Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Atlas Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 3rd)
“It was hard fought. I thought we had a really good shot to win today. I appreciate Menards and Atlas and Ford and the 12 group for putting us in position. Our car was fast and I thought we had really good strategy. We were the front guy of having to save a little bit of gas but I thought we put ourselves in a great spot. I knew the 6 was probably going to run out if it went green. We came to the restart and I couldn’t believe they stayed out. Ther was no way they were going to make it. So I obviously chose the top because he might run out in the restart zone. And he winds up coming to the green so he gets to go to pit road and the 5 gets promoted. Luck of the day right there I guess. I don’t even know what to get mad about. I am mad about losing this race because I thought we were in the perfect position. Once I lost control of the race, obviously I would have been on the bottom, but I thought the 6 would run out in the restart zone or on the back. It stinks to lose it that way. I appreciate the effort. I hate we don’t get to celebrate with Mr. Penske and with everyone from Penske here. That stings a lot. We just have to keep going, that is all we can do.”
DO YOU SEE ANY WAY TO CHANGE THAT RESTART SITUATION AS LATE AS IT HAPPENED AFTER THE CHOOSE? IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY TO DO IT?
“Yeah, call it off and rechoose. Because now you promote the third place guy before the second place guy if the leader has problems. That isn’t right. It is just dumb luck. At this race track where the bottom is preferred. I don’t know. I am just upset. That is a heartbreaker. We did everything right today. We were in prime position to win and it just didn’t work out for us. I just got unlucky. I am not going to sleep very good tonight, I will tell you that. I appreciate Team Penske and everybody for the fast car. We have been super fast and it showed again today. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
Todd Gilliland, No. 38 gener8tor Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 6th)
“I think our Mustang was really competitive. We were a little tight on exit the whole race, but that is part of it. Our car had good speed when we stayed up there. It was an interesting race. It was hard to pass. We didn’t do good on the strategy for the middle part of the race but then it put us in a position where it worked out for us at the end. Just disapointing a little bit. I was fourth on the last restart and probably should have chose the bottom looking back on it, but that is how it goes sometimes. You live and you learn.”
Austin Cindric, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 7th)
“I did my race team zero favors today with qualifying as poorly as I did putting it in the wall and then speeding on the first pit stop. Good rally by everybody. I felt like our Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse was quick today, we just had to get it in the right place on the race track. We saved fuel and Brian did the right things with strategy and we earned a good result because of it. I wish it would have gone green there at the end because I think I would have gotten a few more spots with the fuel situation. Overall, a nice reward going into a little break here.”
Noah Gragson, No. 10 Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 9th)
“We struggled at the beginning part of the weekend and definitely grateful to come back. I don’t know officially where we will be with those guys running out of gas off of Turn 4, but we had plenty of fuel. Drew Blickensderfer called a great race and it is always fun to have Bass Pro Shops on the hood. We struggled on Friday in practice and got a little better in qualifying, qualified 21st and we just made progress all day. We got a Stage point in Stage 1. Strategy, you never know when the caution is going to come out, but Drew made some great calls. I had more gas than the rest of them there and for a second I thought it was going to be Nashville 2.0 with a bunch of restarts but we were able to hang on and come out of here unscathed.”
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Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Accident Quote)
WHAT HAPPENED? “It seems like they were three wide a couple of rows behind me and the wreck caught me, unfortunately. It looks like Hocevar sent it down the center and just kind of stuffed it in there late. That seems like something he has done a lot recently. Unfortunately it caught up to me. He right reared Jimmie into my left rear and nosed our Shell Pennzoil Mustang into the wall. It is a bummer. You come here to Indy once a year and all you dream of is kissing the bricks. My team gave me a great race car and we were the leader of our strategy and that is kind of all you can hope for, to et to the lead of your strategy. And we were going to have a shorter pit stop and we were going to try to gain some spots the restart as a lot of guys were staying out. We could have a shorter stop than them and that is when we were going to cycle back up to the front, hopefully, but we never got to see it through.”
Josh Berry No. 4 Panini/Caitlin Clark Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Accident Quote)
WHAT HAPPENED? “I am not entirely sure without seeing the replay. It looked like the 19 got spun out and we were all just stacking and I think I got clipped from behind and turned into the wall. It is an unfortunate end. It has been a tough weekend. Today, our car was really competitive. I was happy with the car. We started in the back and never could get the track position. I had a tough day on pit road too. Every time we got to the top 20 we would get knocked back.”
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE LIKE RUNNING THE OVAL HERE?
“It was a lot of fun and honestly I had a good experience today. We passed cars and had a good balance throughout the race. I was happy with it. We needed something strategy wise to go our way to get up front. All in all the guys did a great job. I put us in a hole qualifying but the car was pretty solid today. We have some things to clean up but we will go get ‘em next time.”
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