NASCAR Cup Series

Abby Wambach, Kelley O’Hara and Christie Rampone will represent the U. S. Women’s National Soccer Team as the Honorary Starters of the 57th annual DAYTONA 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 1 p.m.at Daytona International Speedway (TV – FOX, FOX Deportes; Radio – MRN Radio, SiriusXM).

GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS - ON BEING TOO LOW FOLLOWING POST QUALIFYING INSPECTION FOR THE DAYTONA 500: “Obviously NASCAR does a great job inspecting the cars and they found that our ride heights after qualifying were too low. "

For the third consecutive year, the Chevrolet SS will lead the field to the green flag for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. This year, Jeff Gordon put the bowtie in the top spot for the Great American Race with a lap of 44.711 seconds/201.293 mph. Gordon’s qualifying lap is the first time since 1987 that the pole sitter turned a lap over 200 mph.

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – POLE SITTER - WHAT IS IT LIKE TO GET THE POLE IN YOUR LAST RUN AT THE DAYTONA 500? “The team at Hendrick Motorsports always puts so much effort into these restrictor plate races and every race. So much pride in the engine shop and the bodies and the engineering that goes into these cars.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Qualified: 3rd - Did the qualifying work out as you expected? "That worked out exactly as I thought it would. I was trying to back up to zero time, I wanted to be the last one to cross the line so I had points on the race track that I knew I needed to be at and I tried to back up to the 24 (Jeff Gordon) and 48 (Jimmie Johnson) to where they would miss it, but with the draft it picked up the speed and I allowed them to cross the line before it went zero."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 29TH - ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT: “We stuck to our plan and just did what we had to do to try to get everybody going with our draw it was just kind of the way that it worked out. It didn’t work out.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. turned the second fastest overall time of Sunday’s wild and woolly three-round Daytona 500 qualifying session to secure his spot in next Sunday’s Daytona 500, completing a lap of 202.334 mph (44.481 seconds) around the famed 2.5-mile superspeedway during the first round.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “That sucked. Our strategy didn’t work. Our strategy backfired in our face really bad. We will learn from our mistakes. All we can do is study it and try to understand just a little better. We haven’t really done a good job at it yet.”

Martin Truex Jr. came up a little short as the Furniture Row Racing driver finished a close second to Matt Kenseth in Saturday night's Sprint Unlimited race at Daytona International Speedway

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Finishing Position: 1st - How does it feel to kick off Daytona with a victory? "This is a great feeling. "