NASCAR Cup Series

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD - THIS IS YOUR BEST RUN OF THE YEAR. KNOW YOU WANTED TO WIN THIS THING, BUT DOES 3RD PLACE PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE AT THE END OF THE NIGHT? “It’s a big gain for us and our Caterpillar Chevrolet. All the guys at RCR and ECR got us that first top five of the season. I’ve got to thank everybody from Caterpillar and Quicken Loans for the opportunity they’ve given us this year."

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Eckrich Ford Fusion – “The first wreck one of those lapped cars spun in front of us and when he spun he lit up his rear tires and made a huge smoke cloud. My spotter, Tyler, was telling me to go high and I was kind of in the middle of the race track to see what he was gonna do and at the last minute he was like, ‘Go high, go high,’ so I veered high and McMurray was out there. I honestly had no idea he was out there and I ran into him, so I feel horrible because our Eckrich Ford Fusion was decent.

On the eve of his 34th birthday, Martin Truex Jr. posted a hard-fought 19th-place finish in the Quaker State 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

After maneuvering his Fifth Third Bank Ford up to the 12th position, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was forced to settle for a 25th-place finish after a costly pit-road mistake on the final pit stop in Saturday night’s race at Kentucky Speedway.

Brad Keseloswki would not be denied tonight in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Keselowski muscled his way past Kyle Busch with just 19 laps to go to score his 12th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory; his second victory at Kentucky Speedway and his second victory of the 2014 season.

Brad Keselowski won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway on Friday with a speed of 188.791 mph. Keselowski broke the track qualifying record with a lap time of 28.603 seconds. He bested second place qualifier and fellow Team Penske driver Joey Logano’s time by two tenths of a second.

"Most of my energy is spent with do we have a shot at winning at this track. I feel like we have run solid here the last few times we have been here. I feel like as good as our cars are this year that this is probably the most legitimate shot that we’ve had of crossing that one off the list. It would mean a lot.

“It’s probably the longest in my career to not have a top 5 in any given season, but at the same time we’re sitting eighth in points, which is probably twice as good as I was at this time last year if I remember roughly. So, that part of it is better. That’s why I said it’s the best/worst year I’ve had without top 5’s and a few top 10’s; and yet consistency-wise, we’re eighth in points.”

This Saturday we are off to Kentucky, a day early and an entry short. Well, early if you think of Sunday as the usual race day, and short as we will have 42 entries instead of the usual 43. Michael McDowell, who was 24th at Sonoma last Sunday, won’t be joining us.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back here -- we ran second here last race. More importantly, hungry for a win. There’s obviously a lot of teams that are hungry for a win, but I do believe we’re finally poised for a win. At this point in the season we’ve finally got our consistency back.