Kyle Larson wins NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway

What drivers said during and after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 playoff race at Homestead-MIamiSpeedway, where Kyle Larson won for the first time:

Kyle Larson — winner: “Yeah, definitely the best run we’ve had all year long. We’ve been capable of it I feel like many weekends, we just haven’t quite put it all together. (Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) gave a great speech this morning and got us all ready to go and focused and did my best to keep it out of the wall. I got in the wall a few times but I could still make speed doing that. Amazing race car. I knew that that last run was going to be short enough where I was going to be in some sort of trouble there, but thankfully AJ and Ross were racing hard behind me.

“But yeah, happy for our team, and we get to go race for an owner’s title in Phoenix in a couple weeks. We’re still technically not out of it. I can’t win the championship, but it means more to me to win it as a team. We’re going to go to Phoenix and try to get another championship.

(On the contact with Martin Truex Jr.  in the pits) “Yeah, so I was just going behind him, and he had a hard left and was hard on the brakes at the same time, and I ran right in the back of him. My team said he was late turning into his stall, but I don’t know. If it was my fault, I’m sorry. I don’t think it was. But it’s hard to see down this pit road. I don’t know if fans and people realize, when you’ve got debris all over your windshield, the sun is shining straight in your face, it’s hard to see your stall. So hate that that happened. He was definitely the one I was going to have to beat. He was really good that last long run, too.

“What a fun day. I’ve always wanted to race here during the day at Homestead where we could rip the wall. Finally have a car tough enough for me to be able to run the wall and finish the race. A lot of fun today. Hope you fans enjoyed the ass-kicking there, and hope we can do it again in a couple of weeks.”

Ross Chastain — Finished second: “Not the way you would have scripted it. I feel like we had a top-three or four car all day, all weekend, and a little too tight in qualifying, and come behind that with a driver that chose the complete wrong lane in 3 and 4, against everything I’ve ever trained for and prepared for. Qualified 20th, and it took us all day long. We need to get the car turning better from qualifying into the race. We were too tight. Phil Surgen and his whole team got it turning better, and pit stops were incredible again. Our guys were just — they’re just rock stars on pit road, and I’m so glad to go to battle with them.

“At the end of the day, I know we didn’t score a ton of stage points. We put ourselves in position at the end, and just keep executing. I almost spun off Turn 2 in front of Daniel, and I had my arms all crossed up and I just took a deep breath down the back, and thought, what can I control here? I can control not spinning out, so let’s go a little slower next time, and had a shot at it.”

(On feeling comfort heading to Martinsville) “I don’t know What’s it supposed to feel like? I’ve never been here. For…