Driver Notes & Quotes for Phoenix Subway Fresh Fit 500

Carl Edwards won at Phoenix in the fall of 2010 (Getty)

CARL EDWARDS ON PHOENIX: “I love going to Phoenix. The weather looks like it’s going to be great, and I’m really excited to see how the track has aged over the winter. I thought the surface was very racy last time we were there and I think everyone is excited to see if it gets even better for the race this weekend. This is a huge race for us being the Subway Fresh Fit 500 and we’re racing the Subway Ford so a win would be huge. A year ago we felt like we had the fastest car and got it torn up early in the race, so it would be wonderful to go back there again and be able to win this thing.”

EDWARDS CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 99 crew will unload RK-801 at Phoenix. This is a brand new car and the first of six races where Subway will be the primary sponsor.

JIMMIE JOHNSON ON HIS APPROACH TO PHOENIX AND THE NEW CONFIGURATION: “We have a rule about putting the previous week’s race behind us by a certain time the next day. It doesn’t do any good to rehash what went wrong all week long. That’s certainly the case for us this week. We have a short turnaround, so that obviously helps. But I’m really focused on getting on track and putting up a better finish in the Kobalt Tools Chevy this weekend. It’s obviously a good place for us, so I’m looking forward to getting on track in a few days.”

“I don’t think much will be different. We’ve obviously already raced once on the surface and all the test sessions, so that always helps get more rubber down on the track surface. We started to get a second groove going during the race weekend in November and I think that will be even better this time around. Phoenix is a great track and I think the new configuration is fun to drive. I think, like with any new track surface, you will see the racing evolve and we will have that again this weekend. It’s going to be a good race.”

JOHNSON CHASSIS CHOICE: Johnson will pilot chassis No. 689. This car finished 14th at Phoenix last fall and 18th at New Hampshire in September. Chassis No. 590 will serve as the backup.

DALE EARNHARDT JR ON PHOENIX: “When we were at Phoenix last year, the track was too smooth. Hopefully it has aged some over the winter, but we’ll go to Phoenix with a good attitude. We feel like we can go to Phoenix and run well, so we’ll see how it goes.”

In 19 Sprint Cup starts at Phoenix International Raceway, Earnhardt has earned two wins, four top-five finishes and eight top-10s. He also has led 460 laps at the short track. He earned his two wins there back-to-back, going to Victory Lane in November 2003 and November 2004 when Phoenix hosted one Cup event a season.

EARNHARDT JR CHASSIS CHOICE: This weekend, crew chief Steve Letarte and the No. 88 crew will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-709. This is a brand new, untested chassis.

CLINT BOWYER ON PHOENIX: “Phoenix has always been kind of unique to itself. I think it always will be. I think the repaving and reconfiguring made it all that much better. Short track racing is always a lot of fun. I wish we had five more tracks just like Phoenix.”

BOWYER CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 15 5-hour ENERGY team will race chassis No. 712 at Phoenix. The backup is No. 718 – both are new.

MARTIN TRUEX JR. ON RETURNING TO PHOENIX: “This track is one of my favorites. Last race, we raced in the top 10 all day until we got put down a lap when the caution came out when we were in the pits. I am anxious to get back out there with our new chassis. I think we have a car that can win this race. Chad has a good idea of what our NAPA Toyota needs for me to run well. Our focus is on Turns 3 and 4, but we also need a strong throttle off of Turn 2 so I can carry the momentum into the final corners.”

MARK MARTIN CHASSIS CHOICE: Primary- 714, Backup- 715 – Both are new cars. Martin will race the No. 55 in 24 races plus the All Star race in 2012. Michael Waltrip will drive the No. 55 in six races. MWR will fill the remaining races with a driver to be named later.

GREG BIFFLE ON PHOENIX: “I think we showed in Daytona that we have a team capable of competing for wins and I can’t tell you how excited I am about the team we’ve assembled for the 2012 season. I am ready to get on the track in Phoenix and I think the fans are going to love our 3Mwraps.com paint scheme. After Phoenix I get to spend a little time at the sand dunes on my way to Vegas, which is always fun.”

BIFFLE CHASSIS CHOICE: Primary: RK-778 - Last ran New Hampshire – finished third; Backup: RK-759 - Last ran Phoenix as the No. 6 – finished 33rd.

MARCOS AMBROSE ON PHOENIX: “I love short track racing and I really enjoy going to Phoenix. I feel like my Stanley team and I made big improvements on our short-track program last year and we are going to be a force to be reckoned with this season. I had an awesome car in Phoenix last fall and I know my crew has worked really hard to give me another fast car this weekend. It’s been a short week at home with the postponement of the Daytona 500, but I’m really looking forward to heading out west and getting my No. 9 Stanley Ford unloaded and on the track.”

AMBROSE CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 9 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 805 for this weekend’s race at Phoenix International Raceway. This Stanley Ford is brand new and has never been run before.

Stewart has raced USAC, IRL and NASCAR at Phoenix

TONY STEWART ON HOW LONG HE'S BEEN RACING AT PHOENIX: “I started racing there in ’93 when I ran a USAC Silver Crown car. And since then, I’ve run USAC Midgets, Indy cars, Supermodifieds, Nationwide Series cars and, of course, Sprint Cup. So, I’ve logged a bunch of laps there. To think that it all kind of started at Phoenix, I guess you could say it’s the place where my career came full-circle.”

“When we ran the USAC cars out there, it was pretty cool because I had never gone that fast before. It’s just one of those tracks where, to run a Midget and a Silver Crown car there, it definitely got your attention. It was pretty fast.”

STEWART CHASSIS CHOICE: This car made its debut in April 2011 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where it experienced some teething problems, qualifying 28th and Finishing 34th with a broken rear-end gear. Prior to Martinsville, Chassis No. 14-637 was tested March 14 at the half-mile Little Rock Speedway in Rockingham,
N.C.

The July race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon marked the car’s second career start, where it qualified second and led twice for 48 laps around the 1.058-mile oval before finishing .773 of a second behind its sister car, piloted by Ryan Newman. It saw track time again during a Goodyear Tire Test at Phoenix International Raceway Aug. 29-30 before returning to New Hampshire in September for its third career start and first of the Chase. The car carried Stewart to his second straight Chase win, leading only the final two laps after previous leader Clint Bowyer ran out of fuel just before taking the white flag in the 300-lap race.

Chassis No. 14-637 returned to action and another flat, 1-mile oval for the 2011 season’s penultimate race at Phoenix. It again performed well by leading five times for a race-high 160 laps to deliver its third straight top three finish. The car returns to Phoenix with fresh sheet metal to make its first start of 2012 and its fifth overall with Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500k.

Ryan Newman won at Phoenix in spring of 2010 (Getty)

RYAN NEWMAN ON WHY HE'S SO GOOD AT PHOENIX: “We go to Phoenix with a good setup, and that shows by our finishes there. And luckily the changes to the track didn’t change that for us last fall. It’s hard to say why we’ve done so well there, but it’s one of my favorite tracks, and that definitely is a factor. I guess I would kind of lump Phoenix into the success that we’ve had on short tracks. The combination of Tony Gibson (crew chief), the No. 39 team and me have really been able to hit on something at the tracks a mile and under – like Martinsville and Bristol. And Phoenix is flat like New Hampshire, which is another track where we’ve had success. In my opinion, the driver has a little more of an impact on the end result at short tracks than some of the bigger racetracks, and I like that. The more the drivers are involved, the more I think you get to race and, from that standpoint, I think it’s more fun. Tony Gibson has some great setups with our short-track program. I enjoy them, he enjoys them, and we just go out there and have some fun."

"We’ve had a good car each time we’ve been to Phoenix. Gibson is a great fan of Phoenix and short-track racing, and he’s got a great understanding of the racecar there and what I like, and that makes a big difference, obviously, for me. We’ve been able to get four top-five finishes in our last four trips to Phoenix. So I’m really looking forward to getting back there this weekend after a really long Speedweeks.”

NEWMAN CHASSIS CHOICE: Two starts, two top-10 finishes. That was the story for Chassis No. 39-691 last season as it competed in the fall races at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway and Phoenix International Raceway. At Richmond, Newman started 18th and fought his way into the top-10 near lap 100 and virtually stayed there for the remainder of the 400-lap event. Newman finished eighth.

After a test session on the newly paved Phoenix track in October, Newman and Co., returned there in late November for the penultimate race of the 2011 season. Despite a poor starting position on a tricky, newly paved track surface, Newman's savvy driving skills came into play as he managed to aggressively gain track
position without any incidents on the mile oval. Newman moved into the top-10 shortly after lap 100 and never looked back, finishing a solid fifth. This weekend at Phoenix will be Chassis No. 39-691’s first appearance in 2012.

JOEY LOGANO ON PHOENIX: “Phoenix is a unique track and it will be interesting to go back now a second time since they reconfigured the track and repaved it. The place was always racey before, but like any track when you put new pavement on it, it takes a little time for it to come back around and get back to the way it was. The one thing that stands out about Phoenix though is the fact that you think it’s just a one-mile track, but it is so much different. The way you enter the corners, how it is relatively flat and the kink in the backstretch just make it a unique place. It’s actually a lot of fun to race."

LOGANO CHASSIS CHOICE: Chassis #336 will ride with Logano and the Home Depot team at Phoenix this weekend. The car was used at Phoenix last season. Chassis #339 will serve at the team’s backup for Phoenix.

DENNY HAMLIN ON PHOENIX: “What I liked the most about it in the winter was the weather. It’s 75 (degrees) there every day. For me, it was just kind of like a vacation spot, but I just stayed out there an extended period of time. They have some great golf courses, great shopping and dining. It’s just really got everything because it’s a relatively new town and city. For me, of all the places I would want to go on vacation, I would pick there. I just spent my off season there because of that.”

Kyle Busch won at Phoenix in driving No. 5 car (Getty)

KYLE BUSCH ON PHOENIX: "You’ve got to have a good car, but you’ve got to have good brakes. You’ve got to have a good-turning car, and you’ve got to have a good car that can accelerate off of turn two and go fast down the backstretch. There’s a lot involved at Phoenix, but being only the second race on the new surface, it could make it interesting.”

KYLE BUSCH CHASSIS CHOICE: No. 326 will make its fourth-ever start in Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. This chassis made its debut in the first race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last September at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. After qualifying a solid ninth and running within the top-10 all race long, Busch ran out of gas with just two laps remaining, forcing him to come to pit road for a splash of gas, which led to a disappointing 22nd-place finish.

Up next, Busch qualified third and finished 11th in the Hollywood Casino 400 last October at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. Most recently, the No. 18 team brought No. 326 to Phoenix last November. After qualifying 34th, Busch was forced to start at the rear of the field after the team changed an engine during the first practice session of the weekend. Despite the setback, Busch picked his way to the front and led 23 laps before more engine issues forced him to the sidelines after only completing 188 laps, relegating him to a disappointing 38th-place finish.

BRAD KESELOWSKI ON THE NEW PHOENIX CONFIGURATION: “I like the new Phoenix. They did an outstanding job in making a good racetrack better. It’s obviously going to take a few years before the track is in optimal condition, but with it being in the desert that process can sometimes be accelerated. I’m anxious to see how much it has aged over the winter. We saw last year that guys, myself included, were making passes through the dog leg. I don’t think anyone expected that going into the race. And the run you get off of Turn 4, down the frontstretch, has stayed the same. Those are the best places to pass.”

KESELOWSKI CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team will race chassis PRS-810 during Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). This is a new chassis to the No. 2 fleet.

KURT BUSCH ON PHOENIX: “It’s a place where I grew up watching Cup races. When I was a kid, they didn’t have Las Vegas Motor Speedway, yet. So we traveled down to Phoenix to watch the big show. The years I went, guys like Terry Labonte, Davey Allison and Dale (Earnhardt) Sr., were down there winning. It was so cool. One year, we got pit passes to walk down pit road on Sunday morning at the start of the race. I was in awe that this was the big time. It’s amazing how it has all turned out. So Phoenix, to me, was the track I grew up watching races on. Then, when I got there as a racer to race in the Southwest tour, that was basically our Daytona 500. So, when you were racing on the West Coast, Phoenix was our Daytona. That’s how big Phoenix was for us.”

“That track fits my driving style with the flat, one-mile track layout and how tight the corners are. It’s a place where you have to slide the car just right to maintain a good pace around there. The track is a little unique with the old asphalt and the new asphalt. The other thing that separates Phoenix is how you have to balance the differences with turns one and two verses the differences in turns three and four. I have just always been able to understand that track and what the car needs to do to be fast.”

KURT BUSCH CHASSIS CHOICE: This weekend’s Subway Fresh Fit 500k will be the second Phoenix race for this chassis which was built in June 2011. Landon Cassill finished 29th at Phoenix in Chassis No. 662 last fall. The car was also used in events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July and September 2011, scoring 26th- and 30th-place finishes, respectively. Kurt Busch tested this chassis in January at Nashville Superspeedway during a two-day test session in preparation for the upcoming season.

JAMIE MCMURRAY ON PHOENIX: “I am obviously disappointed with the start that we had to the season with our result (31st) at Daytona, however this is a new week. I am looking forward to going back to Phoenix to race the new configuration that we ran there in the fall. We had a really good car in November, qualified in the top-10 and raced hard all day, but we got a pit road speeding penalty that we couldn’t overcome to get the finish that we felt we deserved. We will look forward to try and bounce back from Daytona in our Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet.”

McMURRAY CHASSIS CHOICE: Chassis #1206. Crew Chief Kevin “Bono” Manion and the No.1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats team will be bringing a brand new chassis, Chassis #1206, to Phoenix International Raceway this weekend.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA ON PHOENIX: “The last time we raced there I think it was an interesting race with the new configuration. I think it is going to bring much better racing. Last time was good, but I think this time is going to be better. We have more knowledge heading into this race and it’s going to be an exciting race. It’s really the first race you really get to judge where we are as a team and how hard we need to work to catch up, or where we stand.”

MONTOYA CHASSIS CHOICE: Chassis #1203. Heroy and the No. 42 Target team will be bringing a brand new chassis, Chassis #1203, to Phoenix International Raceway this weekend.

JEFF BURTON ON PHOENIX: “I think when we go to Phoenix International Raceway, no one really has an idea what to expect. The track changes so much from day-to-day. We were really fast there and ran well, but didn’t qualify that great. I think we were second-fastest in practice and the track slowed down a half-second from what we ran in practice. We ended up qualifying 14th, ran in the front all day and had a legitimate shot to win the race. We adapted pretty quick and were fast at the test sessions out there before the race also.”

Harvick using an old No. 33 car at Phoenix

KEVIN HARVICK ON PHOENIX: “The new surface was definitely racy. They did a great job prepping for the race. With the shorter tracks, the grip is greater but it’s a different environment than what you experience on the mile-and-a-half tracks. It was a great race. They spent a lot time laying the track out, taking their strength and weaknesses and thinking about the fans as to what they can see from their seats. It all played out really well and I hope to have another good race this weekend.”

HARVICK CHASSIS CHOICE: Kevin Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 365 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. This former No. 33 racer competed in three races in NASCAR’s senior division last season, placing finishes of 17th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July, 22nd at Richmond International Raceway in September and 10th at Phoenix International Raceway in November.

PAUL MENARD ON PHOENIX: “I’ve described it (racing at the newly repaved Phoenix International Raceway) to people as feeling like a video game because it was like everything was perfect. The way the transitions were and the way it looked. There wasn’t a speck of dust on the place and no skid marks anywhere when we unloaded for the test. It was almost surreal at how neat the track was. Turns one and two still have the same character, as do turns three and four. The biggest difference is the dogleg in the back. It’s a huge elevation change. There’s a lot sharper and little bit longer corner and then another elevation change on exit. The back half of the race track is the biggest difference. We drive turns one, two, there and four the same as before.”

MENARD CHASSIS CHOICE: Paul Menard will pilot Chassis No. 328 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the Fresh Fit 500. This Chevrolet Impala was utilized by the No. 27 team three times in 2011, most recently at Phoenix International Raceway in November 2011 where Menard started 11th and finished ninth. This chassis was also raced last season at Darlington Raceway in May, where the Eau Claire, Wis., native finished 22nd and Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March where he finished 12th.

BRENDAN GAUGHAN ON THE OPPORTUNITY TO CUP RACE AGAIN AND RACING AT PHOENIX: “The opportunity to run four races for Richard Childress in the Sprint Cup Series is truly amazing. RCR has top-notch equipment and teamed me with a winning crew chief in Gil Martin. Everyone deserves a second chance and I am ecstatic that my second chance in the Sprint Cup Series is in the No. 33 Chevrolet with RCR.”

“After talking with some of my RCR teammates, they told me that the track hasn’t changed all that much, they just made the track a little “racier” off of turn 2. The Chevrolet Impala I’m driving had a win last year so I’m really looking forward to going to Phoenix in equipment the caliber I have never had a chance to drive in my career.”

The Fresh Fit 500 will mark Gaughan’s 38th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start and his first since the 2010 Daytona 500. The Las Vegas native raced full-time in NASCAR’s top series during the 2004 season, posting one top-five and four top -10 finishes. Phoenix marks the first of four Sprint Cup Series starts with RCR for 2012, Gaughan will also race the No. 33 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speeedway and Auto Club Speedway events during the month of March.

Gaughan gets to drive Harvick's winning Coca-Cola car

GAUGHAN CHASSIS CHOICE: Brendan Gaughan will pilot Chassis No. 351 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. This Chevrolet Impala is a proven contender in Sprint Cup Series competition, as Gaughan’s RCR teammate Kevin Harvick made a trip to Victory Lane with it in May 2011 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Harvick also drove this former No. 29 racer to a seventh-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September, a 10th-place finish at Dover International Speedway in October and a 19th-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway in November.

KASEY KAHNE ON PHOENIX: “Getting that win (at Phoenix International Raceway) was a huge boost for our team last year. I think the track was probably the best I can remember a brand-new race surface being in the first race. It started slippery and got better as the rubber built up. We made the adjustments we needed to put ourselves up front at the end. I’m excited to get back there with the Farmers Insurance guys this week.”

JEFF GORDON ON PHOENIX: “No, I like the old one (PIR track configuration) better. But that’s sometimes what happens with a re-pave or a new design. And the way that they did it, it changes the tire. It changes the track and how you have to drive it. And so we have to adapt to that. And one of the things we worked heavily on during the off-season was preparing for that race to make sure that when we go back there we don’t have the issues that we had the last time we were there. We had break issues. I wasn’t comfortable with how the car was handling. We started to get better as the race went on, so I’m more confident this time than I was the first time we were there (since the repaving). And I feel like we have good data from our teammates. Not only (did) Tony (Stewart) ran well, but Kasey (Kahne) and (crew chief) Kenny Francis did very well there obviously winning the race. So I feel pretty good about going back there.”

Daytona 500 Driver Notes & Quotes

TONY STEWART

Stewart still searching for elusive win No.1 in the 500 (Getty)

ON THE DAYTONA 500: “I wouldn’t trade three championships to win Daytona. It’s not a good feeling to not have that tally in the win column. Realistically, we have two tracks we haven’t won at; and the Daytona 500 we haven’t won.Everything else we have pretty much accomplished in this sport that we want to accomplish. It’s the biggest race of the year; everyone wants to win that race. I won’t say that it is not a complete career if you don’t win it, but there is a lot of priority on winning it. Darrell Waltrip and Dale (Earnhardt) Sr. both had to go a long time before they got it.”

KEVIN HARVICK
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “When you are standing there in victory lane and you look at that Harley J. Earl trophy, and you see the names on that trophy, you start to see the recognition and the list of people you put yourself on there with. It is something that is pretty special. This is our sport’s biggest race and everybody puts their biggest effort into this race because you have the most time. It has the most hype and it pays the most money. It has the most prestigious trophy and there is nothing about this race that is not the biggest or the best.”

HARVICK CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team will utilize Chassis No. 387 from the Richard Childress Racing stable for this weekend’s Daytona 500. This is a brand new race car that saw its first on-track activity at DIS during preseason testing in January.

JIMMIE JOHNSON
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “It’s such a special race and I feel very fortunate to have won that race. At that point, I didn’t have a championship, and it’s one of two races that you get a title with when you win this race – this one and the Brickyard. It can make a career and it was a huge thing for me when I won it in 2006.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR.
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “The National Guard Chevrolet was really quick in the Shootout. I felt like we had great speed. I expect to see the same thing out of the Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet when we get to the qualifying race and throughout the rest of the weekend. I feel like we will be competitive and should be able to be on the offense more than on the defense. That is what you want as a race car driver out there making passes.”

JEFF GORDON

Gordon is a three-time Daytona 500 winner (Getty)

ON THE DAYTONA 500: “It’s very difficult. The Daytona 500 has always been a tough race to win but I can tell you that in the 20 years I’ve been in the sport, the thing is that you used to be able to be a little more predictable. You used to be able to do some one-car passes and get in the top five or six and hold your position using your mirror. The last 10 years, the reason why you’ve had multiple winners is because the rules have changed, the aerodynamics have changed and it’s so much more difficult to do what we did 15 years ago and it still will be. It’s going to be very unpredictable again. Anybody can win this race.”

RYAN NEWMAN
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “There’s a lot of emphasis on Speedweeks. Everybody brings their A-game. Everybody wants to get off to a good start but, ultimately, you control only a part of it and racing luck controls the other part of it. Daytona is a tough place. It always has been. Honestly, I think our last three years have been bad luck in the way our season has started. Last year, we finished third in the Budweiser Shootout and then we had the strongest car I have ever had at Daytona. We led the most laps and we were definitely one of the front-runners to win with just a few laps left. But we got shuffled back and ended up in a wreck. It was the same thing in 2010 – we got involved in a wreck. The year before, we got involved in multiple wrecks before the 500 ever started and we were on our third race car by the time we took the green flag for the (Daytona) 500. So, all three years, we’ve started further back in points than we wanted and we have had to dig ourselves out of that hole. We’ve been able to make the Chase two of the three years. So, I guess you never know what’s going to happen. That’s why we all enjoy NASCAR Sprint Cup racing and, hopefully, it’s a good start to the season for us this year.”

ELLIOTT SADLER
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “A big reason we’re putting this car in the Daytona 500 is to have an even number of RCR cars in the race in case the tandem racing works out, especially in the closing laps of the race. My fellow Virginia native teammate Jeff Burton will most likely be my partner. We’ve already talked and discussed a plan so we’ll see how it goes.”

SADLER CHASSIS CHOICE: Elliott Sadler will pilot Chassis No. 238 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. This former No. 31 racer received a new body over the season after competing in the 2010 and 2011 Budweiser Shootouts with driver Jeff Burton, posting 12th and eighth-place finishes, respectively

KURT BUSCH
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “Anybody can win this race (the Daytona 500). Last year with the repave job, it took all the handling away from Daytona. It just went to raw speed. Trevor Bayne showed that. He put himself in position to win and he got the deal done. Danica Patrick, it can happen to her. It can happen to anybody. We just have to get to the end of the race. We have to protect our car and be in position for what I would anticipate being a green-white-checkered (finish). So that’s whether we get the car separated as far as the draft or, if they’re together, we’re going to have that green-white-checkered and it’s going to be ‘push like crazy’ with the guy in front of you no matter what.”

GREG BIFFLE

Biffle using brand new car this week (Getty)

ON THE DAYTONA 500: “The Daytona 500 is the biggest race of anyone’s career. It’s a long race, a lot happens, you have to miss the big wreck, and you’ve got to be there at the end. We don’t know how long we’ll be able to push and it’s all about track position in the last few laps. We learned a lot from the Shootout and the fact we were able to qualify on the outside row for the Daytona 500 is a testament to how hard my team has worked in the off season getting ready for this weekend. I can’t wait to see if we can keep that 3M Ford up front."

BIFFLE CHASSIS CHOICE: Primary: RK-794 Brand new chassis; Backup: RK-689. Last ran Daytona in July – finished 18th.

KASEY KAHNE

Kahne will be using a back-up in the Daytona 500 (Getty)

ON THE DAYTONA 500: “I think winning the Daytona 500 would change my life because the race is such a big race. NASCAR does so much with it, and there is so much media involved in winning the Daytona 500, that it would definitely be a huge boost in someone’s career, even mine at this point. It would be something great to have, a race that you won that is as big as it gets for us. I would love to do it. I don’t know when, or if, it ever will happen, but I would certainly love to win the Daytona 500.”

MATT KENSETH
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “The Daytona 500 is our biggest race of the year, so when you can win that race, it is one of the wins you always want to collect. Of course you want to win every week, but if you had to pick one race, this would be one of them. It was great to win it back in 2009, and I’d really like to win it again. It’s encouraging that all of the Fords have been really fast so far, and it seems like our stuff has been running good this past week. I thought Saturday night for the Shootout that the cars had good speed. As fast as all the Fords were on Sunday, I was hoping we could maybe sneak in one of those spots. We just didn’t have the speed those guys had for qualifying, but we’ll work on set-ups this week in order to race our Best Buy Ford into a better starting position for Sunday’s Daytona 500."

KENSETH CHASSIS CHOICE: Primary: RK-779 (Last run at Talladega, Oct. 2011)

RICKY STENHOUSE
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “I feel honored for the opportunity to drive the No. 6 in the Daytona 500. The No. 6 has a lot of history for the Roush Fenway Racing organization and getting to drive it in the biggest race of the year is an amazing feeling. We have a fast No. 6 Ford Ecoboost Fusion. All of the Fords looked super strong during qualifying and practice. We just need to be in the right position in the final laps, and I feel confident that we can get our first Sprint Cup win.”

STENHOUSE CHASSIS CHOICE: RK-689– primary – Daytona July race winner; RK–720 – backup – 2011 backup chassis for the No. 16.

PAUL MENARD
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “When you roll into Daytona everyone has high expectations. I firmly believe that we can be competitive this first handful of races (with) just the preparations my guys have put in during the off-season. I’m most excited to unload on Friday for Daytona practice and showcase their hard work. They have been busting their tail and I think we have a really fast race car.”

MENARD CHASSIS CHOICE: Paul Menard will pilot Chassis No. 338 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the Daytona 500. This Chevrolet Impala was a new addition to the RCR fleet for the 2011 season and saw superspeedway competition as Menard’s No. 27 in the Daytona 500, at Talladega Superspeedway in April and at Daytona International Speedway in the Coke Zero 400 in July. The car was last seen on track at Talladega in October, entered as the No. 33 Chevy 100 Years Chevrolet where the team started third and went on to claim RCR’s 100th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.

JOEY LOGANO
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “I’m really happy with how we performed in the Bud Shootout and I think that really bodes well for us in the Duels Thursday and in the 500 on Sunday. We learned a lot about how the draft works, how our car reacts and how the new rules package affects the car. After the race Saturday and again on Sunday, Jason and I talked about things and came up with a game plan of some stuff we are going to try on the primary car to make it a little more like the Shootout car. Our qualifying efforts weren’t that great, but that is what we expected. It’s not that big of deal though. It’s all about how you finish in the Duels. Unless you are on the front row, qualifying doesn’t mean a whole lot in Daytona."

LOGANO CHASSIS CHOICE: PRIMARY CAR - The No. 20 Home Depot team will take chassis #293 to Daytona for the 500. The car has run previous restrictor-plate races in the past. BACK-UP CAR - Chassis #325 will serve at the team’s backup for Daytona. It’s the same car the team used in the Daytona test back in January

CARL EDWARDS

Edwards using runner-up car from 2011 Daytona 500 (Getty)

ON THE DAYTONA 500: “We were really close to getting the victory at last year’s Daytona 500. I hope we have the same shot to win it on the last lap this year and if we do I won’t hold back. I’ll give 100 percent and if we win it would be amazing. Finishing second last year made me realize that if we do things right, if we prepare correctly the whole week and race smart that we can be in a position to win that race. Starting on the front row with Greg (Biffle) is also pretty exciting so it should be a great race.”

EDWARDS CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 99 will carry the Fastenal colors Sunday for the Daytona 500. The No. 99 crew will race RK-712 for the weekend, the same car which finished second in the 500 last year.

JEFF BURTON
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “I would not trade a single win I have had for a Daytona 500 win. However, if you got to pick, I would pick the Daytona 500. If that makes any sense; I wouldn’t. If you said to me today, after I had already won a race somewhere that you could trade them, I wouldn’t do it. Every win is special for its own reason. Winning in the Daytona 500 puts you in a category. When you are introduced later in life, you are a Daytona 500 champion. They do not introduce you as, ‘a something 300 champion’; they introduce you as a Daytona 500 champion. They introduce you as a Southern 500 champion; they introduce you as a Sprint Cup champion, so you want to win those marquee races.”

BURTON CHASSIS CHOICE: Jeff Burton will race Chassis No. 296 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in the Daytona 500. This chassis, built in 2010 for RCR’s No. 33 entry, competed in two superspeedway events in 2010 including the Talladega Superspeedway race in April (started-14th, finished-seventh) and the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway in July (started-15th, finished-17th).

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “We are really focused on what we are doing. The car has changed drastically; set-ups have changed drastically. I would not say it is like a Hendrick thing or a Red Bull thing, it is just overall the win. And I think we need to go this direction and this needs to go that direction and there are a lot of really smart people there right now and they really seem to be making really good decisions. Chris (Heroy, Crew Chief) has been really good; he wants it bad. It is fun because he is very open-minded; you can tell him everything how it is. We seem to get along really well. The guys, everything, I am pretty happy. There are going to be struggles, I am sure there are going to be struggles, but who doesn’t have that? If you do not have that, you are not trying.”

MONTOYA CHASSIS CHOICE: Heroy and the No. 42 Target team will be racing chassis #1117 in the Daytona 500. This is the same chassis that Montoya drove to a 15^th place finish during the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway last year.

BRAD KESELOWSKI

Keselowski using brand new chassis this week (Getty)

ON THE DAYTONA 500: “From what I saw at the test in January to where we are now in Speed Weeks, I still believe that AJ and I can win the Daytona 500. Our cars are really fast in race trim. Penske Racing has always built really good superspeedway cars, but for various reasons we’ve not been able to win many of these races. I’m still like a kid dreaming of hitting the game-winning shot except I dream of winning the Daytona 500. It would mean so much to me and my family to win our sport’s biggest race."

KESELOWSKI CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team will race chassis PRS-643 during Sunday’s 54^th running of the Daytona 500. This is a new chassis to the No. 2 fleet.

REGAN SMITH
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “I think our chances are good. We had a strong car here last year up until five to go. I legitimately thought we were going to be one of those cars that came to the stripe and battled for it and we had the incident with five to go. Still we were able to go from 20th to seventh in two laps, which is just how strong my race car was. We had good partners to work with too in the process of that. I think this year we’ve got better cars. I feel better about where our speedway program is right now than I did last year at this point. We tested last year and we weren’t that quick. When we unloaded I didn’t know how good we were going to be and then it turned out our car was really good pushing other cars and it kind of changed the whole event for us. I was fortunate that Kurt (Busch) took the time to teach me the type of drafting we were doing last year and it obviously worked out good for us. But this year I feel even more confident about where our car is. There’s going to be some new stuff to learn. The race is going to have a different feel than last year. It’s going to have a different feel than two years ago, but with that being said I think we have a great shot.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “I think that my chances of winning the Daytona 500 are better than one in forty-three. I think anybody can win. I don’t know until we see if it is a large pack, I think I have a better chance of winning if it is a large pack, than the tandem drafting. I don’t know why, but it just seems like for Juan (Montoya) and I, we run really well at the tandem races but something happens to one of us and it eliminates the other guy. It just seems like every race one of us gets caught up in a wreck, or a part will fail. We had an engine failure last year that eliminated us from the race. I think if it is a big pack, for me I feel like that increases my chances.”

McMURRAY CHASSIS CHOICE:  Crew Chief Kevin “Bono” Manion and the No.1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats team will be bringing a brand new chassis, Chassis #1204, to Daytona International Speedway this weekend.

DANICA PATRICK
ON THE DAYTONA 500: “Well, with Daytona, it’s a big track. It’s an easy track to drive. If you have a fast car, you’re going to probably go to the front. I think my inexperience is less of an issue because the car is easy to drive. For me, at a place like Daytona, it reminds me of racing in IndyCar. It reminds me of our mile-and-a-half racing, where we’d always be in a pack. There was no bump drafting in IndyCar, like there is in NASCAR. That took some getting used to a little bit.”

CLINT BOWYER
ON WINNING THE DAYTONA 500: “It doesn’t get any bigger than winning the Daytona 500! That’s the dream. That’s the goal. I’ve tried to win it six times now and I’m going to do everything I can again this weekend to put myself in position to get to victory lane. I’ve been so close now a couple times and something always seems to slip away at the very last second. I can tell you one thing – if I do win the Daytona 500 it’ll be the biggest celebration you’ve ever seen

Driver Quotes from Thurday's Daytona Media Day

DALE EARNHARDT JR

Dale Jr is 10/1 to win the Bud Shootout (Getty)

SO ARE YOU GOING TO WIN THE 500? “Man we are going to try.”

IS IT TO THE POINT NOW WHERE’S IT’S A LEGITIMATE ONE IN 43 SHOT FOR EVERYBODY? “Oh yeah. Everybody I think. At least 35 have a good shot at it.”

AFTER TREVOR (BAYNE) WON IT DID THAT CHANGE THE THOUGHT PROCESS THAT IT REALLY WAS AN OPEN FIELD? “No, I kind of knew it was a lottery for a while. Take nothing against Trevor I mean he did what he had to do to win the race. He made some great moves and won that race on his own. He was very smart about how he drove his car. You just don’t know who is going to come off of turn four battling for this thing anymore like before. When Dale Jarrett was in the No. 88, you knew they were going to be strong. You can guess this that and the other and make some predictions that would always come true but now not so much.”

YOU WERE PRETTY FRUSTRATED WHEN YOU LEFT HERE IN JULY WITH THE RACING, ARE YOU ENCOURAGED WITH THE THOUGHT IT COULD BE LESS TANDEM? “I’m encouraged with the work we tried. I don’t mind failing but I was happy that we tried and made a lot of changes to try to fix it and try to change it and try to get some things back in the driver’s hands.”

DO YOU THINK IT WILL WORK THOUGH? “Well I won’t know until this weekend is over with or I won’t know until the Daytona 500 is over with if we worked hard enough.”

WILL IT BE A BIGGER WIN FOR YOU IN THE 500 OR DANICA? “Me, me! She don’t driver for me in the 500 so it wouldn’t matter to me if she won it. If I win it, it would be a big deal for me! As far as what everybody else thinks, everybody is going to have a different opinion about that.”

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THAT SHE ACTUALLY BRINGS TO THIS RACE BEYOND THE MARKETING THING? “I don’t know.”

THERE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR HER AS DRIVER AS OPPOSED TO LETTING HER HERE BECAUSE IT’S A GREAT MARKETING BONANZA FOR THE SPORT. “I think she does great driving. I’ve watched her in the Nationwide Series and thinks she does a great job. People may need to watch more Nationwide races. People comment without having any knowledge. They can make ignorant statement just based on what they want to believe. What they want to accept and not accept. I’ve watched her race and I think she does great and I’ve enjoyed watching her race. She made my team better and I didn’t even think about that. We’ve been asking the question for so many months of what she would do for this sport and what has she done for the sport but one of the things I didn’t anticipate was how she made my team better. As a person she’s good to be around. She’s engaging and fun for Tony (Eury) Jr. and the team to be around. They enjoy going to the track with her and working with her. So my company improved working with her. We didn’t take a step back. As the year went on our company progressed. So that was great. I was real happy about that because I own the thing.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT HER BEHIND THE SCENES THAT OTHER PEOPLE MIGHT NOT KNOW OR THAT YOU FIND PERHAPS SURPRISING? “I don’t have anything. She goes to the race track and races. I don’t really dig into her personal life. Nothing about her was an ‘oh shit’ moment for me, it was just she’s seems normal, she works hard, she shows up to race, there’s nothing about her that’s quirky or weird, different or surprising to me. I kind of knew her a little bit before and its basically what I imagined it was as far as being around her more often once I got to be around her a little more and what was she really like as a driver and how dedicated and focused she was. She’s pretty intense.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL COMING INTO THIS SEASON? “I feel pretty good. I’m frustrated that we didn’t win last year, we came close. I’m ready to get back to that. I’m ready to get chances again. I want to win a race pretty bad but I can’t do that without racing and we haven’t been doing any so it’s been a little frustrating. Daytona, this is probably the worst odds for me all year because of the way the racing is here. This is going to be a fun experience but I’m looking forward to getting to Phoenix and the rest of the tracks to start really getting control of my destiny and trying to make some things happen for me and win some races.”

ANY CHANCES THIS CAN BE A SINGLE-FILE RACE? “No.” WHY NOT? “Because everybody is going to be on top of each other. It just won’t happen. The track, it just won’t happen no way. I will be so, so, so surprised if that is what ends up happening.”

DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE TWO-CAR DRAFT? “No, I don’t know. I don’t know if tandem is going to work or not. I know we tested; tandem’s was hard to do. It was doable but it was hard to do and you run hot. Guys went home and studied. I’m sure people did their homework and some people figured some things out. So some people will probably get the tandem to work again and it will be lights out and they will be gone.”

KURT BUSCH

Kurt Busch is 25/1 to win the Bud Shootout (Getty)

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500?: “It’s really the race that can define a driver’s career. It is a big priority, the prestigious value of winning at Daytona what it does for a driver’s career long term, what it can do for the immediate impact. This race is our spectacle. It is the most important stock car race of the year.”

DOES IT BOTHER YOU EVER THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SO CLOSE BUT HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO COLLECT A WIN?: “A little bit. I have finished second three times. I’ve pushed a teammate to win, Ryan Newman back in 2008. I remember back in 2005, when I had a move to make on Jeff Gordon on the outside going into turn three and I looked in the mirror and saw everybody cutting to the inside to go by me in the draft. I’m like man I just got to block to the inside and take this second-place finish. It kind of eats at me a little bit that I should have taken that risk to go to the high side and see what could have happened off turn-four.”

YOU SAID THREE SECONDS, THEN A KID LIKE BAYNE COMES OUT AND WINS IN HIS FIRST RACE EVER. IS THAT JUST THE WAY RACING IS?: “That’s the Daytona 500 you have to be there at the end and every year you have to build the best car that you can. As an experienced driver you have to block out the past as far as finishes, but you have to use your experience to get to that last part of the race to be in position to win.

DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE ON THE FORBES LIST OF DISLIKED ATHELES? DID YOU SEE IT? DO YOU CARE ABOUT IT?: “ Yeah I actually went from third to tenth so I actually think I improved. I made the top ten list of something. Two years in a row finishing 11th in points, then standing there trying to do an interview with Dr. Punch, having learned that my part went through Tony Stewarts grill and took away his championship hopes, that is what I was so upset about and of course it gets caught on You Tube, then they submit it to Forbes.com and then you are on a top ten list. It is what it is. Do you guys believe it?”

OBVIOUSLY ITS VERY HARD AT THIS LEVEL, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DANICA’S CHANCES AT BEING RESPECTABLE?: “She brings a lot to our sport. Just the sex appeal, the talent in the open wheel side, the ability to drive a car at this level competitively as a female it’s awesome. We will see how she does with everything. There is a lot of pressure she has to adapt to when you get into stock cars.”

DO YOU HAVE ANYONE THAT YOU HAVE PICKED TO WORK WITH IF YOU CAN?: “Anybody and everybody, but my primary guy is Regan Smith. I worked with Mark Martin during testing. A buddy of mine from 2008, Ryan Newman, he knows that we want to work together and there is the Hendrick crowd. They have four cars, I would be the fifth, but then there are the two Stewart-Haas cars and then they have Danica. There are plenty of opportunities to get out there with a Chevrolet.”

CARL EDWARDS

Carl Edwards is 12/1 to win Bud Shootout and 5/1 to win 2012 Title (Getty)

WHAT DOES IT MEAN IF A DRIVER DOESN’T WIN THE DAYTONA 500? A LOT OF GREAT DRIVERS HAVE NOT. “I don’t know. I feel that Daytona is one of those races you go to and you do everything you can. You can one shot at it a year and, for me personally, last year was really close. I learned a lot. I feel like I’m getting better at these restrictor plate races and understanding how to maximize my chances of winning because at the end of the day these races still have a lot of chance involved. I think that’s what makes this a special race because you only have one shot at it a year. It’s a race that anything can happen. Look at David Ragan last year. You just never know what’s gonna happen.”

TONY HASN’T WON OR MARK MARTIN. HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU LOOK AT GUYS LIKE THAT WHO HAVEN’T WON A 500? “I think Mark Martin is a champion of the sport, whether he’s got the trophy or not. He gives his best every week and that’s all you can do. The fun part about this sport is just going out and doing the very best you can. If you win, it’s a great feeling. I was close enough to know to at least get a taste of how great this race would feel to win and be able to be right there and have a shot at it and then get to talk to Trevor a lot about it, it would be an amazing race to win.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH WILL BE A BIG PACK RACE AND THEN THE TWO-CAR DRAFT? “Unless they make a rule that says you cannot touch another car, the race will be won by somebody who utilizes the two-car tandem. That’s it. Two cars are that much faster, but I gave up on trying to figure out a strategy here because I have no clue what the rules are gonna be. I don’t think anyone is gonna know until the driver’s meeting.”

THEY WANT TO GET THE ENGINES TO OVERHEAT SO THE GUYS WILL UNLOCK. “I don’t even know what the rules are right now. In testing we went through all those things, so I don’t know what specific package we’re gonna end up with and I don’t want to head down a path thinking of how I’m gonna do this until I know that. NASCAR is in a tough spot. They’re trying to keep this type of racing as safe as they can, keep it entertaining and keep it fair and I don’t know how you do all that at this place.”

JEFF GORDON

New Draft Partners: Kahne is 12/1 t win Bud Shootout and Gordon is 10/1

IN THE DAYTONA 500, HOW MUCH OF IT IS SKILL AND HOW MUCH OF IT IS LUCK? “You know every year is different. Every year I’ve been here grip level, cars, track conditions; it varies so there are some years where I feel like luck plays a bigger role other years where skill plays out. I don’t think there is a single Daytona 500 that I’ve won here that I didn’t have some help getting there. Maybe I got myself in position but when I made a move to try to win a race somebody was there. Whether it was for their own benefit or mine whatever it was without somebody pushing me, you can say that’s luck or whatever you want to call it; it took that to win the race. So I think that’s always going to continue to take that but I think there is a lot of skill that’s involved with being patient and putting yourself in that position. Certainly a lot of the skill on the team is having a fast race car. I think that this year is an unknown. Different rules and package than we had here last year and I think the Shootout is going to tell us a lot about how strategy, patience, aggressiveness all that’s going to work together in order to get you the victory.”

YOU’VE WON DAYTONA’S, YOU’VE WON BRICKYARDS, YOU’VE WON CHAMPIONSHIPS, THERE ARE SOME BIG NAME DRIVERS THAT HAVEN’T WONT HE DAYTONA 500, HOW MUCH IS A NASCAR CAREER NOT NECESSARILY COMPLETE WITHOUT A VICTORY IN THE DAYTONA 500? “I think for drivers that really feel like they’re one of the top drivers from a talent standpoint they’re not going to look at a restrictor-plate race and a victory there the same because they’re going to say it’s harder to win at Martinsville, it’s harder to win at Bristol, it’s harder to win at Kansas or something like that and they’re going to say I rather have victories at those places and maybe a Brickyard. But I think there isn’t anybody that doesn’t want to win the Daytona 500. I think that’s the difference. It doesn’t matter whether its restrictor-plate race or not or how much skill or luck goes into it, you want to win it. The longer you go without winning it the more challenging it becomes and the harder you think it is and when you do accomplish it, I think there is that much more meaning behind it not to mention just the fact that this race means the world to a race car driver.”

WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT PEOPLE NOT WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 DO YOU THINK MAYBE TONY STEWART HAS GOTTEN MORE IN THE DALE SR MODE OF WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “Yeah, I would definitely say that. When you look at talent level, accomplishments, then you look at the stats and his accomplishments on restrictor-plate tracks, he’s won quite a few of them too, and to me he’s starting to get in that category. He’s got a few more years and I know Tony hopes he doesn’t get all the way into that category but Dale went for a long time without getting that victory and Tony is building on that. But yeah I think he’s definitely I would put in a category like that if you look at guys who haven’t won the 500.”

WILL YOU SEE PACKS AGAIN OR LINES? “Well, that’s what’s undetermined. That’s what we won’t know until the Bud Shootout. I think you are going to see some packs and then we’re going to see if we can race three wide in packs lap after lap. Cars have less down force and a little more power. At night it might be okay but during the day time for the 150’s and the 500 might be a little different. To me I’m looking at whatever strategies is going to get me to Victory Lane and if that’s get up front and you can stay there then I’m all for that. If that means you’ve got to kind of ride and be patient, we’ll play the strategy that works best but none of want to do that. We want to get up there and race hard the entire race. But one thing I know you are taking more risks now doing the two-car draft than we ever have before from an engine standpoint and throwing in the lack of radio communication. It’s making it more risky to do and I think unless it’s the final lap of the race, I don’t know if it’s worth it.”

TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU FEEL DANICA BRINGS TO THIS RACE BEYOND THE MARKETING ASPECT. “I think she’s a competitive driver. I think that her lack of experience in the Cup cars and for anybody it doesn’t matter who it is, is still there. But I think as far as her talent she’s raced her whole life and she earned her way to Indy Cars and she’s earned her way to here. The marketability certainly has helped and I think that she’s done a great job utilizing that as well as NASCAR. It’s great for the sport. Who doesn’t want to see a female driver come in here and be able to race with the guys and do well and be marketable? It’s great for the sport. It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s going to take some time. She might do really well with Daytona being a restrictor-plate track but we all come into this series and have to go through the learning curve. It’s not going to be any different for her.”

TONY STEWART

Tony Stewart is 12/1 to win Bud Shootout (Getty)

JIMMIE JOHNSON SAID OVER THE OFF SEASON HE HAD A CHANCE TO TAKE AN ENTIRE MONTH OFF AND REFELCT. IN THAT TIME HE SAID HE FELT LIKE OVER HIS FIVE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASONS HE HAD GOTTEN COMPLACENT. DO YOU THINK THERE WILL EVER BE THAT FEELING OF COMPLACENCY WITH YOU? “I don’t think so. My deal is a little different than all these other guys. A lot of them are married; most of them are married and have families and children. I have a dog and two cats so they don’t care if I go race seven days a week as long as they get fed they are happy. That is just my deal that is just where my lifestyle is a little different. I looked for every race that I could run through the off season. That is what I wanted to do. It sounds like you would wear yourself out doing it but that is my workout plan. I don’t go to the gym. I go to the race track and race. I’m just much happier when I can be racing.”

WHERE ON THE TONY STEWART BUCKET LIST IS WINNING THE DAYTONA 500?: “Very high on it. Especially these next two weeks, it is the highest thing on it.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DYNAMICS OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH DANICA? “We haven’t had a chance to work a lot with each other at the race track yet, just at Daytona so far. The great thing is that in the short amount of time that we did get to work with her here, she processes information so fast, it’s much quicker than any other rookie that I have seen. Her feedback is really good and detailed. You can’t teach that, that is a talent that you have to have. Nobody can teach you to have that amount of feedback and feel for a car. There is no doubt in my mind that she is going to be good in these, it is just a matter of how long is it going to take for her to really get super comfortable in these cars.”

WHAT ABOUT THE PERSONALITIES BETWEEN YOU AND HER?: “Perfect, her and Ryan and I together, it’s comical if you get the three of us to where we know that there is no cameras and reporters going on it’s a pretty funny conversation. She is pretty sarcastic like Ryan and I both.”

ARE YOU GOING TO DRINK SOME WINE MAYBE?: “I have never drank wine in my life. Somebody tell this man what I drink.”

CAN SHE WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “Did anybody think Trevor Bayne could win the race last year on this day? Anything can happen here it is anybody’s ballgame. She did a really good job in July last year in the Nationwide race when I ran with her. I was really impressed at how smooth she was and how good a job she did in the two car deal. Talent, there is no doubt in my mind she has the talent to do it.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON

Johnson is 9/2 favorite to win 2012 title

WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP RUN WAS OVER LAST YEAR? “The Charlotte crash really started the thought process. Then Talladega, it was evident that window was closing and that I needed a lot of things to happen to the No. 14 and No. 99. Then we left Phoenix and I still had that fire and hope that I wouldn’t be out of it that there might be a mistake and I wanted to be ready for it. But when I left Phoenix it was crazy just feeling the pressure kind of leave. I didn’t realize what was on me and the high standard I had hoped for myself or the pressure I was carrying and when it left it was kind of like, ok there it goes, now it’s time to enjoy Homestead. I went down there and had a really great time, I think we had a really fast car, but it was a wild experience to feel the pressure leave from Phoenix until I saw all the tweets about the champion’s lunch taking place on the Wednesday. Then that championship mind set hit me again and I became really disappointed that I wasn’t there at that luncheon and apart of all of it.”

WHAT SPECIFICALLY DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER LOOKING BACK AT LAST SEASON?: “ I didn’t realize that over the five years or six years that we didn’t change as much maybe as we needed to and evolve. It’s tough to leave a successful road map and Chad and the team and I have been good at reinventing ourselves each year. But until the streak was broken looking back at this off season what we have been through and trying to rebuild the team and make sure we are looking at everything we can, we have a different depth. I’m focusing on my interaction with the team, how I provide information with the team, what information I’m looking at, there are a lot of things I haven’t done in the past and I felt like I was one of the most in depth drivers out there. I’m trying to even take that steps further now, so because of the loss we have been able to dig deeper and get away from the road map we’ve built and challenge ourselves more. At the same time the garage area has been extremely focused on everything the No. 48 car has done over the last six years, so maybe years three or four a lot of guys came out direction and really paid attention to what we were doing and they caught us and we got beat. We have to reinvent ourselves in some ways this year and we are ready for it.”

YOU’VE HAD TO DEAL WITH THE PHENOMENA THAT IS DALE JR., NOW DANICA IS COMING OVER, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER PERSONALLY? HAVE YOU SPENT TIME WITH HER? HOW DO YOU THINK SHE WILL AFFECT THE SPORT IN GENERAL? “I think she is great for our sport. We need people tuned in and watching and certainly new fans are important to all of us. I think she brings in a lot of new fans, she has a big following. She is been able to get our sport onto a different platform, with mainstream media and things that she is involved with outside of racing. I’m excited for it. I think it is going to be great. I’ve gotten to know her a little bit over the last year or so. She is very committed to the sport, very committed to being a racer, which is great to see and shows with what she has been able to accomplish on track. The thing she is going to have to fight through this year is with that big spotlight burning on her, some she has created because she has a brand she is promoting and building, and a very successful brand, there is an intense spotlight on her, every move she makes is going to be criticized good and bad. Her performance, there is a big hurdle there for her to accomplish on track and it’s going to be a challenge for her.

“She has my support. I know she has our sports support, she is with Tony and Ryan and they will be able to help her out tremendously. Obviously on the Nationwide side she has a lot of good people to pull from there as well. If she is patient with her development and her fan base is, I think she is going to be here for a long time and be very successful.”

TREVOR BAYNE
CAN YOU REPEAT? “That’s the plan. We wouldn’t have come if we didn’t think we could win. There’s a little bit more pressure this year. We’re not exactly flying under the radar, but I think we can go for it, that’s for sure.

JOEY LOGANO
Do you think you started competing in the Sprint Cup Series too early? “Looking at it now — probably yeah. There’s a lot more to it than I thought. I was 18 years old, I had the opportunity to jump in the Home Depot car and I probably would do it again. Who wouldn’t? It was definitely the right thing to do, but once you get in there and realize how much more stuff actually comes along with that. It’s the off the track stuff and dealing with people and how to deal with certain situations — how to keep a team motivated and be a leader. It was all stuff that when you’re 18 years old — you don’t really know how to do that. You just go out there and race all the time. Some of that came really easy to me — even Nationwide came really quick. It was a lot bigger jump than I thought just because of all the off track stuff.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI

Keselowski is 20/1 to win 2012 NASCAR Championship

DO YOU LET YOURSELF DAYDREAM ABOUT WINNING THE DAYTONA 500? “Yes. Absolutely.” WHAT WOULD THAT BE LIKE? “I think about a moment. To me, when I look at a win, I always think of a moment that created the win. Do you allow yourself to win the 500? Yes. I think about the pass for the win or whatever moment it takes to get the win. That’s the moment that I think about. The wins that I have been fortunate to have, the memories that I have from them are those moments; the moment that you take the lead. Those are the moments that I dream of.”

DO YOU FEEL MORE PRESSURE ON YOU THIS YEAR TO BE THE TEAM LEADER? “I’m sure there will be more media pressure. I feel like I’m my own worse critic. I think that you guys can write some really mean stuff about me that wouldn’t be in comparison to what I’d say about myself. I’m happy to have the role. I think pressure is good. I think pressure keeps you honest. I think that it’s the next step for me to accomplish the goal that I have of winning a Sprint Cup championship and I think that you have to be a leader to do that. I’m now in a position to do that and I’m very proud of that. I’m ready for that pressure.”

CAN YOU REFLECT ON THE DEPARTURE OF KURT (BUSCH) AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM AS A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR YOURSELF? “When I look at Kurt, I think about a guy who was an excellent teammate to me. He didn’t get a lot of credit for that. The events of the last few months have not been easy for him or anyone else. I have a lot of respect for him and his talent and his commitment of being a good teammate to me. It’s with those thoughts that I feel like I would be a real jerk if I kicked him when he was down. I don’t want to be that guy. I think there is always something to be learned, whether in success or failure. As to what that is for Kurt, we won’t know for a few more years. It could have been the break that he needed. Who knows? It just depends on what outlook he has and where it goes from here.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA

Montoya is 30/1 to win Daytona 500 (Getty)

THERE ARE CONSIDERABLE CHANGES THIS YEAR AT EGR. ARE YOU CHARGED UP? IS THIS GOING TO BE THE BEST YEAR EVER?
“Well there have been a lot of changes; it has been a very interesting off season for us. I think the road crew changed like 90% of, engineering, back in the shop changed, there are a lot of really good changes. I don’t want to go out and say “Oh” but they have done a great job with the car. The car seems to be pretty fast, pace has been ok. I don’t know, have to wait and see. I think Daytona will not tell us much, it never does. We have done a good amount of testing, I think we have prepared ourselves the best we could and see what happens. We go to Phoenix and start seeing how good and how much we have evolved over the winter, I know we have made some numbers and things. We have evolved a lot and I think we are going to be way more competitive, but we will wait and see, we need to be.”

DURING MUCH OF YOUR CAREER YOU HAVE NOT STRUGGLED. YOU HAVE BEEN HERE FIVE YEARS AND PROBABLY HAVE NOT HAD THE SUCCESS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR:
“No, I think in the first three years I did expect not to be that great at it because it was going to be so different, the three years actually came out really good, the third year we made the Chase, fought for the title and everything was good. The year after it was an average year, we took a win and a lot of poles and things, but it was not a great year for us and last year should have been a really good year for us and we really struggled. You look at Jamie (McMurray) the year before won four races and last year, I mean it was a struggle.”

DO YOU GET BOTHERED BY PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT YOU STILL HAVE NOT WON AN OVAL RACE?
“I don’t care. Do I want to win on an oval? Yea I want to win on an oval. Do I want to win championships? Yea I want to win championships; we are here to get a job done. It doesn’t really matter where it is one thing or the other; you just really want to try to get the job done.”

WHAT IS REALISTIC FOR DANICA PATRICK? AND HOW HARD IS THIS GOING TO BE FOR HER?
“That is a good question, I don’t know. She is in a really good car, I think that, in a way should help her but in a way it will put a lot more pressure on her. If you think about it, you are in a Stewart-Haas car, a car that just won the championship; you are going to be expected to run well. Weather she was there or on the smallest team, everyone wants to see what happens. I think she might surprise some people.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENT FROM THE OPEN WHEEL CARS TO STOCK CARS THAT DANICA PATRICK IS GOING TO EXPERIENCE?
“She has been doing Nationwide for a year, and she has been getting better at it. I think this year she is going to get it. I think the question this year is how she transforms from Nationwide to the Cup car. The nationwide, you do not brake, they hardly ever lift, and it is very different. In the Cup cars we have to brake and there is a lot more power so you will be sliding around more, it is going to be interesting.”

DANICA PATRICK

Danica Patrick is 50/1 to win Daytona 500 (Getty)

TREVOR BAYNE PROVED LAST YEAR THAT A NEWCOMER CAN WIN THIS RACE. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO WIN THIS RACE? “Luck. I have a fast car so I think that’s taken care of but I think it’s going to take some good breaks and a patient race, staying out of trouble. You know it would be nice to kind of keep toward the front. I’ve found that when you are up near the front away from the thick of things you’re much less likely to be caught in an accident that smoke is filled the air to and you can’t miss or you can’t see. But I think luck is going to play a big factor.”

AND ITS GOING TO BE MORE OF A PACK RACE THAN A TANDUM RACE SO HOW MUCH OF THAT IS GOING TO COME INTO PLAY FOR YOU? “I don’t pack racing. You’re going to have to make sure you stay in touch with the pack. If you lose the pack you are in trouble. But then I think you’re still going to be able to do some tandem to catch back up if that’s the case and at the end of the day I believe what is going to win the race is something tandem. The accidents might be bigger again just because everybody is closer but hopefully it’s exciting for the fans. I know they have asked for pack racing back and I know it looks visually much more interesting and it’s fine. We did some pack racing in testing a few weeks ago and I think everybody enjoyed it.”

WILL TONY (STEWART) BE YOUR TANDUM PARTNER, HAVE YOU FIGURED THAT OUT YET? “I don’t know you should ask Tony that. I think partly it just depends on where you are at on the track and are you near each other to make that tandem happen. I would love to run with Tony I know that much. I have no problem running with Ryan (Newman) either but Tony and I ran really well in the summer race. I’m sure that given all situations I could learn a lot from him.”

BUT THEY’RE NOT YOUR TEAMMATES. “They’re essentially not my teammates but they are my teammates for the big picture and that’s the reason why they are kind of not my teammates right now is for the big picture.”

DOES EVERYBODY HAVE AN IDEA YET OF WHAT THE PERCENTAGE MIGHT BE, PACK-RACING VERSES TANDEM? “I don’t know what changes they’ve made since the test we did a few weeks ago but there was a lot of tandem running being done so I don’t know. I think you will find a lot of drivers and especially you’ll find a lot of veterans that want to do pack racing and they are going to hang out like that and there will probably be a lot of running like that. But you will also find some people and you might even find a couple of groups of people that hook up and get away and then do their own pack running for a while just to make the group smaller. I think that it just depends on who is where, yellow flags and things like that or long green-flag runs. I think there is probably going to be more than two percent tandem racing but we’ll see.”

- from team press releases

Driver Notes & Quotes for Kansas Hollywood Casino 400

Greg Biffle finished 1st or 3rd in four of the last five Kansas races (Getty)

GREG BIFFLE ON KANSAS: “Kansas is a unique track that I have always enjoyed racing at. I think I enjoy it because I’ve run well there. We were able to win there last year and finished third there the two years before that. We got our only win of the 2007 season at Kansas too, so we know we can get to victory lane there if we don’t have anything go wrong. We’re working really hard on all fronts to do everything we can to get the No. 16 Ford into the winner’s circle. We have Sherwin-Williams on the car this week which is the same paint scheme we took to victory lane in Kansas last year.”

CARL EDWARDS ON RACING AT KANSAS: “There is absolutely nothing better than racing in front of your family and friends at your hometown track this weekend at Kansas Speedway. A win there would mean the world to me. We are going into Kansas tied for the lead with seven races to go and we are coming off a good finish at Dover. We’d like to build on that lead and Kansas would be the perfect track to do that.”

FOR THE RECORD…Edwards will make his ninth Cup start at Kansas Speedway this weekend. In his previous starts, Edwards has three top-five and six top-10 finishes. His average start is 20.5 and his average finish is 11.4. His best finish (second) came in 2008.

HOME TRACK… Edwards is a native of, and currently resides in Columbia, Mo. Only 130 miles away, he considers Kansas Speedway his home track in the Sprint Cup Series.

EDWARDS CHASSIS CHOICE: The Aflac team will be bringing chassis RK-732 to Kansas. This car most recently raced at Pocono in August where Edwards finished seventh.

Matt Kenseth using ninth-place Atlanta car (Getty)

MATT KENSETH ON KANSAS: “Kansas and Chicago are a lot alike when you look at 1.5-mile tracks, and I thought that we had a really strong car in Chicago a few weeks ago, so I’m looking forward to a great run this weekend at Kansas. The thing about Kansas that makes it a little different is the pavement, and how the surface has started to wear out, which is a good thing for us when we’re racing. It’s important to have good balance on new tires in order for our Crown Royal Ford to still be good at the end of a run. We work hard to make sure that our car drives well throughout the entire run at Kansas, and if we can do that and continue our great work on pit road, we should have a strong finish Sunday.”

KENSETH CREW CHIEF JIMMY FENNIG ON THEIR KANSAS CAR: “The car we’re bringing this weekend to Kansas was last run at Atlanta where it was a brand new chassis in our rotation. When we raced at Kansas earlier this season, we were able to finish sixth, and I expect us to have a good run this weekend there. Kansas is a track where we typically see cars be aero-tight since it can be difficult to pass at. Kansas and Chicago are similar tracks and I feel that we had a strong car at Chicago so hopefully we can translate that success into our car for this weekend at Kansas.”

DENNY HAMLIN ON HOW HE FEELS ABOUT HEADING BACK TO KANSAS: “I’m looking forward to it. We ran really strong in the Kansas race in the spring and really 1.5-mile tracks in general have been good to us here lately as far as our performance. We look forward to going back to them. It’s the normal type races of what we have during the season Tracks like Dover and New Hampshire these past two weeks have kind of been one off race tracks where you really can’t get a good feel for where your program is at.”

Kyle Busch is using Chicagoland car this week (Getty)

KYLE BUSCH ON CHANGES HE'S SEEN AT KANSAS: “Kansas is a typical cookie-cutter-type race track that we always call a mile-and-a-halfs that have that layout. It’s got older asphalt now, but that’s going to change for next year. The surface has matured a little bit over the years. It’s a race track where you can move all over the place. You can go from the bottom all the way to the top. Typically, when we repave these places you’re always stuck to the bottom. It’s the fastest way around. The shortest way around. Sometimes there’s not a lot of grip. It’s got good age to it. It’s got some character. There are definitely some things about it that are different than other race tracks that we go to and that’s what the drivers like. We don’t want to see a Charlotte, a Texas and Atlanta all the same. They’re all so different. But, yet from the naked eye looking above, they’re all laid out the same. So, you would think that they drive the same, but they’re completely different.”

BUSCH ON LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING KANSAS AGAIN: “I think we need to be better than I have run there before. Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and all the guys in the shop have worked really hard to be as prepared as possible for Kansas. We were much better at Chicago this year, even though our results didn’t show it, and the guys went to work to bring an even better car to Kansas this weekend and it’s a very similar layout to Chicago. The banking is just a little bit different but, other than that, it’s really similar. I’ve had some success with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and Hendrick (Motorsports) in the Nationwide Series there, and I’m hoping, with a little more experience and knowledge, I can do that in the Cup car at Kansas, as well. This weekend would be a great time to get it figured out and, hopefully, have a good solid top-five day with our M&M’s Camry.”

BUSCH CHASSIS CHOICE: This chassis will make its second-ever start in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. This chassis made its debut in the first race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last month at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. After qualifying a solid ninth and running within the top-10 all race long, Busch ran out of gas with just two laps remaining, forcing him to come to pit road for a splash of gas and led to a disappointing 22nd-place finish.

Harvick is using runner-up Chicagoland chassis (Getty)

KEVIN HARVICK ON KANSAS: “I think when you look at the facility itself (Kansas Speedway), when you look at the surrounding area, there are not too many places that we go to that have built around the race track like this particular track. From a fan standpoint, when you look at the race track, there are things to do and places to go, so that part of it is good. The race track itself is a lot like a lot of the other race tracks we go to as far as the race track shape and size, so that doesn’t really set it aside from a lot of other places. The one thing that does set it aside is the way that the race track has aged, which is a good thing. You look at Charlotte, those types of race tracks, the asphalt has not changed much over the years and this particular race track, the tires wear out, it gets slick and the cars start to slide around, which makes the racing groove move up, which it has done here over the past couple of years so that part of it has changed a little bit differently than a lot of the mile-and-a-half tracks.

“I think the competition level is so even. I don’t think you’re going to see anybody come in here and dominate like you have before, as far as just taking off and running away. You’re going to be consistent and solid and it’s just a matter of keeping yourself in it until you get to the last couple of races and if you can keep yourself in contention, hopefully you’ve eliminated most of the other guys in the Chase.”

HARVICK CHASSIS CHOICE: Kevin Harvick will race chassis No. 378 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. The team utilized this car at Chicagoland Speedway to earn a second-place finish last month.

Stewart is using his dominant Vegas car this week (Getty)

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – 3RD IN STANDINGS: “It seems like in the last couple of years it (Kansas Speedway) has really come around. It’s seasoned and it’s gotten to where we can get off the bottom and move around the racetrack more. That’s what you want as a driver. That’s what the teams want. You don’t want to be stuck following guys and not being able to move around and pass. It just makes you confident that you know you have options when you go into the corner where you can help yourself out as a driver. It makes this place a lot more fun to race when you’re able to move around and find different grooves.”

STEWART CHASSIS CHOICE: This car debuted in May 2010 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. It qualified 26th and finished 15th in its maiden race. It saw extensive wind-tunnel time before returning to action in late July for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There, it qualified 15th and
ran most of the race at the lower end of the top-10. But a savvy two-tire pit call on the team’s final stop allowed it to rally to a fifth-place finish. Chassis No. 14-591 spent the rest of the 2010 season as a backup, and in the off-season, it received a new body and logged many hours in the wind tunnel.

The Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was its third career start and first of 2011. It was impressive, as Stewart dominated, leading four times for a race-high 163 laps. He opened up a four-second advantage until a pit road miscue derailed the perfect outing and left him second when the checkered flag dropped. Its next start came in May’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, where it was poised to finish in the top-10 until engine woes late in the race dropped it to a 17th-place finish. Chassis No. 14-591’s next outing came in a test July 9 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. It returned to racing Labor Day weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where after starting 20th, rallied to an impressive third-place finish, gaining 8.5 seconds on eventual winner Jeff Gordon in the final 10 laps. The Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas will mark Chassis No. 14-591’s sixth career start and fourth this season.

JIMMIE JOHNSON ON KANSAS: “The track’s (Kansas Speedway) lost a ton of grip and it’s heading toward Atlanta from a grip standpoint. There are lots of grooves to race on and cars don’t really wear the tire off. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it could be a fuel mileage race but I don’t really want to think about it from that standpoint.”

JOHNSON CHASSIS CHOICE: Johnson will drive chassis No. 681 in Sunday’s race. He crossed the line 10th in that chassis at Chicagoland Speedway in September. Johnson finished second in backup chassis No. 650 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September.

JEFF GORDON ON KANSAS: “This has been a great track for us and I can’t wait for this weekend’s race. I hope we run like we did earlier this year. If so, it gives us a chance to make up some points. I feel like Kansas is where we really turned the corner this year with our 1.5-mile program. We ran really strong and I felt like we had a shot at winning that race. I guess we are somewhat fortunate (with seven races remaining in the Chase to the NASCAR Sprint Cup). We’ve had only one good race out of three, but we’re down only 19 points. That doesn’t have to be made up in one event. Seven races is a lot of races. But every race is important. It doesn’t matter what track you are going to and what your past experience or stats are there. It’s all about what you do these next seven weeks. That’s all it boils down to. And I think this No. 24 team is strong enough to put a string of seven good races together.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR. ON KANSAS: “We kind of struggled in that race, but the car ended up not being too bad. I don’t know if we could have caught Brad (Keselowski) there at the end, but we had to do what we had to do at that point. I was happy with the second-place finish, but I do think we need to qualify better so we won’t have to deal with the dirty air. The aero balance on the car can be frustrating being so far back.”

RYAN NEWMAN ON KANSAS: “Kansas is quite a bit different with the asphalt. The seams are the same as in the asphalt, I guess you could say. The way we have to cut them and work them, cars can be pretty sensitive there. Charlotte is a totally different animal with the banking and the speed and the tire combination that we have at that racetrack. I look forward to both of them. We had a decent car at Kansas in the first race and never got track position and the improvements we made in the car and the team at Chicago, I look forward to going back to a mile-and-a-half racetrack because that had been one of our weaknesses and I feel like it is one of our strengths right now.”

RYAN NEWMAN CHASSIS CHOICE: This will be the fourth start for Chassis No. 39-677 this season and the first start for the chassis at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The chassis made its first start in July at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Newman started 23rd and finished 12th. The next start for Chassis 39-677 was in August at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, where Newman started third and finished fifth. The last on-track appearance for this chassis came in September at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., where Newman started fourth and led 18 laps en route to an eighth-place result.

Clint Bowyer is hoping for some home-cooking this week

CLINT BOWYER ON KANSAS: “Kansas is a great market. They earned a second date. Beyond that, it’s just a great place for a fan to go watch a race. There’s so much to do around the race track within walking distance, malls, shopping centers and a ton of restaurants. There’s going to be a casino on property next year. So many things have happened to that area because of the race track. Everyone around there is proud of what it’s become. It’s just a long week (with additional pressure) because that’s where I’m from. A lot of my personal and dirt team sponsors are based in that area too. It’s a long busy week and it’s important to reach out and help all those people that support us throughout the season.”

BOWYER CHASSIS CHOICE: Clint Bowyer will pilot chassis No. 371 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable this weekend. This Chevrolet Impala, built new last month, was utilized at Chicagoland Speedway in September when Bowyer drove it to a top-10 finish of seventh after starting 21st.

MARK MARTIN ON KANSAS: “The best thing to me about going to Kansas is that it’s real close to Batesville, Ark. I have a lot of fans that make the drive up there to support me and this team and that means a lot to me. I feel like our intermediate program is getting better and better. We’ve gotten top-10s in two of our last three intermediate races. Hopefully we can give them a show this weekend and get a good finish out of it.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA ON KANSAS: “We hope to get things back on track this weekend in Kansas. If you look at our season to this point and last year, we’ve had good runs, but the finishes aren’t there. It has been like that. We have had good speed, but bad finishes for one reason or another. We run out of gas, we pit and everyone stays out, or they make it and we don’t. Jim (Pohlman) is now getting comfortable. It’s not an easy transition but now he is relaxing and getting in the zone, and things are going to turn around and get better.”

PAUL MENARD ON KANSAS: “We felt like we let one get away there (Kansas Speedway) last year. If I remember right, last Fall the No. 16 won the race and he was really fast. Everyone else was kind of racing for second-place. When we came in for our last pit stop, we didn’t have a good one and fell back quite a bit because of that. We felt we let one get away there. By the time we get to qualifying, we’ve gone through practice and figured out how we want the car to drive off into the corner. If you can do that, you usually can qualify pretty well by arcing it out and turning the wheel.”

MENARD CHASSIS CHOICE: Paul Menard will pilot Chassis No. 379 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. This is a brand new No. 27 Chevrolet Impala that will turn its first laps during opening practice on Friday at Kansas Speedway.

JEFF BURTON ON KANSAS: “I think we’ve always had good race cars at Kansas (Speedway), we’ve just always had something go wrong. I feel really good about going there and I really enjoy the race track. I think it’s a great track and as it has gotten older, it’s become a much, much better track to race on. I have really high expectations going there. It’s your typical 1.5-mile speedway where dynamics are very important. Although, it’s not a real high-banked or high-speed race track, the grip goes away and it gets slick. It’s not a place that you tend to run wide open during qualifying. It’s a track that you have to be aggressive on. It’s not a cookie cutter, high grip, new pavement type of race track.”

BURTON CHASSIS CHOICE: Jeff Burton will pilot chassis No. 367 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. This Caterpillar Chevrolet is a recent addition to the fleet and ran for the first time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July where Burton started 13th and finished 35th after facing electrical issues in the closing laps. It later ran at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September, where Burton started 27th and climbed through the field to post a 13th-place finish.

REGAN SMITH ON KANSAS: “Once again we (Furniture Row Racing) will be showcasing the Farm American paint scheme on our No. 78 Chevrolet. What better place to pay tribute to our farmers and ranchers than in the Heartland of America. We’ve been on a consistent pace the past four races, scoring four straight top-20s. While we like the consistency and staying away from trouble and mechanical issues, we would like to see the final results improve to top-15s and top-10s. I feel we can do that at Kansas since we have a solid intermediate track program. Kansas is the first of four remaining races on mile-and-a-half tracks. A good performance Sunday will not only give us a lift, but also help us prepare for the other 1.5 ovals.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY ON KANSAS: “I am looking forward to going back to Kansas again. I think our team has made some progress on our cars since our first trip there in June. We ran good a Chicago a couple of weeks ago before we had a motor problem and the two tracks are very similar so we hope we can have our Chevrolet running strong again. This is also the closest track to Bass Pro Shops headquarters in Springfield, Mo. and we always want to put on a good show for all of the guests that we will have on hand this weekend.”

Kurt Busch dominated first Kansas race (Getty)

KURT BUSCH ON KANSAS:“I don’t know what it is about the Kansas track. The year that I won the championship, I finished sixth and that had been the highlight so far. It’s a flat mile-and-a-half that reminds me of Las Vegas when it was built and flat. It’s just a tough combination. If you’re just a tick off, you feel like you play catch-up most of the weekend and if you unload fast, you’re tough to chase down.”

BUSCH CREW CHIEF STEVE ADDINGTON ON THEIR KANSAS CAR: “This is a sister car to our ‘758’ that we won Dover with last weekend. Since the last time out, we’ve gone back and completely redone this car with our latest stuff. It’ll be a good car for Kansas and we can’t wait to get back out there. We’re heading in there with the attitude that we have some unfinished business to take care of this time around.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI ON KANSAS: “Wow. So much has happened this year since we won at Kansas, but I don’t want the significance of that win lost in the fact that we won two more races and made the Chase. That win at Kansas was special because we knew we were doing the right things to be successful, but just didn’t get the luck needed to win. Winning at Kansas was a validation, of sorts, and it was definitely the catalyst for what we were able to accomplish as the summer months wore on. We won the race on fuel mileage, but we had a very fast car throughout the race. We ran in the top-10 most of the day. With a fast Miller Lite Dodge and good fuel mileage, I’m confident about our chances this weekend.”

KESELOWSKI CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team will race chassis PRS-753 during Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway. Keselowski last raced this chassis to a third-place finish at Michigan International Speedway in August.

DAVID RAGAN ON KANSAS: “We always look to improve at tracks from the first event there and Kansas is a track that really fits our program. Our engines run well there and our cars are fast. Drew and I are going to work hard to try and grab another win for our UPS team.”

RAGAN CHASSIS CHOICE: Primary: RK-730 Last ran Kansas – finished 13th; Backup: RK-711 Last ran Darlington – finished 21st