NASCAR Cup Series

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 CROMAX PRO CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed this year’s All-Star Race format, the correlations of winning the All-Star Race and the championship and many other topics.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed the format for this year’s All-Star Race, the success of JR Motorsports and other topics.

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “We wrecked our car in practice when an axle fell out, so we had absolutely zero practice getting onto pit lane at all and I just did what I thought I saw from watching the practice the guys did earlier. Obviously, I couldn’t get it whoa’d up, but I had never driven that car before those two laps and I guess the brake bias wasn’t quite right and I just locked the right-front and that was it.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CARES CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed, how she approaches the Sprint Showdown, the potential of winning the Sprint Fan Vote and other topics.

Trevor Bayne was out at Michigan International Speedway earlier this week testing with Wood Brothers Racing in preparation for the event in June. Speeds were hitting over 200 mph as Michigan has become one of the fastest tracks since the repave last year.

NASCAR comes home this weekend to kick off what in my opinion is the best two weeks on the motorsport schedule. $2,000,000 is on the line this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the best stock car drivers in the world will lay it all out on the line hoping to hoist that check when the dust settles.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PATRIOTIC CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed last year’s All-Star Race win, his thoughts on the format for this year’s All-Star race and other topics.

"Dick (Trickle) made himself a mentor to many, Rusty (Wallace), myself, Alan Kulwicki -- you know we wouldn't have been the racers that we were when we got here had we not come under his influence. Of course, you have to change, after a while you have to adapt to circumstances as well. I was proud of who we were and the racers we were."

"I'm looking forward to it. This is always a pretty cool race and has good atmosphere around it. The crowd gets jacked up, and of course there is nothing important on the line besides a million bucks. You just go out there and race as hard as you can. It all starts today in about an hour. You get some practice runs in, get some good practice in and make sure your car feels good to you."

"Well, you never know what to expect. I think that's one of the exciting things about the All-Star event. I feel great -- obviously we had a great week last week. Glad to have Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) back at the track, looking forward to getting on the track. I think qualifying is going to be very, very, very interesting getting on pit road wide open like that so getting ready to go try a little bit of that."