NASCAR Cup Series

The fastest Ford in final Cup series practice was Clint Bowyer. The driver of the No. 14 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, has shown speed all weekend and met with media members after the final practice to assess his team's chances for victory on Sunday.

At a track known for making history, Aric Almirola did something on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway that he hadn’t done in nearly seven years: win the pole for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER.COM CAMARO ZL1, met with members of the media at Atlanta Motor Speedway and discussed his JTG team and their outlook for the season, tendencies of the new aero package, racing this weekend for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity series and many other topics. Highlights from media scrum session:

The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, February 24 at 2 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang -- Qualified 1st - HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO POST A 30:55 IN THE THIRD ROUND AFTER TWO LAPS ON TIRES? “Sneaky. You know, we knew our car had a lot of raw speed in it and through the rounds the adjustments that Johnny was making kept making our car a little bit better."

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Little Hug Fruit Barrels Ford Mustang - Qualified 2nd “We made some big improvements the first run. We were 18th but our engineers really made a lot of adjustments to get us to where we needed to "

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Little Hug Ford Mustang -- ANY FALLOUT FROM THE INCIDENTS ON TRACK LAST WEEK? “I haven’t really talked to anybody. I think there were a lot of people mad or saying things on the radio that we saw this week. I don't really appreciate it. I feel like I do everything that I have to do to make sure our car stays in the front. We led the most laps of any of the other Ford drivers and yet they all want to run their mouths. I feel like we did what we had to do to stay up front and keep good track position. When we got wrecked on pit road it set us back a little bit. I don't feel like the wreck on the back straightaway I had a whole lot to do with. All in all, they can think what they way. We had a good speedweeks.”

Leavine Family Racing driver Matt DiBenedetto was made available to the media in Atlanta:

MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Will qualifying be different at a track that has more grip than Atlanta does?

Talk about how the week has gone as a two-time Daytona 500 winner.“It was good. It was definitely busy right up until practice to be honest with you. It seemed like this time was a lot fuller week than the previous one. That or I was just sober for it, one of the two.”