Paul Menard and the No. 21 Menards/Quaker State team turned in one of their most consistently good performances of the season in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway and came away with an 11th place finish plus seven stage points.
Driving a race car that ran like a thoroughbred at Kentucky Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. claimed his fourth victory of the season and his second straight at the 1.5-mile track.
Brad Keselowski endured an up-and-down race in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, but he and the team persevered to score a third-place finish, their fifth top-five finish of the year.
As the sun set over Kentucky Speedway Saturday evening, Matt Kenseth’s No. 6 Performance Plus Ford Fusion transitioned from loose to tight handling. Despite the handling shift, Kenseth maintained his track position the entire race with the help of chassis adjustments to earn a 19th-place finish.
After contact in the first 20 laps cut a tire forcing the Fifth Third Ford to pit-road, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rebounded earning a 26th-place finish in Saturday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Kentucky Speedway.
Early Vibration Hinders Austin Dillon and the No. 3 AAA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Team at Kentucky Speedway "I hate that we had problems early. We had a vibration as soon as we started the race and we had no option but to pit for four tires on the AAA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. I actually started feeling it during the pace laps at the start of the race, but I thought it was just a cold set of tires."
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Fusion - Finishing Position: 3rd “It was a good call from my crew chief, Paul Wolfe. We had better speed than we’ve had at the mile-and-a-halves, but not enough to run with the 78. He eventually got by us there and I thought we might have had a shot at it if we could have restarted fourth there, but we kind of cycled back to sixth and it wasn’t enough to be able to make something happen there. All in all, a decent day. I hate that I kind of dug a hole early in the race with the speeding on pit road. We were just racing the 18 off pit road and tried to get a little bit too much, but we’ll take this and hopefully build off of it for the mile-and-a-halves in the Playoffs. It’s gonna be really important and I’m looking forward to next week in Loudon. I think we’ll be really good there.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th - IF YOU HADN’T HAD THE TRACKBAR ISSUE DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE HAD ANYTHING FOR THE TOP GUYS? “It’s hard to say if I would have had anything to win. I drove by the No. 78 and then right after that we had our trackbar issue there and went plowing tight. Then we had to crutch it with wedge there the last run and it drove okay, just built being back really tight at the last 25 laps or so. So, yeah, it’s hard to say if I would have won or not, but I would have at least liked to have had the shot.”
Chad Knaus, Crew Chief of the No. 48 Lowe’s For Pros Camaro Zl1 discusses his contract extension: So, you have resigned your contract to continue to crew chief the no. 48. Did you have any thoughts of not extending? “No, not really. Obviously, Jimmie (Johnson) and I have a, although going through a bit of a slump right now, we have a great time racing together. We have a long relationship and enjoyed everything 48. So, no not really it was pretty easy.”
Following a second straight Sonoma victory, Pro Stock’s Greg Stanfield heads to Pacific Raceways with plenty of momentum for this weekend’s 37th annual Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals.