sixth: “We had a really fast Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of everybody. We made some really good adjustments after practice and got it decent for qualifying and really good in the race. That untimely caution just got us and put us behind for the majority of it, so we clawed our way out of it with some good pit calls. The pit crew did a really nice job today and we got back in the hunt there by the end. We just needed a couple more laps and we probably would have been a little better than some of the cars, but it’s hard to say. We just got a tough break with that one caution.”

NASCAR: Goodyear 400

Denny Hamlin wins in overtime at Darlington Raceway for second consecutive Cup victory

He seized the lead on the final pit stop under yellow.

Nate Ryan

Ross Chastain — seventh: “It was a warm one today at Darlington. We worked our way up to the top-15 early in the race with adjustments. We got caught by that one caution in the middle of the race just after we pitted under green. So we had to take the wave around and work our way back up through the field. (Crew chief) Phil (Surgen) and the guys made good adjustments and we were able to get up in the top 10 and we finished 7th. Darlington is one of my favorite tracks, and I am looking forward to Bristol next weekend.”

Ty Gibbs — ninth: ““Yeah, it’s nice for sure. I know we’ll get more of those, but it was a good improvement. I’m not too worried; feel like we’ll be okay. Just continue to get everyone reps and figure it out. Excited for what the future holds. Know we’ll be good.”

Austin Cindric — 11th: “Obviously, stage points at the beginning with a great starting spot. We had a good start, but unfortunately, the caution came out and trapped us a lap down on the pit cycle, and we spent the whole race trying to recover from that. But we were really good on short runs. We fell off pretty hard on long runs, but Brian and the guys never gave up on adjustments, and I felt like we got the car a lot better balanced by the end of the race, and we were fighting our way through making spots. We made a few more on that last restart, so it was a good way to end a day that was gonna be dominated by something out of our control.”

Daniel Suarez — 15th: “The No. 99 Chevy was still tight. The strategy just didn’t go our way a couple of times. We were just average. We weren’t great. We’ll go back to work and get ready for Bristol next weekend.”

Ty Dillon — 16th: “I’m just proud of our effort. We started in the back, started in a hole, and then got ourselves halfway to the front and had an issue on pit road. We were able to rebound again. I just appreciate the team’s resilience and mental fortitude to keep me calm. I feel like I was on the edge of losing my mind a couple of times, but everybody just believed in each other that we could rebound and we did. We made the most of the day, we got some stage points and had some really good speed. We just need to keep this moment rolling.”

AJ Allmendinger — 18th: “Frustrating second half of the race. We were really good in the first half. Finished 10th in the first stage. I thought we were even better than that, honestly. Then the track changed, and we just completely lost the balance, cautions hurt us at the wrong time. When we started of the race, I thought we were gonna be okay for sure. At the end of the day, just have to keep working on it and I have to be better too. We made an okay result out of it, but definitely I thought we could have been better.”

Shane van Gisbergen — 20th: “The day started quite good for the No. 88 Chevrolet team. We were moving forward. We learned a lot, and it was quite fun. And then in the middle of the race, we really lost the handling on the car. We struggled to get that back and get it to my liking, which was a shame. It’s been a trend we’ve been having the last few weeks, so I need to understand what I’m doing, and we also need to understand on the car side what we can do better. At the end, I felt like the long runs were really good. I found myself being able to manage the tires well. To get a top-20 after the runs we’ve been having is a great starting point, and now we just need to try and build some momentum.”

Michael McDowell — 29th: “It was a rough day for the No. 71 Chevrolet team. We started off the race in the top-10, but very early on, we felt like we missed the balance. Our team fought hard all day, but we just never had speed in the car. Some days you just miss it, and today was one of those days that we just missed it as a group. It’s unfortunate because we had high hopes after yesterday. The long run speed and short run speed, we just weren’t there today. We’ll have to go back to the drawing board and see where we went wrong and where we missed it. We got off sequence there, strategy-wise, trying to make something happen and that definitely hurt us more. But at that point, we were fighting to really just salvage the day and get a top-20 finish. It’s not what we want to be fighting for, so yeah we’ve got work to do.”

Josh Berry — 36th: “It always gets tight off of (Turn 2) here at Darlington, and it looked like just me and (Tyler Reddick) got together. It’s hard to say one way or the other if he came up a little bit or I was a little too low. Obviously, you’re trying to keep it out of the fence and clear that bump and everything, so I don’t know. It’s a racing deal, I guess. It seemed fine. We had a good car. I feel like we steadily worked our way forward throughout the whole race and caught a break on that green flag sequence to get up front, but I thought our car held on well and I think we had a shot at a really solid finish.”