BACK TO GALLERIES
Best quotes from NASCAR Playoffs Media Day
By RJ Kraft | Published: September 13, 2017 34
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Martin Truex Jr.: 'You can't pick a favorite for the championship because of the format. But I think the guys that are favored based on speed, the way the season has went, he's (Kyle Larson) obviously one of them. Him and Kyle. I think him and Kyle Busch are probably the two I'm most concerned with just because of the speed they've had.'
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Martin Truex Jr.: '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. So, yeah, I mean, it's got to be the toughest one there is. I don't really know if you can have a favorite.'
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Martin Truex Jr.: 'I'm definitely not surprised by it, by how the last two years have went. At the same time I'm still very just appreciative and thankful for the opportunities and know that it's a special team we have, it's a special thing we're doing. I don't take it for granted one day at all.'
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Kyle Larson: 'Homestead to me is by far my best racetrack. I have a lot of fun there, go really fast.'
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Kyle Larson: 'Our race team in the past has been, like, a rollercoaster. About the time you feel like you're going in the right direction, you plateau, then you take back off a couple months later, then do it again. This year, though, has been a steady incline. We had a rough little summer. But, you know, I feel like we got a great shot at the championship this year.'
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Kyle Busch: 'Truex (is the favorite). Oh, yeah, just the way they've run. Now they're picking it up everywhere they go to. They're a scary team. They're a threat, that's for sure. If you look at, okay, what is Truex's worst track, Martinsville maybe. Probably a sixth or a seventh, that's it. Everywhere else it's a win. That's pretty scary.'
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Kyle Busch: 'For me, I don't care about my legacy, it's more important than winning one, it's more important than winning two, three or four. 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.'
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Brad Keselowski: 'At this moment, there's really no reason for Toyota not to have all four spots going to Homestead, but all of that it’s dynamic – kind of like we just talked about with Jimmie. You never know what people are gonna show up with at Chicagoland in the first round and Charlotte and so forth in the second round. And then of course getting to the third round, which is a tough one in itself with Martinsville and so forth, its tough too. At this point, no, but we’ll see. It’s a dynamic sport.'
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Brad Keselowski: 'I’m a big believer that success isn’t measured by your ability to do something once, it’s measured by your ability to do something twice. We’ve had great opportunities to win a second championship, but we’ve kind of fallen a little short for a number or reasons, and we have that opportunity again this year, so that’s a great privilege and a great opportunity. Of course, we want to make the most of it and I think it would mean a tremendous amount to me personally to kind of validate the first championship.'
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Jimmie Johnson: 'What is on my mind is if I am going to race, I am all in. I am here for reasons of being successful. Winning races and winning championships. So, every year that I extend and have agreed to, I am all in and here for one reason.'
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Jimmie Johnson: 'I think we all look at winning as the best way to advance. Last year, I made it through being consistent in the first round, and then we were able to win. I think the first round is easy, but last year was the only year in this format that I made it to the final four. And winning made that happen. So, the goal, especially deeper in the rounds, is winning. If you can win in the round with Talladega, then that makes life easier and we had that luxury last year. So nice. If there is a round that I can pick a win in, it’s that one so I can take Talladega off the table and race at those three after it.'
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Jimmie Johnson: 'It’s funny because you only feel as good as your last race. It’s just the nature of competition. So, I guess when you are sitting in the rocking chair and you have let the dust settle and reflect back on the career that is the stuff that sticks with you and the experience that you have earned post racing. But, unfortunately, when you are competing, again, you are only as good as your last race and last few races. I haven’t put myself in that immortal mindset.'
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Kevin Harvick: 'This is really all about survival. We’ve had the fastest car and been expected to win and been in trouble in the first round, second round, third round. We’ve won. We’ve lost at Homestead, so there’s a lot to balance and it’s really a week to week battle at this particular point because that’s just what it is.'
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Kevin Harvick: 'I don't think you can ever count him (Jimmie Johnson) out. I think as you look at it, obviously the performance hasn’t been what they want or what they need, but you almost have to laugh because you look at it and you would have said the same thing last year.'
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Denny Hamlin: 'I think it's going to be six or seven guys that are going to be very close to getting into that final four. Which one? It's just which one has the right break, which one gets the caution at the right time that they need it to either take him in or take him out.'
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Denny Hamlin: “You always race with a little bit of a chip on your shoulders, but obviously we’ve been close in years past and we’ve won races that’s been no shocker. It’s been the championship that’s been the hardest to come by. As it should be. You know, sometimes circumstances took us out. Sometimes it was performance. But most of the time it was circumstances.'
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Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: 'You never feel that confident going to a speedway race (laughing). It was awesome watching Brad win Talladega when he had to a couple years ago, but I would think for us as a team, making it through the first round and giving ourselves an opportunity to get to the third round would be a success. I would definitely have confidence going in (to Talladega), but I wouldn’t say I’d just feel like it’s a lock.'
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Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: 'I think her (Danica Patrick) legacy is already established and really well across all of motorsports, not just in NASCAR, but open-wheel as well. This is something that racing is something she’s pursued since she was 10 years old, moving to England when she was 16. That’s kind of crazy to think about somebody moving to England when they’re 16 to race, and I think the things that she’s been able to accomplish and do has been, I would say, the best female driver of all-time, but that’s my opinion and everyone has their own opinion.'
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Ryan Blaney: 'I feel like there’s an underdog vibe, especially with us three (Stenhouse and Dillon). I know our team, for sure, has been called an underdog, dark horse, all that stuff, and that’s great. … I don’t really mind being called an underdog or dark horse and anything like that. That means if you exceed expectations you kind of know that it’s even that much cooler and better when you can do that.'
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Ryan Blaney: 'Brad (Keselowski) has been a great mentor to me. I look up to him a lot and I have a lot of respect for Brad. It would be neat to be able to be competing against him for a championship.'
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Chase Elliott: 'I think consistency will carry you a pretty good distance in this deal. I don't think consistency will get you to Homestead alone, but I do think consistency will carry you a good ways. That's our first thing right now, try to be consistent and improve ourselves and try not to worry about everybody else right now.'
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Chase Elliott: 'I'd love to advance as far as we can, but I'd love a win. That's what we're here to do. We've had a year and a half to do it, and haven't. I take a lot of pride in wanting to win. I also have these last 10 races still driving the 24 car, which it's been a cool honor to have that. It would mean a lot to me to add to the win list that Jeff has created with that car over the years while I still have the chance. I think that's an obligation of mine, to try to achieve that.'
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Ryan Newman: 'I think anybody who has experience at the Cup level at this point, after 26 races and is in the Playoffs, has just as good a shot as the other. Experience is definitely nice to have, but it’s no guarantee.'
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Ryan Newman: Asked about his chances to win the title; 'They are one in 16, man.'
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Kurt Busch: 'You have to go after one really hard in each round to go for that win, but yet consistency will still allow you to advance through these different stages in the Playoffs.'
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Kurt Busch: 'She’s (Danica Patrick) too powerful and too hard to ignore on what she did outside of the car. There’s many women that are in the hall of fame in the NHRA world, I don’t see why she wouldn’t be in the hall of fame here in the NASCAR world.'
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Kasey Kahne: 'At this point in time I actually feel as good as I have about anything knowing that I’m in the Playoffs, knowing that we are going to swing for the fences and do the best job we possibly can these final 10 races and then move on to hopefully a great place.'
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Kasey Kahne: 'I think actually the further I’ve gotten away from that win (Indianapolis) the better it’s felt. Like at the time it was great, I wanted to celebrate and I really couldn’t do anything because my body was so messed up, but yeah, the further I get away from that win the more I feel really good about the win and feel really good about the restart.'
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Austin Dillon: 'I think Ryan (Newman) and my relationship has not only grown a lot just over this year, but the last couple of weeks even. We are working hard together because we know what it means to kind of help each other and have each other’s back. Ryan has done this a long time and he is really smart with the race cars. I bring a little bit of a different driving style that he can look at, as far as the data goes. We have a good mix there of old and new styles coming together. I think that plays to our advantage a little bit.'
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Austin Dillon: 'With RCR and the history that it has in winning championships in that No. 3 car, its everything that you want. You come to this sport and you put in the effort and the time and it’s a championship. To become the guy that wins all three (national series titles) first would be awesome and something to definitely hold my hat on for the rest of my career.'
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Matt Kenseth: 'Well, I think if you have to keep your team focused, then you have issues. So, I mean, I think everybody's focused on trying to win. It's a really competitive sport. They certainly all have all the incentive in the world to perform at the highest level. They've been doing that. Especially on pit road the last three weeks, they've been killing it.'
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Matt Kenseth: 'Well, I don't really like the term 'peaking' because I don't think you ever want to peak. Whenever you peak, that means you're going downhill on the backside of it. I feel like you're always trying to gain and get better. ... I feel like we definitely have more momentum and we're performing better than we were three or four months ago, which obviously you always want to be at your best, but you certainly want to be your best at the end of the year.'
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Jamie McMurray: 'This has probably been the best year for me on the NASCAR side. Even though we haven’t won, we finished eighth in points. For our organization to have Kyle second and we were eighth, it’s the best year for Chip Ganassi Racing. We were super consistent all year long in both cars.'
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Jamie McMurray: 'When you look at the format and the way it’s laid out, it’s a race-by-race scenario. If we go to Chicago and three or four of those guys have bad races then it changes the outlook for the next races for the other guys.'