RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Fusion - (Qualified 1st) “We just kept getting better each round and everybody did a great job of realizing what we had to do to get better and pick out of spots where to get better and the car had the speed in it, we just needed to handle good and I needed to hit a good lap. I was kind of messing up the first two runs. We were able to figure out where we needed to get better and it was good. I can’t thank everyone on this Menards/Duracell Ford Fusion team enough. They put in hard work and it is nice to start up front on Sunday.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M's Red White & Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What kind of momentum does last weekend’s win afford you guys heading into Pocono? "Overall, looking forward to the weekend. It's certainly been pretty good last few races here at Pocono, being the defending winner of the fall race. "
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - What's your outlook for the weekend? "Yeah, I really like coming up to Pocono. It's a beautiful part of the country, and like we mentioned earlier, one of my home tracks, so always fun to come up here. Got some good friends up here, got some good fishing holes to go to after practice is over."
ERIK JONES, No. 20 DeWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - How would you kind of assess where the team is at so far in 2018? "Well, I think you look back at the start of the year, and we've just been lacking some speed. We've had some okay cars and some okay runs at the start of the year, and then we had a few bad weeks, and then I thought Charlotte was going to be a really good day for us, just from qualifying and practice, and the way the car was driving."
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Ruud-Meier Supply Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What are you expecting with the package at Pocono? “Well, I’ll be honest. I wasn’t super excited about the package change whenever I first heard about it but after watching the All-Star race and doing some studying at the Indianapolis Xfinity Series race last year, and all of Toyota’s simulations, I expect to be similar to how the Trucks race here."
Ryan Blaney returns to the site of his first career Cup Series win which came a year ago at the Tricky Triangle. Blaney spoke about coming back to Pocono Raceway and more with media members prior to the opening practice session Friday.
DARRELL WALLACE, JR. NO. NO. 43 WEIS MARKETS CAMARO ZL1 met with media and discussed returning to Pocono in a Cup car, the season to date, improvements and challenges, the racing on Memorial Day weekend, and more. Full Transcript:
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed his season thus far, if JR Nation has embraced him, his thoughts on running the All-Star rules package in the future and many other topics. Full Transcript
With plenty of excitement for this weekend’s 37th annual Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, race fans will have ample opportunity to meet racers leading into the event and be entertained off the track.
