Official Release

The following is a medical update on Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires driver Michael Johnson of JDC Motorsports, who made contact with the Turn 3 wall in the opening practice session of the Allied Building Products Grand Prix of St. Petersburg this morning:

“We would have liked to have gotten back on track for the second session to see if we could improve but it didn’t make sense to run in the rain because the weather the rest of the weekend looks good so there was nothing to be gained. I thought the car was decent in the first session but we have a little work to do to make some improvements."

Reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power kicked off the "aero era" by recording the quickest lap time in today's initial practice session for the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Ryan Newman placed his No. 31 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS on the outside pole position for Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway, round six of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. A fast lap of 19.258 seconds (98.328 mph) earned Newman his fifth top 10 start of 2015 and 17th in 27 races at the paper clipped-shaped track.

JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – PRESS CONFERENCE – “It feels great to finally get the pole here. We’ve been close so many times and throughout my career I feel like we’ve always qualified well here, but was never able to get a pole. I caught a hard time about getting the track record here and not getting the pole, so to have a pole to back that up feels great. You win anything at Martinsville is a big deal."

Joey Logano turned in the fastest lap of the day Friday to win the Virginia Lottery Pole Day pole and claim the top starting spot for the STP 500 Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND - RIGHT NOW, THIS TEAM IS JUST KNOCKING DOWN TOP FIVE FINISHES “Yeah, it was a good run for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet today. I wish we could have been just a tick quicker and gotten that pole, but nevertheless it this is the best starting spot we’ve had and it’s obviously a great place to have a good starting spot."

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Starting Position: 8th - How was the car in qualifying? "We were okay the first run – the balance was pretty good and we were a little loose."

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - How does your car stack up based on practice speeds? "It's a little early to tell. Nobody was really in race trim much that first practice so you really aren't going to know until tomorrow where you stand as far as that's concerned."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed what Martinsville Speedway means to him, his plans for the off week next week and many other topics.