What NASCAR Cup drivers said after COTA race won by Christopher Bell

Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday's Cup race at Circuit of the Americas:

Christopher Bell — Winner: "Man, these road course races are just so much fun. Whenever Kyle (Busch) was leading, I was just trying to be so cautious. Obviously, we know what happened last year. I didn't want that to happen. I wanted to pass him clean. He was just doing such a good job at running his race, and he could get off the corners just good enough that I couldn't get inside of him. But there I started peeking a nose, and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front. Whenever I did, I'm, like, 'Okay, just don't beat yourself.' Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I've ever run. Just so happy for these guys right here. They've been on me hard about winning with them. Just super proud for everyone on this DeWalt No. 20 team. We didn't count last week. Last week was a speedway. We didn't have that one circled. We definitely had this one circled. I'm ready to keep adding to it."

William Byron — Finished 2nd: "I feel like the battle between he (Bell) and (Kyle) Busch -- I was just sitting there waiting for one of them to bobble or slide their tires. Bell got by him and I felt like once he got by him and clear, his car was super loose and it kind of gave me a couple of shots at him. I just couldn't ever get beside him. We have always raced really well together, so I didn't want to move him blatantly. We were just sliding there a ton at the end. We came a long way this weekend and I am really proud of that. We were pretty far off to start, but got ourselves pretty raceable and in a position to win. Just sucks to be so close. You are on the bumper of the guy coming to the line and that sucks. A lot of races ahead and hopefully we can just keep bringing this speed. It's a good start to our road course program. Still a little work to do, but thanks to Raptor, Chevrolet, Axalta, Liberty University, and all of our partners. Been a good start to the year so far."

Tyler Reddick — Finished 3rd: "I thought we were okay in the first stage and just got caught off guard out there by the 88 (Shane van Gisbergen) and a couple others. Stage 2 and the first half of stage 3 there unfortunately we just – I wouldn't say we really lost the handle, we just lost the pace on our Beast Toyota Camry. I didn't really know how the rest of the race was going to unfold for it to hang on there at the end and the drive back up to the front was good. Just wish the last restart there -- I lost some track position just getting jumped on by cars on different tire strategies and just lost ground there. I think if I could've survived that we probably would've had a much better shot out there sooner than we did. All in all, a good recovery for our team and any time we come to a place like this we want to win but a solid day."

Chase Elliott — Finished 4th: "It was just a crazy day, really. I got run over, I felt like, there in the first corner. I'm curious to see it. I still haven't seen it to know whether or not I did something wrong. I'm happy to own it, if I did. I just felt like it was the first corner of the first lap, and it's just a bummer to get behind and then we had damage. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the guys did a great job fixing it and getting it that close. We got behind on a restart there and just had to play major catchup there. Alan made a great call there at the end to put tires on it. We were rolling up through there really good at the end. Obviously when you have a good car like that, I would have liked to have been in the fight with those guys, but it was a great recovery from where we were at during the end of the second stage."

Kyle Busch — Finished 5th: "That was it on pushing the car. We had a really good No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevy to be able to push that hard. I just wish that maybe we had equal tires to the No. 20 (Christopher Bell). I don't know if that was all the difference. I know he was really fast and he had a good racecar. I feel like that might have been able to help hold me on a little bit better to him, but even that last yellow flag that we had, I felt like the gap that I had to the field, I was far enough out front that I could run the clean lines, the lines that I wanted, to preserve the tires and take care of them as much as I could to see if he could get there. But once we had that yellow, then it was just defensive mode. You're in complete and utter just beat the heck out of the tires at that point, and I just didn't have it over the No. 20. Hate it that the contact that we made between two and three ruined our racecar too. It bent the right-rear toe link and knocked everything out of it. I just didn't have anything there at the end to compete with those guys."

Chris Buescher — Finished 7th: "This 17 team battled really hard to get our Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse up to P7 here. We are happy with that. It was a really hard day; a lot of ups and downs. We never got ourselves into the track position that we wanted to. We want to be better. It was a good day but I just feel like we are not quite competitive enough to win here at COTA. We have been very close at all of the other road courses - we feel like we have a chance to win at the others. We need to make a couple more tweaks to our Mustang here at this place. A good showing for this new course. We stayed out of the melee, for the most part, and I am proud of everyone on this Fastenal team. They did a good job today."

Noah Gragson — Finished 8th: "It was not looking good after that first run. We were really, really bad. We kept our heads up and never quit. This Rush Trucks Centers team did just an awesome job of wrenching on this Ford Mustang Dark Horse. We persevered and didn't let that early adversity get us down. It was a lot of hard work throughout the day but I am super proud of everyone's efforts. It just matters what that scoreboard says at the end of the day, not what it took to get there. We brought it home in one piece and in the top-10."

Todd Gilliland — Finished 10th: "We knew it would look different here today. We started 10th and finished 10th but we battled all day. We were OK at the beginning but we got stuck behind the (No.) 9 literally in Turn 1. That is how it goes sometimes. I am just really proud of the fight in our team. We fought through a lot. We got a little lucky with the caution there at the end but overall we just kept fighting through everything. That brought home a top-10 finish for our Love's Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse and we can be proud of what got us that result ."

Michael McDowell — Finished 11th: "Definitely an up-and-down day for us in our No. 71 Gainbridge Chevrolet. We had decent speed. We got some track position early on and we were trying to work a strategy, but unfortunately had a pit road violation there that put us to the back. Track position is so important. We tried rallying back. We fought hard all day and we had a pretty good car. It's something to build on. We were hoping to get back into the top 10 but just ran out of laps there. Really proud of the effort. Scored some points again and got some Stage points. Not ideal because we are going for wins, but we are getting closer. We are just going to keep grinding."

Cole Custer — Finished 23rd: "It was a lot of ups and downs. A hard fought day for sure. Our guys did a great job rebounding throughout the day. We brought a fairly fast Ford Mustang Dark Horse but we had a few hiccups throughout the day. I feel like, to come back and get a solid result at the end of the day, wasn't a bad thing. We will just keep building from here."

Austin Dillon — Finished 35th: "We had an up and down day at the Circuit of The Americas with our No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE Chevrolet. We played strategy and pitted early in both stages for better track position at the start of the next. Our car handled well, and we were just trying to be patient until the end. With 18 laps to go, we were running inside the top 20, and the No. 11 locked up his front tires and wiped us out. My team did a great job trying to make the repairs, but the damage in the rear was too much to fix and we had to go to the garage. Bummed for our Richard Childress Racing team. I felt like we had a top-15 car, and it sucks we didn't get to show it today. On to Phoenix next week."

Daniel Suarez — Finished 36th: "I just hit the curb, hit the ground and then it spun me out. When you have low air pressure, that's very easy to do because the car is lower to the ground. I wish I could say it was a big mistake, but it wasn't. It was just maybe a tire width too far to the left, and I hit the curb and I spun out."

Connor Zilisch — Finished 37th: "We had a really fast No. 87 Red Bull Chevrolet. I've had so much fun preparing for this event. That second stage, driving from outside the top-30 to 14th, was a lot of fun. I was passing a lot of guys that I used to watch on TV growing up. Hopefully I'll get the chance to come back and do this again. I had an absolute blast driving through the field, and I wish it didn't end early."