Official Release

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Finished 6th “I got too fast on pit road, which cost us, but guys did a good job in the pits which is a nice change. Overall, I’m proud of the team effort. Fought hard and kind of got lucky there with the tires. I don’t know that we had a sixth-place car, but we did tonight.”

KURT BUSCH – No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion – “We’ve been struggling with the VHT on the bottom, so I just knew we needed to wait and wait and wait, and I was hopeful at lap 250 that it would come to us. I pushed it too hard then and got some right-front tire damage on the fender. We had to work through that, but I think at the end we got in position because Tony Gibson made a good call and put us on fresher tires than the competition and it was the old fun Bristol for me. So I’m really proud of this Monster Energy Ford -- to be first in class, to get a top-five in my 600th start, and to see the lead with 50 to go.”

Kyle Busch completed the second leg in a potential Bristol Motor Speedway tripleheader sweep, rallying to victory in the NASCAR XFINITY Series on Friday night.

Fresh off his win last weekend in Michigan, Kyle Larson set the pace for Team Chevy with a second-place qualifying run in his No. 42 Huggies Little Movers Chevrolet SS at Bristol Motor Speedway. He will start on the outside front row for the 500-lap Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, Round 24 of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS). This marks the 14th top-10 start of the season thus far for Larson, and his second in eight races at the track known as the ‘World’s Fastest Half-Mile’.

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “I was loose. We fought that all day. I was just really loose on the bottom. My car is really good up top. I thought in race trim we were a top-10 car actually, but we switched over to qualifying and we just can’t get qualified. The car is just out of the track and really loose. I don’t know. We’ve got to do some homework to get qualified better. It’s certainly not ideal to be starting the race that far back, but I’m pretty happy with our Smithfield Ford Fusion in race trim and I’ve got a lot of cars to pass.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 HUGGIES LITTLE MOVERS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 2nd: “I wish I could have gone just a few thousandths faster, but ended up second. So, not bad. I really wanted that pole there just because I was doing something different than everybody, but we’ll start on the front row tomorrow and hopefully be there at the end.”

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion and a native of nearby Knoxville, TN, is coming off a fifth-place finish last weekend at Michigan International Speedway. He spoke about returning to his home track and the chances of making the NASCAR Playoffs by getting a victory here tomorrow night.

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S/CESSNA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed his season thus far, his position in the point standings, his thoughts on racing at Bristol with the traction compound and many other topics.

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BUSH’S GRILLIN’ BEANS CHEVROLET SS and team co-owner, TAD GESCHICKTER, met with members of the media at Bristol Motor Speedway and discussed his new multi-year agreement with JTG Daugherty Racing, his love for Bristol Motor Speedway and many other topics.

On Wednesday, August 16 at Plaza33 outside New York’s Penn Station, ExxonMobil brought the worlds of NASCAR® and the NBA® together with a fan-friendly event called “Mobil 1 Annual Protection: The Drive” to support the company’s latest synthetic motor oil offering.