“Biggest thing is just more Playoff points,” said Truex. “These next two weeks, we can try to get even more of those. That's huge. Any Playoff points you get are going to help you get to Homestead. This package has been so tricky to figure out, you never know. Cole Pearn (crew chief) and the guys worked really hard this week to come here with something different. We took a bit of a gamble, but it worked out.”
“It’s the second time this year that we got beat by circumstances,” said Bell. “At Iowa we put on our tires when we needed to, and some guys banked on a yellow coming out later and they got it and they beat us. In Vegas, they just kind of did the opposite of us and won the race. Very, very disappointing. Obviously, I’m really happy with how our Rheem Supra was – it was really fast. That’s a good sign.”
“This is the hardest one I’ve had to win,” said Hill. “We were going to stay out that last caution and we stayed out and everybody else pitted. We came down pit road, restarted at the tail end of the longest line and it stayed green. I had to drive all the way through the field and this truck was unbelievable. HRE (Hattori Racing Enterprise), Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) and the boys gave me a heck of a piece. We wouldn’t have won this race with them. We’re two-for-two with this truck so we’re going to try to go three-for-three with it.”
“It’s a huge win for us. I’m so lucky to be a part of this team,” said Crampton. “I hated to race my teammate, Doug Kalitta, in the final and win, but it was a great day for the whole team. We had three real strong runs to close out qualifying (including a 3.689), so we knew we had a car that could contend. Then we had another strong run in round one and made another solid pass in the second round. In the finals, we had a pretty good light and made a really good pass to beat a great driver and team. It’s just so important to get round wins and try to run for a championship. We’ve shown we have a car capable of competing for a championship. Now we just need to keep digging in these last five races.”
ARCA
Ty Gibbs dominated at Salem Speedway on Saturday evening – scoring the pole and leading all but four laps – to earn his second career ARCA Menards Series win. With a second-place result, Christian Eckes closed to within five points of the championship points lead with two races to go after teammate Michael Self suffered mechanical problems.
POWRi
Logan Seavey earned his 10th win of the season on Saturday evening at Macon Speedway in Illinois to become the second driver in series history to record double digit wins in a single season. Seavey took the lead on lap nine of the 30-lap feature and never looked back. Teammate Jesse Colwell continues to lead the season-long standings after a sixth-place finish.
WHAT’S NEXT
The NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series head to their second visit of the season at Richmond Raceway. The Xfinity Series start their Playoff run on Friday, September 20 at 7:30 p.m. EDT, while the Cup Series close the weekend on Saturday evening, September 21 at 7:30 p.m. EDT. Both races are on NBCSN.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East has their second-to-last race of the season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday. The tape-delay coverage airs on NBCSN on Wednesday, September 25 at 6 p.m. EDT.