Official Release

As Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team heads to Chicagoland Speedway to kick off their first-ever appearance in NASCAR’s playoffs, team co-owner Eddie Wood is hoping for a strong run over the final 10 races. But foremost on his mind at this point is that he’s simply glad to be among the elite 16 teams that will begin the run to the championship.

Hamlin notched his first career win at the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, IL, in 2015 and has scored a total of five top-10 finishes in 11 starts at the Windy City track, including a sixth-place finish during last year’s visit to Chicagoland. Hamlin is in the NASCAR Playoffs for the 11th time in his 12th full season driving the No. 11 machine.

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Playoff Media Day. Full Transcript: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR CHANCES IN THE PLAYOFFS: “I think our chances are solid. We have nothing to lose in my mindset in where we are at as far as the points go. Last year we made some noise and made it to the second round, and missed the third round by one point. I kicked myself over that point but I learned from it experience-wise. I know how aggressive I need to be in those first couple of races to put ourselves in a little better position for the third race. They are three-race seasons and you have to take them as that and get as much as you can out of them.”

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media during NASCAR’s Playoff Media Day: DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What’s your impressions about the whole pit crew change with Kyle Busch and Daniel Suárez? “No, our pit crew's pretty good and solid. I think you always try to put the best people out there that you possibly can. I think that the 18 is a good pit crew, but I think they struggled with consistency like the 19 has had, so they made a change for that reason.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Playoff Media Day. Full Transcript: IS THERE A CONCERN THAT YOU ARE GOING INTO THE CHAMPIONSHIP AS A LAME DUCK? “Actually, there is really no concern for me about that. I know that I’m going to give everything. We talked last week, myself and every guy on my team and they all want to do the best they possibly can in my final 10 races and I want to do the best I can for them during my final 10 with them."

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to the media during NASCAR’s Playoff Media Day: KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Skittles Sweet Heat Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Why did your team decide to make a pit crew change? “Well, when you're in a performance‑based business, it comes down to performance. For us and Joe Gibbs Racing, everybody on the whole organization kind of decided that it was a necessary change to give ourselves the best opportunity to go race for a championship."

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.”