Before the Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs begin Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, the 16 drivers eligible for the championship met with the media Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.
What drivers said at NASCAR Cup Series playoff media day
Drivers had plenty to say on a variety topics during the Cup Series playoff media day Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
As media days tend to go in all other sports, drivers faced a gamut of questions. Everything from the championship to a tumultuous silly season with notable free agents, from ambulance drivers getting lost trying to find at-track medical centers to last week’s controversial finish during the regular-season finale. Here’s a recap of who said what:
Martin Truex Jr. shares his expectations on how NASCAR will officiate postseason races following a late caution last week that cost him a win at Richmond:
“I think for the most part of the season, they’ve been consistent, not jumping on every hot dog wrapper for a caution, those types of things we’ve seen maybe in years past. I thought Saturday night at Richmond was a departure from what we’ve seen really the last five or six months.
“If we’re in that same situation at Homestead (the championship finale) and that happens what happened to us Saturday night, that would be really, really hard to take. They just need to make sure they’re consistent and make the right call when the pressure’s on. I mean, that’s their job. That’s what they have to do. If there’s a real reason for the caution, then nobody can say anything about it. Yes, that should have been a caution. So just do the right thing and make the right call at the right time.”
Truex, the No. 1 playoff seed, assessing his title chances and whether he’s the favorite to win:
“With the way the system is set up, I don’t know that you can have a favorite honestly. This has got to be the toughest championship in sports to win, without a question, with the eliminations, with one race for the championship at the end especially. You’re not out there one‑on‑one. There’s 39 other cars, and you’re racing against three of them.”
Kyle Busch saying his career goal is to win five Cup championships:
“I’d feel happy if I were able to get five. I feel like that’s a challenging goal, but yet one that probably is achievable. Why wouldn’t I say seven or eight? I feel like I’m too far along. If I was going to say I’d get to seven or eight, I should have had three by now. It’s just tough in this business. It’s hard in this sport. I mean, you could go rattle off five in a row, we’ve seen that done before. But realistically how easy is that? It’s not. I always try to look at the realistic‑ness of it and being able to see what’s truly achievable.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on what girlfriend Danica Patrick will do next after announcing Tuesday she won’t return to Stewart-Haas Racing next season:
“I know that she enjoys racing. She loves the competitiveness of it and has been doing it for a long time, so I think if it was up to her she would try getting in a competitive car and keep going out and competing.
“She is very passionate about all her other businesses that she has going. It definitely makes her really happy doing that, so if she didn’t have all those other things going on that she enjoyed, I think I would be a little concerned because nobody wants to just quit racing, but I do think she’s in a great place as far as outside of the race car and what she has going on with the winery, the clothing line, the workout book.
“I’d say she’s a lot busier than all of the other drivers in our sport traveling around and doing things. She knows that some of it is brought upon her being a female in NASCAR and doing a lot on that side of things, but then she also knows she has chosen to do a lot of things as well with her other businesses.”
Matt Kenseth, who doesn’t have a ride next season, on his future:
“I’m really worried about the next 10 weeks. I mean, the next 10 weeks will probably have enough problems to worry about without worrying about anything three or four months from now. So, no, I don’t really have anything for you there.”
Kenseth on his ride inside an ambulance where the driver got lost:
“I was [riding] around the infield for about five minutes with him and he was lost and couldn’t find the care center. Thankfully I wasn’t bleeding to death.”
Austin Dillon on the possibility Patrick may try to extract revenge on Dillon during the playoffs after he spun her out at Richmond:
“I will talk to her at some point and I am sure we will be OK. She could have retaliated at Richmond; I pulled right in front of her to allow her to do it, but nothing happened. I was ready to get out of the Richmond race because we sucked so bad. I was like, ‘Man, just take me out if you want’, but she didn’t do it. I didn’t think she was that mad.”
See More:
