Official Release

KURT BUSCH – No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion – YOU’VE PICKED IT UP THE LAST THREE RACES. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON WITH TONY GIBSON? “Nothing particular other than the research we’ve done through the different races that are comparable to the tracks that we’ve just run on, and in all honesty, you have an off week, there’s a reset and now there are 12 weeks to run out the end of the season. I said, ‘Why are we saving anything? If we are saving anything, why are we saving it? Let’s just go now.’ A lot of times you go to Chicago and you pour all the extra wind tunnel notes that you’ve learned into it, the engine department usually has an upgrade."

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CAT D10 CHEVROLET SS met with members of the media at Playoff Media Day. Full Transcript: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS? OBVIOUSLY THERE IS A LOT OF TALK AROUND MARTIN TRUEX, JR. AND HOW WELL HE HAS RUN THIS YEAR. IS THAT MOTIVATION FOR YOU? “All I’ve ever cared about is myself and my team and our sponsors; and to go out there and do the best job we can. Obviously, yeah, our stats aren’t as good as some others. But, you can’t have Playoffs if you don’t incorporate the other guys, too. The championship is not 26 races. It’s 36. We’ll see what we can do in these last 10 races.”

The patriotic tradition of presenting the Freedom Trophy at Talladega Superspeedway returns for its eighth race on Oct. 15 and will be awarded to the winner of the Alabama 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race by former Navy SEAL and HESCO BoneFrog Challenge Founder Brian Carney.

JAMIE McMURRAY, NO. 1 McDONALD’S / CESSNA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Playoff Media Day. Full transcript: CHIP (GANASSI) HAS BOTH YOU (AND KYLE LARSON) IN THE PLAYOFFS. HE HAS (SCOTT) DIXON GOING FOR THE (INDYCAR) CHAMPIONSHIP. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR CHIP? “I wouldn’t say the Cup side is more important but I think he’s as excited or more excited than the IndyCar side… just because he’s won so many IndyCar championships and it seems like that team is in contention every year for the championship. On the NASCAR side, not as many years has he been in contention for that. With the 42 team, they’ve been the second-best team all year long. I’ve known Chip for a long time. He’s in as good a mood and is as relaxed as I’ve seen him in a long time.”

Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to the media during NASCAR’s Playoff Media Day: MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - How quickly were you able to get over, or have you gotten over what happened on Saturday? “About when I got to the airport to fly home.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU SEE THINGS? “I don’t really know position-wise exactly where we’ll be, but I think we’ve got a plan of what we need to do to get through the first round and then after that I think your plan might change race to race, and even in the first round it could change race to race. I think it depends on what happens to the cars around you and if you can capitalize on some of those mistakes. If they have mistakes, then that’s what you’ve got to do.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – HOW BIG OF A DEAL WOULD IT BE TO WIN A TITLE FOR FORD THIS YEAR? “I feel like that’s asking for a specific ROI, a valuation. Yeah, I think about winning the championship. I’m a little selfish because I really haven’t put that much thought into what it would mean for Ford, but now you kind of make me feel like I should be doing that. What would it mean to me, specifically? A second championship is I think critical in my own perspective of being a part of this sport. I’m a big believer that success isn’t measured by your ability to do something once, it’s measured by your ability to do something twice. We’ve had great opportunities to win a second championship, but we’ve kind of fallen a little short for a number or reasons, and we have that opportunity again this year, so that’s a great privilege and a great opportunity. Of course, we want to make the most of it and I think it would mean a tremendous amount to me personally to kind of validate the first championship.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Playoff Media Day. Full Transcript ARE YOU AWARE THAT IF YOU WIN THE TITLE THIS YEAR YOU WILL BE THE ONLY DRIVER TO HAVE EIGHT CHAMPIONSHIPS IN CUP? (Laughs) “I heard something about that. You know, I do think about it occasionally but the format really doesn’t allow you to do so. Even last year. We had the summer slump, started the playoff and we do well with winning Charlotte and winning Martinsville."

Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. is ready to get back on track at Chicagoland Speedway this weekend for his first race with the No. 98 Biagi DenBeste Racing team. An ambassador for Nickelodeon, Wallace will drive the Nickelodeon Slime Ford donning iconic Nickelodeon characters from SpongeBob to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Wallace not only helped design the car that he will be driving but also helped design the NASCAR Monster Energy Series Tales of the Turtles 400 trophy. Wallace will use Turtle Power to his advantage in hopes of celebrating in Victory Lane by getting slimed after Saturday's race.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Matt Kenseth was made available to the media during NASCAR’s Playoff Media Day: MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DEWALT Flexvolt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Has NASCAR taken ownership of the issues from Saturday night? “Which ones? Just the ambulance one? Oh, yeah, I don't know.”