MoneyLion, America’s most powerful and rewarding financial membership, announces its partnership with one of the preeminent teams in one of America’s most thrilling sports: Team Penske in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
ERIK JONES, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Can you talk about getting to the playoffs for the first time? “It’s exciting to be in the Playoffs for the first time. In the Cup Series, you want to be in contention for a championship. This is our opportunity to do it this year. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be challenging. It’s going to be a new experience."
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Is a win at a premium right now? “I think wins are always important and I think the biggest thing now is that each round kind of has their own wildcard race if you look at it – you’ve got the Roval in the first round, Talladega in the second round and then Martinsville kind of turned into a crazy race in the third round. It’s all just going to be about trying to maintain and have a good day. If you can get top-five finishes, great, that’s going to propel us through with the amount of points we have and the point cushion we have, but wins are the ultimate. If you can get those then you’re automatically in and that’s what we all strive for.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What could you have done differently at Indianapolis? “Nothing. There was nothing that I could have done differently. What I did to lose the lead and there was just too much grip (Brad) Keselowski ran faster than us before the caution even came out. I wasn’t going to get there but that restart allowed him to be right on us. "
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - Do alliances work and is there a timeframe on how long they can be successful? “I don’t think in either situation, whether it was their (Stewart Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports) or ours, I don’t think that had anything really to do with how both of them changed – you get what I’m saying?"
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media at Playoff media day. Select Quotes: HOW DO YOU ATTACK RICHMOND? “Well, you know I always felt like Richmond was one of my worst places, but this year we had a really good run earlier this year there and we got our car pretty good at the test just a couple of weeks ago, so I’m pumped to get back to go to Richmond. Like you said, you can always get to somebody at Richmond, so payback is usual one of those places you circle Richmond is one of them. We will be aggressive when we get there.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Ford Fusion -- QUESTION INAUDIBLE: “It is really important to get started on the right foot here. I don't really care about the underdog thing. That has been my whole life. That is what everyone labels this team as, which is fine with us. We will do our own thing. I don't think it gives us any extra motivation. The motivation is there. We don't really want to be the life of the party, we just want to do our jobs and do the best we can. Whatever happens, happens.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media during Playoff Media Day. Select Quotes: YOU DRIVE FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AND SO DOES JIMMIE JOHNSON. FOR WHATEVER REASON, HE DOES NOT HAVE THE SAME RESULTS AS YOU HAVE HAD THIS YEAR. WHY IS THAT? “As a whole, we’ve just been trying to get better as a team. We’ve been lucky and have had a couple of good runs. I don’t know. As we progress and get better, we’re all going to get better. We just keep pushing in that direction and see where we stack up.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR/CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media at Playoff Media Day. Select Quotes: I BELIEVE YOU ARE THE ONLY DRIVER GETTING MARRIED DURING THE PLAYOFFS UNLESS SOMEONE ELOPES HERE IN VEGAS. USUALLY THAT IS AN OFFSEASON THING, BUT YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PLAYOFFS? “Yeah, Kaitlyn wants a warm wedding, and I race during the off-season so I didn’t want to mess up my offseason plans. It happened to work out that we can do it right before the ROVAL there. So, it’s coming fast and I am ready to get it done.”
All 7 Ford NASCAR Cup Series playoff drivers participated in the annual playoff media day in Las Vegas Thursday afternoon. Below is a sampling of the drivers comments during the open interview portion of the festivities.
Corey Heim stepped into Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time Friday. Two days later, he was celebrating on Victory Podium after an impressive drive to victory Sunday in the Brickyard 400 presented by PPG.
Funny Car’s J.R. Todd won for the first time in 2026 on Sunday at Pacific Raceways to finish off a Kalitta Motorsports nitro sweep with teammate Doug Kalitta
The reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion from Marietta, Georgia, led a race-high 58 of 160 laps and outdueled Christopher Bell and Joey Logano through a 34-lap dash to the finish to achieve his first crown jewel victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The two-time ARCA Menards Series West champion from Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, outdueled Ryan Blaney by two spots towards the top-25 mark to win the second annual In-Season Challenge tournament and a $1 million bonus at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Toyota Development Driver Corey Heim continued to make history as he won the Brickyard 400, in his first attempt, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday evening.
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Grillo’s Pickles Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN $1 MILLION? “It feels really good. Obviously, we wish we ran a little bit better than 24th today, but we did what we had to do."
