"I was just really just managing the fall-off and just trying to be consistent with the laps, but stickers (new tires) were definitely faster in the first round than they were in the second and third round".
This is the third consecutive win for Toyota Racing at Richmond, including the sweep of the 2018 season completed by Busch.
"I'm really excited to win here at Richmond". "I had not front turn. Being out front was important tonight".
Truex gave Joe Gibbs Racing its sixth victory in nine races this season and won for the first time in his career on tracks shorter than a mile.
"We were close, but not close enough", Logano said.
"We're just really excited", Truex said.
The defending race victor snagged the top starting spot for today's race as the qualifying session ended. It was his 20th career-series win and 18th victory in a Toyota Camry.
Busch has been among the top ten in this season races. Local favorite Denny Hamlin was fifth. "We would have liked to have tuned it during happy hour, we just didn't have enough time". "Ran out of time there".
"We did a great job today, I didn't think it was a ideal lap from my standpoint, but I was able to get in the throttle on the exit of the corner and put down a decent lap", Harvick said. "That's a little frustrating, but when you're frustrated with second, that's a good sign". However, it was mistakes that cost the No. 22 Team Penske Ford valuable track position for the final 148-lap green run to the checkered flag. With about 40 to go, Bowyer almost caught him, but Truex never let him pass and finally, Bowyer relinquished the second spot to Joey Logano, who seemed to have the faster vehicle of the top two.
"I was watching them race and thought that if I was just patient and saved my tires, I could get them", he added.
And the inspection heavily impacted the starting grid with eight of the 37 cars failing inspection at least once. They include the cars of local favorite Denny Hamlin, a three-time victor on the 0.75-mile oval, Chase Elliott and Matt Tifft.
Failing once were the cars of Erik Jones (who qualified second, photo above), Daniel Suarez (ninth), Jimmie Johnson (10th), and Joey Gase (3th).
Busch, who had led 103 laps, worked his way back up to 15th place by the end of second stage. He is well prepared this year as he said that they have been working well with Adam Stevens since 2015 and he is confident that he will achieve. We had a decent green-flag cycle that got us up again ... and then we reeled in the 19 (Truex) and the 14 (Bowyer) from pretty far back. "Tonight we didn't have the best auto, but we've lost some here with the best vehicle".