Official Release

Ryan Newman put his No. 31 Liberty National Camaro ZL1 on the front row with a second-place qualifying run for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Round 2 of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Newman ran a quick time of 30.062 seconds (184.419 mph) to earn the outside front row starting spot. Newman narrowly missed earning a record setting eighth pole at Atlanta. He is currently tied for the most all-time poles at Atlanta with NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison, with seven each to their credit.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Fusion – “That’s decent. We won here from fifth last year, so we’re gonna do it again. I felt like I got all I could get, but we just need to find a bit more. We’re real close.”

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 60 Roush Fenway Ford Mustang, will be making his NASCAR XFINITY Series debut this weekend.  Briscoe, who is part of Ford’s Driver Development Program, has had a busy week, which includes testing at Sebring for next month’s Continental Tire Challenge event.  He spoke with Ford Performance before today’s practice session about his expectations.

BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - How was your first race with JGR at Daytona? “Our goal was to finish the race and finish top-15 doing that. We finished the race, but we didn’t actually come through with no scratches on the car."

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media at Atlanta Motor Speedway and discussed his week after winning the Daytona 500, why he loves the old surface at Atlanta, his expectations for the Camaro ZL1 on 1.5-mile tracks and many other topics.  Full Transcript:

MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 Bass Pro Shops / 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing. Last year you were the king of the 1.5-mile tracks, how comfortable are you in the car right now here at Atlanta?

Atlanta Motor Speedway presented Chase Elliott with one final lucky charm Friday. Elliott, back in the No. 9 car his father, Bill, made famous, was handed a University of Georgia football jersey with his name and number on the back.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 DEX Imaging Ford Fusion – HOW HAS YOUR WEEK BEEN AND HOW EAGER WERE YOU TO GET BACK ON TRACK HERE AT ATLANTA? “It’s been pretty relaxed, to be honest with you. We didn’t really do much. You just do your typical debriefs, but it’s nice to be home after 10 days of being in Daytona, and the weather was pretty nice in North Carolina too, which was that much better. I’m excited to get back to the race track. It’s always nice to have a little bit of down time from the 10 days you’re down in Daytona, but you’re ready to get back to the race track and this place is awesome. We’re slipping and sliding and it’s just a fun place to come. We struggled a little bit today in qualifying trim, but hopefully we can get a little bit better, but it’s nice to be back and nice to get the season started to roll.”

Eastman Performance Films, LLC, a subsidiary of Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE: EMN), has joined 12-time NASCAR Cup Series champions Hendrick Motorsports as a primary sponsor of driver Alex Bowman and the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team in the premier NASCAR Cup Series through 2020. The sponsorship featuring the LLumar® brand of window film and paint protection film was announced today at Eastman’s Elite Dealer Conference in San Diego.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) and discussed the new inspection process, the Lucky Charm campaign that AMS put on, his love for racing at Atlanta and many other topics. Full Transcript: