Official Release

Camry driver Christopher Bell (second) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) event at Bristol Motor Speedway.

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 60 Ford Mustang – “I just got racing with the 4 really hard. I’m all for hard racing, but it’s just frustrating when he lets four guys in a row go. We were faster than him and just kept hitting on him and hitting on him. He flipped me off a couple of times and then I just kept trying to pass him on the inside. I could never clear him and I just got tight underneath him and drove up the race track a little bit and got my right-front up into him and spun out and hit the inside wall. It’s definitely frustrating. I hate it for all the 60 guys. They’ve had to work on a lot of race cars this year. I felt like we had decent speed tonight and maybe could have contended for a top-10, but the day got cut short.”

Kyle Larson stole the show in qualifying for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway with a fast lap of 15.015 seconds, 127.792 mph in his No. 42 DC Solar Camaro ZL1, and will start from the pole position in Saturday evening’s 500-lap race. The feat marked Larson’s seventh pole in 171 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races and his first pole at the half-mile short track. It was also Chevrolet’s 699th pole win in NASCAR’s premier racing series.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd - HOW CLOSE WAS YOUR LAP IN WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR? “It was close. It wasn’t perfect. But I got through (Turns) 1 and 2 pretty good and maybe gave up a little bit in (Turns) 3 and 4. But I mean, heck, two-hundredths of a second. I don’t really know how to characterize that. But, I just hate we couldn’t grab a pole. We put a lot of effort into it. Our KKB Chevrolet was fast today and if there was ever a place still, with these closer segment times on pit road, that you want that first pit box, this is it. So, that would have been big. But, we’ll go get it from second.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner: THAT QUALIFYING SESSION WAS REALLY TIGHT “Yeah, the top 5 was tight. I saw William (Byron) run his .04 there before I went out and I thought man, that’s going to be tough to beat. And, I would have never thought that three other guys would have squeezed in between him and me."

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Anytime Favorites Ford Fusion – “It’s a great starting spot for us. We started deep in the field here in the spring, so to be able to start up in the first few rows and get a good pit selection, I think that’s gonna mean a lot. I’m really looking forward to the race. I felt like our car was pretty good in race trim, so, all in all, it was a good day. I’m excited about the race. I feel like our car has good speed, good long run speed, and it’s really comfortable to drive. I’m proud of everybody on this Smithfield Anytime Favorites Ford Fusion. We’ll go get ‘em tomorrow night.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops / Ducks Unlimited Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - What does it feel like to come to the race track and know you have a chance to win every weekend? “It’s definitely a lot of fun and something that I’ve worked towards for a long time in the Cup Series obviously. For our team, we’ve been able to be in that position I feel like for a few years now so that’s been fun. It definitely wasn’t overnight."

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s White Chocolate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - How do you feel being the driver to beat each week and have that serious chance? “It’s been a long time, I guess, in being with different teams and different crew chiefs and different people that I’ve felt this strong. I’ve had this sort of thing on the Xfinity side with many a crew chiefs, whether it’s been (Jason) Ratcliffe, or Adam (Stevens) or Chris Gayle – a few of them on the Xfinity side. Dave (Rogers) – we felt like we had that going for a couple years on the Cup side with Dave, but there is just something maybe a little bit more about myself and Adam and the team that we have. Many of the team guys – couple of them are the same as what they were back with Dave many years ago and a few of them are from the Xfinity team when I felt so good with Adam on the Xfinity side. We brought some of the those guys over and we’ve kind of mixed and blended some other guys over the years here and there. It’s certainly been very rewarding to all of them, I’m sure, as well as me to have this group right now and hopefully we can keep it together for a long time.”

Going into Bristol, Stewart Friesen was just outside being on the bubble for making the NCWTS playoffs. If the race were to be won by a driver with no other wins, Friesen and Matt Crafton would have had to compete for the final 8th spot. 19 points were needed by Friesen to finish ahead of Crafton to clinch it. With Sauter taking first, both Friesen and Crafton would secure their playoff positions.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion, is fresh off his series-leading seventh win of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. He stopped by the Bristol Motor Speedway infield media center before practice today and talked about a variety of subjects.