NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR returned with 19 of its stars in its annual pre-season contest featuring the pole winners from last season, along with the former winners of what had been known as the Bud Shootout. More importantly, we were hoping for a real good look at the new Gen 6 car to see if the new design could actually lend itself to a more visually appealing contest.

It's been a rough Daytona Speedweeks start for Kurt Busch. The Furniture Row Racing driver, who got collected in a practice accident Friday, didn't fare any better Saturday night in the Sprint Unlimited race.

Kevin Harvick made his No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet as wide as he could in the final laps, holding off repeated challenges for the lead on his way to victory Saturday night in The Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway

“I could see those guys, the No. 16 (Greg Biffle) in the middle-half there, and then the No. 14 (Tony Stewart), they were kind of timing it as to how far they needed to get back to get that dive to the bottom, but with the top there, you could guard the bottom if they didn’t get all the way by you with the side draft and that’s really what you were looking for."

When the season started, there were some concerned that Kevin Harvick would not have a good season after announcing that he would leave Richard Childress Racing at season's end to make the move over to Stewart-Hass Racing.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – TALK ABOUT YOUR FIRST OFFICIAL RACE IN THE NEW SHELL PENNZOIL FORD AND HOW THINGS WENT TONIGHT. “I thought it went pretty smooth."

WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“I didn’t see much. I was just kind of cruising along and I saw sparks in front of me. I knew that wasn’t good. Then before I knew it just the cars inside of me and around me everybody just slid up the race track and into me and around we went. I still haven’t seen the video replay of exactly what triggered it, but it started in front of me and got a bunch of us.”

Kevin Harvick ran two very impressive practice sessions in preparation for the Sprint Unlimited this evening. He was the fastest in the first session and backed up that speed with a fourth quickest time in the final practice for the race to put his average at 2.5 for the weekend.

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Finishing Position: 5th - How was your car in the race? "I think we had a really strong car. The Dollar General Camry was extremely fast, I just couldn't get back in that position -- nobody was having any luck on the bottom."

GREG BIFFLE POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE “I thought about sticking it in there and it just didn’t look like it was going to work to me. It looked like it would be sparks and parts flying. He shut the door on the top. That is what Kevin needed to do to win the race. I looked in the mirror and didn’t have anyone pushing me. I figured someone might give me a shove and I could try something else. We learned a little bit and we have a ways to go in our 500 car to try to be competitive on Sunday for the 500.”