Official Release

Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin won the Can-Am Duel races on Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway, as the starting grid for Sunday’s 59th annual DAYTONA 500 was established by the two 150-mile qualifying events.

AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 47 Kroger Click List Chevrolet SS, finished in fourth place to lead six Team Chevy drivers in the top 10 in the Can-Am Duel at Daytona 2 at Daytona International Speedway Thursday night.

CLINT BOWYER -- No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) -- “Damn, this is fun again. Man, what a rocket ship. Hats off to all these guys that put all this hard work into these cars for Ford. This is going to be a great year. This is fun.

Daytona 500 pole-sitter Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet SS, won the Can-Am Duel at Daytona race 1 at Daytona International Speedway Thursday night. Elliott, the series’ Rookie of the Year in 2016, led 24 of the 60 laps en route to his first qualifying points-paying race win.

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Duel 1 Finishing Position: 5th - How was your race and were you able to learn anything for Sunday’s Daytona 500? “Yeah I think so. It was pretty good."

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – IT LOOKED LIKE YOU AND KEVIN HARVICK WERE TRYING TO GET A RUN, WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU COULD DO TO GET THE WIN? “It was a solid night for the Miller Lite Ford. We had some good speed and learned some more things about this car.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Race Winner - LAST YEAR, YOU ALMOST BEAT YOURSELF UP TOO MUCH OVER WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RACE TRACK DURING YOUR ROOKIE SEASON. WHERE DID YOU IMPROVE THE MOST THAT IT SHOWED TONIGHT? “Oh, man we had such a fast NAPA Chevy tonight. I didn’t think anybody was going to help us there at the first part of the race and I had a couple good pushes to get us out front and our spotter did a great job on the roof making sure he was calling the lanes correctly and we were able to get back in front. Just want to thank our partners and the Hendrick engine shop. They had some steam tonight at it was apparent.”

FedEx announced today its extension with Joe Gibbs Racing to serve as the sponsor of the #11 Toyota with driver Denny Hamlin in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

After a 2016 campaign that saw Jeremy Clements and the #51 JCR crew battling to nearly make the innaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series “Chase”, the team is excited about the new season’s prospects. They head to Daytona for the PowerShares QQQ 300 with a new superspeedway car and a lot of motivation from long time sponsor RepairableVehicles.com who has further expanded their program with JCR for the 20017 season.

Bass Pro Shops, a leading destination retailer offering outdoor gear and apparel in an immersive setting, continues its partnership with Furniture Row Racing as the primary co-sponsor on Martin Truex Jr.’s Furniture Row Racing Toyota Camry during the 2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series season.