Comments from the eliminated playoff drivers after Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Following the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, four NASCAR Cup Series drivers had their championship hopes end with their elimination from the playoffs, cutting the grid from 16 drivers to 12.

Below is a breakdown of how each fared Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Ty Gibbs (-11 points to cutline)

In his first NASCAR Cup Series playoff appearance, Ty Gibbs entered the race 12th on the playoff grid with a six-point advantage over the cutline.

Starting the race 13th, Gibbs finished eighth in the first stage, but a pit road speeding penalty during the stage break sent the No. 54 car to the tail end of the field to start the second stage. Gibbs finished the second stage in 19th.

Ultimately finishing 15th, one lap down, Gibbs described his night as “unfortunate.”

“The speeding penalty is on me,” he said. “Just we run under the lights so close, and I just got a little bit too much, I guess. My fault. Unfortunate. Proud of these guys and all the effort that they’ve given me and we’ll keep hammering down.”

Martin Truex Jr. (-21)

In his final full-time season, Truex entered the cutoff race with a 14-point deficit, 15th on the playoff grid.

The 2017 Cup Series champion started the race in fourth, earning 16 stage points between his fourth and second-place finishes in the first two stages. 

Truex appeared to be in a position to advance into the next round of the playoffs until a pit road speeding penalty under a caution in the final stage sent the No. 19 team to the tail-end of the lead lap.

Truex finished 24th, one lap down.

“We did good in the first two stages – we got a lot of points. I guess we would have had to run second or third to make it through – who knows if we would have been able to,” Truex said. “I wish we could have seen if we could have done that. I’m just gutted for my team. We worked so hard this week. 

“We all put in a lot – all season long, and in the last three weeks, just snake bit. Can’t do anything right. .09 mph hurts really bad to take the chance away to know if we even could have done it. I don’t know if we could have run second – maybe. We were close to it – all day – but in the end, it doesn’t matter. I feel terrible for my guys.”

Brad Keselowski (-37)

Brad Keselowski entered the Bristol race weekend 14th in the standings, 12 points behind the cutline.

Keselowski started the race 23rd, finishing the first two stages 27th and 26th, respectively.

The 2012 Cup Series champion finished the race 26th, three laps down.

“Yeah, it was just a long night, we ran the best we could, we just didn’t have any pace,” Keselowski said. “We lost  lap early and that’s kind of what we had. There was no attrition to the race and tires didn’t fall off and we didn’t have the pace.” 

“We didn’t show up in this round, I guess is probably just the easiest way to put it. We didn’t get any results and it’s a results business.”

Harrison Burton (-54)

Harrison Burton started the race with a 20-point deficit, ranked 16th on the playoff grid. Burton qualified 34th, finishing the first stage in 29th.

In the second stage, Burton’s No. 21 Ford lost power steering. His team had to work on his car in the garage, dropping him to 35th, 78 laps down, in the end.

“Just kind of heartbreaking to end it that way where I felt like our team stepped up and we brought fast racecars, were good in all the practices,” Burton said. “Just need to qualify better and need to find a way to finish the races where we belong. Proud of our guys.” 

“Really just super proud to be a part of the Wood Brothers family and sad it’s over, but we’ve still got a lot to race for now that we’ve been bumped up in the points, we can go get these guys if they have some bad weekends and we have some good ones. A lot to fight for.”

Outlook

The first race for the Round of 12 is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 29, at Kansas Speedway.