Sometimes when you stick a microphone in front of a driver’s face – especially when they’re mad, you have no clue what they may say and a couple of times you’ll hear something that surprises you or gives you a bit of a perspective.

Throughout the NASCAR Xfinity Series season, there were quite a few of these moments. So it seems only fitting we take a glance back through the year at what was said.

Rusty Jarrett | Nigel Kinrade Photography

“The motivation is always there, and the focus is always there. It’s not letting me allow myself to get too low. My wife Tara is the first one to do with that. She does so much for me, for the household, and really allowing me to go play golf a couple times a week to just get away from it and take a break – things like that. Matt and Chris, they’ll pick me right up and say, ‘Alright, we’re done with the weekend. Let’s go play golf. Let’s go do something. Alright, we’re done. You’re not thinking about it anymore.’ But quite honestly, that’s always been my biggest challenge in life is I’m super hard on myself, because I’m letting everybody down if we’re not winning and things like that. So that’s always going to be my biggest weakness, my biggest challenge. But my thing is the men and woman here, I hope if you ask any one of them that have worked with me, like does he care? They will always say to the full extreme that I care, and they see it on my emotions. Sometimes it comes out the wrong way, but that’s the biggest thing that I’ve always wanted anybody to work with me is that I care about them, care about winning, care about being at my best, because that’s the most important thing to me. I’m 40-years-old. There was a moment in time that I thought maybe I can change that, and be different, but I am who I am. I am still racing cars professionally and I’ll probably never change because I care that much. That’s probably my best strength and biggest weakness at the same time.” – A.J. Allmendinger

“It’s going to take showing up. It’s going to take putting the work in and trying to execute. Obviously, another new team for myself. Back with a manufacture that I am familiar with, but a lot of people that I have never worked with before. Just having to be married to the grind, and married to the process of what it takes to be successful in any sport. Obviously, it’s extremely humbling to be called an Xfinity Series Champion, but also comes with responsibility of trying to show up and present yourself that way. I welcome that, I welcome the pressure as I’ve actually used a lot in the last week or two – pressure is a privilege, and that’s the way I am inviting everything this year. Looking forward to the task at hand trying to go back and do the same.” – Daniel Hemric

“It’s been nice. Obviously, we went into this year with high expectations for ourselves. It has helped that as a whole, our company has had a lot of speed. My teammates have been really strong every week, too, and really we’re just in a great position there to just continue to push each other to get better and our whole company is strong. That makes it a lot easier and we’re able to race with each other. So I still feel good where we’re at. I think we’re coming to a lot of exciting tracks for us and hopefully we can get a couple more wins and be prepared for when the playoffs start.” – Josh Berry

“It’s a great question. For me, I really wanted whatever my next step to me to be the one that gave me the opportunity for the most success, and by that, I mean winning races and running for a championship. This opportunity seems special. Noah has a lot of potential and I’ve watched him over the last few years as he’s progressed. The opportunity to work for him was nice, and to be with the pedigree of a race team like JR Motorsports in this series is another big piece of that. I think all the pieces are here for a top-level run for the championship, and for me, that was what was most important. Whether it was Cup or Xfinity, it was important to me to be on a team that had a chance to win a lot of races and a championship.” – Luke Lambert on going from Cup Series with RCR to Xfinity with JRM 

#31: Myatt Snider, Jordan Anderson Racing, Superior Essex Chevrolet Camaro

“The biggest thing we can’t do is beat ourselves at these next couple races. We’re at the halfway point of the season, the playoffs are only 10 or 11 races away and so if we make mistakes on our own, we won’t make these playoffs. I think we have a legitimate shot – I think it’s a long shot but we do have a shot to make the playoffs. We’ve shown flashes of performance here and there at just about every race track so it’s just a matter of not beating ourselves and consistently bringing good equipment to the track every week. I think we’re getting better at that and I feel pretty good about our chances.” – Myatt Snider

“Well, it was really something that was I thinking about doing for quite a few years and I feel if I’m going to try doing it and running at the national series, it’s now or never. I had a few cars that I ran with OUR Motorsports – the 23 car, and was looking to do my own thing a little bit. I was actually put in touch with Joey (Gase), who was looking to do the same thing, but taking on a whole season one person is quite the undertaking. So putting our equipment together, it’s funny everything I needed he had and a lot of things he needed to have a complete team together, I had. It just kind of worked out, in my opinion, partnering up with him and just something we both had the same ideas, and partnered up and went for it.” – Patrick Emerling