Official Release

KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion – “The cars in qualifying were a lot looser than they were in practice and just based on past experience here it was a handful through one and two. I just about lost it the first run, but the car was so good in three and four I didn’t want to overadjust on it and make it too tight down there because you get tighter as the lap runs, so the guys did a good job of making adjustments, but not making it so tight that I couldn’t carry the throttle like I needed to in three and four. So they just did a great job on our Mobil 1 Ford.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 18 SiriusXM Satellite Radio Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What are you looking forward to this weekend in your inaugural NXS start? “So first off I have to say that I’m really thankful to be in the position I am driving for Joe Gibbs Racing with Toyota behind me – Toyota Racing Development – and obviously SiriusXM on our Camry this weekend."

With a speed of 192.260 mph around the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott qualified his No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet SS to a third place starting position for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.

Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has played major roles in hit television series such as "The Walking Dead" and "Grey's Anatomy," will drive the 2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport Pace Car to lead the starting field of the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil to the green flag Sunday, May 28.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M's Red, White & Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - You could become the eighth driver to sweep the Charlotte race weekend. What would that mean to you? "It would certainly mean a lot. That's what we come to the race track to do is to try to win each and every weekend. But it's been a long, long time since I won at Charlotte, which was never in a Cup car, so finally we got that out of the way, and now we look forward to hopefully being able to make it back‑to‑back. We'll see how it goes. I thought we had some speed there to fire off with practice. A lot of guys kind of caught up to us and got a lot faster, so we've got to gain a little bit more in order to be where we need to."

RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – ARE YOU DUE ON SUNDAY? “I don’t know if you’d call it due. We’ve been pretty strong on mile-and-a-halves this year, which has been a lot of fun to drive the race cars because they’ve been so fast. Last week in the Open and the All-Star Race, we struggled pretty bad all weekend for some reason and could never really get to where we wanted to be.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed voting for the NASCAR Hall of Fame class of 2018, why he and the No. 48 team are so good at Charlotte Motor Speedway and many other topics.

Sponsor this weekend: "This weekend we'll have Harris Teeter ExpressLane on our No. 47 Chevy," Allmendinger said. "You can save time and do your grocery shopping online and pick up using their ExpressLane. Check it out!"

Ryan Reed will have Alan Burgess, retired USAF Major, riding along with him this Saturday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Burgess’s name will appear over the passenger side of Reed’s No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang in honor of NASCAR Salutes initiatives over the Memorial Day weekend.

NASCAR announced today the inductees who will comprise the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2018. The five-person group – the ninth since the inception of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010 – consists of Red Byron, Ray Evernham, Ron Hornaday Jr., Ken Squier and Robert Yates. In addition, NASCAR announced that Jim France earned the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.