Official Release

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 60 Fastenal Ford Mustang – 2015 NASCAR XFINITY SERIES CHAMPION - VICTORY LANE TV INTERVIEW - WHEN YOU LEFT HOME AT 16-YEARS-OLD, DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD END UP HERE, CELEBRATING A CHAMPIONSHIP? “Well, I sure hoped so. I am glad she let me."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS - TELL US HOW PRACTICE WENT, YOU WERE FASTEST OF THE FOUR: “The very first run that final practice was great. I felt really good about it. We’ve got a few things on the longer run that I felt like we can work on. The second run was so/so. The track definitely lost some grip. I think we have a good indication what the track conditions are going to be like in the race, so that is all really valuable information that we can put into our database and make adjustments and hopefully good decisions for tomorrow.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Crispy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - How would you describe your 2015? “I don’t think tomorrow is going to be near as hard as what it was back in March or April going through the therapy and everything trying to get all of that done and everything to get my strength back and to get back walking and all of that stuff."

Ford Performance and Ford Chip Ganassi Racing announced that Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Dirk Müller, and Joey Hand will be the driver lineup for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2016. They will compete in the all-new Ford GT, which will debut at the Rolex 24 in Daytona Beach, FL.

As strong as he was in winning Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200, Matt Crafton was already looking ahead to 2016. Crafton, whose hopes for a third consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship were dashed by a crash at Phoenix last week, won his sixth race of the season, holding off John Hunter Nemechek and Tyler Reddick in the season finale.

Ryan Newman might have been eliminated from Championship contention in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race of the year, but the 2014 championship runner-up led Team Chevy in qualifying with the fourth fastest time in his No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This was Newman’s third top-five qualifying effort of the year.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Starting Position: 1st - Are you excited to get the pole? “Definitely wish we had a little bit more to race for but you’ve got a great trophy at the end of this thing so proud of this whole FedEx Ground team for giving me a fast car. It’s been fast all day so to run our fastest lap in the last session means it’s a good sign.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 5th - HOW DID YOU PULL THAT OFF AFTER HAVING TO MAKE AN EXTRA RUN? “Whew, it wasn’t easy. Man, that was a heck of an effort by this team. We’ve got a great race car. I just totally messed up. That first run, without making a qualifying run in practice, I just didn’t know how hard I could push it or how much the track had picked-up."

RYAN BLANEY, driver No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – (Qualified 6th) "We made really good adjustments between each round and that's really all you can ask for. They did a good job adjusting and accounting for tire fall off. We improves every round.

Ryan Hunter-Reay is driving in the Race Of Champions for the third time, which he believes will provide a level of familiarity with the format, cars and competitors.