NASCAR Cup Series

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- David Ragan topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford clocked in at a time of 15.051 and a speed of 127.487 mph.

Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Fusion, will start ninth in tomorrow’s scheduled running of the Food City 500. That’s a personal-best starting spot for McDowell and Front Row Motorsports at Bristol Motor Speedway.

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Larson topped the chart in second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet clocked in at a time of 14.874 and a speed of 129.004 mph.

For most of this season, Menard and the No. 21 team have been fast in the first of three rounds of knock-out qualifying but struggled in the second. On Friday at Bristol, they were consistently fast throughout all three rounds.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Fusion – HOW IS THE TRACK? “It’s slick. Every car that runs the track gets a little faster, so it’s the fun gamesmanship of trying to be on the track and make all that work.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 6th - ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT RUN? “Yeah, I mean it’s okay I guess. You would always like to be a little bit better. I don’t know what the fast guys ran there at the end, but I was just a little too tight in the center of the corner and that would make me a little too late back to the throttle. I think that is where most of our speed was.”

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch knows there's no better place to start at Bristol Motor Speedway than up front, and the smile on his face after winning the pole for the Food City 500 is all the evidence you need.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Skittles Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Do you look forward to racing at Bristol after winning at Texas last weekend? “It’s always a good chance to get to a race track coming off a win. Coming to Bristol, one of our best places after last weekend – certainly a positive. Have to understand that it’s a completely different track, completely different circumstances and what’s going on. We’re going to do everything we can to try to back that up and try to win again. We’ll see what happens here with Bristol this weekend.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - How excited are you to be here at Bristol this weekend? “Well, I’m always excited to come to Bristol in anything really and you know last year it was a place I was excited to get to. I had a good run here in the spring. We didn’t finish where we wanted, but then in the fall had a really really fast car that had a good shot to win."

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion, is racing on his home track this weekend in Bristol. The Knoxville, TN, native came to the infield media center before practice to talk about this weekend’s race.