NASCAR Cup Series

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/VALSPAR RESERVE CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the new drafting format at Talladega, making the Chase on points, his intermediate program, how is mother influenced his racing career, and more.

MATT KENSETH No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What is your outlook this weekend at Talladega? “Talladega is always unpredictable. We’ve ran really well here the last couple years. Last spring we led a bunch of laps and I think it’s the thing that ended kind of at night and had a green-white-checkered at the end and got beat so that was disappointing. And, then last fall was kind of a strange ending and just couldn’t really make anything happen."

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion, posted the fastest single-lap speed in Friday's final practice session. He spoke about the lap after returning to the garage.

David Ragan, driver of the No. 34 KFC Ford Fusion, registered the second win of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career and first for Front Row Motorsports when he won last year’s Aaron’s 499 here at Talladega Superspeedway. Ragan held a press conference before today’s practice sessions to talk about that day and his hopes for repeating on Sunday.

The No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team will “Join the Nation” in 2015 thanks to a new three-year partnership that will pair Nationwide Insurance, a leading insurance and financial services organization, with driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion, is coming off his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of the season after taking the checkered flag in Saturday’s race at Richmond International Raceway. Logano held a Q&A session in the infield media center at Talladega to talk about a variety of issues.

A guy grabs you and pushes you around. The universally accepted response is a punch to the other guy’s head. My dad taught me that, and so I taught my sons. It is a simple case of cause and effect, you push to start a confrontation and a punch usually will end it.

We are only a quarter of the way through the 2014 season and there have already been more memorable finishes than all of last year. At Daytona, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. held off a hard charging Denny Hamlin to win his 2nd Daytona 500. Two weeks later at Las Vegas, Brad Keselowski passed Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the last lap to score the victory.

Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion, was involved in a post-race altercation with Casey Mears last weekend at Richmond International Raceway. Ambrose, who was fined $25,000 and put on probation until the end of the year by NASCAR for his role, spoke publicly for the first time about the incident on Thursday during a press event at Charlotte Motor Speedway.