mean, you know, I keep hearing these guys. I'll just add it to the list of guys when I get a chance. They're going to get it.

Q. Later in the Playoffs or is this something that carries over to next year?

DENNY HAMLIN: It all just works itself out. We'll be racing each other at some point. He'll lose a lot of spots because he's racing me. This is hard racing, obviously. I'm fine with hard racing.

But wrecking me under caution is obviously not what we were bargaining for. So thanks to my FedEx Toyota team for bouncing back. Obviously it cost us all of our track position. I thought we were in a great position to win until we got sent back to 20 something there.

NASCAR PR

Q. All this group has been through, and yet here they are still winning races and still a team. How about the Texas race fans who stayed here through this long night of racing, and Tyler Reddick brings it home to Victory Lane. With all the tire issues, how worried were you on the final run because you went so long on this set of Goodyears?

TYLER REDDICK: I was extremely worried, I'm not going to lie. Unfortunately, just about every time we've had fast cars, we've had some tire problems. Yeah, that last run the right sides were vibrating really, really hard there.

I was just trying to maximize and use the gap that I built over Joey just in case. I mean, every time we've had a strong car, we've been bit by something, man.

Just really proud to be able to get this Lenovo Chevy to Victory Lane. We were at Auto Club earlier this year, so fast with this car. They deserve to go to get to Victory Lane. We got them there.

Q. How did this team stay together through all the adversity this year?

TYLER REDDICK: Well, it was tough. I mean, two points. Every spot matters in this deal. We just had two tough races. We brought a really fast car at Darlington, we were leading at Kansas when we broke and fell out early. It's tough.

This will make that, the pain of not making it through, a little bit easier. Even though, yes, it would have locked us into the Round of 8. We're winning races. That's what we'll keep trying to do.

Q. How about the Texas race fans?

TYLER REDDICK: I mean, it was a hot one. Thank you, fans, who came out. I really appreciate it. This is a tough race, 500 miles here. Not an easy feat. I know it wasn't easy on you guys as well.

So great to be able to win here in a Cup car. Been close a few times. Let's go!

NASCAR PR