Official Release

Martin Truex Jr. qualified 17th and Erik Jones will start 38th after missing qualifying for Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Truex drove the No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota to a second-round lap of 28.496 seconds at 189.500 mph under the lights on the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Truex will line up on the inside of Row 9

TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES: CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 SUNENERGY1 CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 7th - WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT TONIGHT AT CHARLOTTE? “Yeah, it was okay. I think we ended up seventh, the NO. 2 (Brad Keselowski) got me there at the end. It was alright, a little better than we have been qualifying by a spot or two, so small gains are worth something.”

Jennifer Anderson sped to a hotly contested victory in Friday’sseventh annual Better Half Dash Bandolero race during Bojangles’ Pole Night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 25-lap Bandolero battle among the better halves of NASCAR personalities saw Anderson prevail thanks to an impressive late-race restart over Tammy Rice and Kate Tomaino. Anderson got by Rice and race leader Paige Keselowski on Lap 17 of the popular event, which raises money for Motor Racing Outreach and driver-chosen charities.

MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 Auto Owner’s Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - How are the Playoffs shaping up and how are you and the team approaching the next few races? “Definitely looking forward to the second round. This is the one that got us last year, so I think everybody is looking at Talladega and looking at that with a little bit of nerves. IN general, feel good about our team and where we’re at, what we’re doing. We’ll just try to take it one race at a time and hopefully kick it off strong here at Charlotte. So far today has been a bit eventful for a lot of teams. Fortunately, we had a pretty fairly smooth practice. Looking forward to qualifying tonight and see what we can do. Hopefully have a great weekend here.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion, came to the infield media center after Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway to discuss advancing to the Round of 12.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed, his gift from Charlotte Motor Speedway, his high school sports career, this thoughts on the sticky stuff applied to the surface of Charlotte Motor Speedway, his thoughts on the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 race cars unveiled by Hendrick Motorsports last night and many other topics.

In honor of local hero Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s considerable contributions to the NASCAR community throughout his iconic career, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Speedway Children’s Charities have established the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Concussion Research Fund at Carolinas Healthcare System’s Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed what he and his team need to do in order to progress to the Round of 8, thoughts on this weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the threat of rain and many other topics.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Hit the outside retaining wall coming off of Turn 4. The resulting damage led to the team pulling out a back-up car. WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t know. I got into this black stuff and it just took off into the fence. I think the car was pretty good, but had to pull a back-up out. It should be fine though. It’s a good thing that it happened early and we will get to practice tomorrow and get to work on it.”

Ryan Blaney (No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire and Auto Center Ford Fusion) met with the media today prior to first practice for this weekend’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.