NASCAR Cup Series

Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 may have been the opening race in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoff, but the real drama involved two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates outside the championship battle.

DANIEL HEMRIC GOT INTO THE NO. 27 CHEVROLET SS IN THE FINAL MOMENTS OF THE FINAL PRACTICE SESSION PRIOR TO THE HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400 TO GET COMFORTABLE IN THE CAR SHOULD HE HAVE TO FILL IN FOR REGULAR DRIVER, PAUL MENARD, SHOULD PAUL NEED TO LEAVE TO BE WITH HIS WIFE AS THEY ARE EXPECTING THEIR SECOND CHILD.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Kansas Speedway and discussed the news this week that he and Amy are expecting a baby girl, the toughness of the track at Kansas with the weather conditions this weekend and many other topics.

MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - Starting Position: 1st - Is this your most important pole of the year? “It’s pretty big, the biggest one at this point in time so that’s what matters you know. We race one week at a time and try to do the best we can. Obviously we needed this, this was a big one tonight with next week’s pit selection, so just really proud of everybody. Great execution all day making right adjustments and right calls in qualifying there. Just had to step it up there, I’m shaking a little bit after that one it was pretty wild.”

You can’t blame Martin Truex Jr. for looking ahead. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leader didn’t need to win the pole position at Kansas Speedway, having already qualified for the NASCAR Playoffs’ Round of 8 with a victory two weeks ago at Charlotte.

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 DEWALT Flexvolt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What has made you so good at this racetrack, particularly recently? “Well, probably the same things that made me so bad last time we were here. Just fast racecars. I think after they paved it, we had a couple years there where we just had really fast cars, then kind of things went right in the race, we were able to capitalize on that. You're only as good as your last race. Our last one here we ran really, really bad. Looking forward to getting on the track today and hopefully redeeming ourselves this weekend.”

KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE CHANGING CONDITIONS? “I’d tell you that I’d know a lot about that. but I really don’t. It’s like today, a lot of times I’d tell you I’d like to go back again, but I really didn’t enjoy any of those laps. With the wind gusting around and the car doing something different, it’s just hard to predict how hard you needed to drive in, how aggressive you needed to be."

KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) -- Qualified 2nd - A GOOD ROUND 3 FOR YOU: “For the most part is was three sketchy laps. The first time out it was really loose and tight on one end. It was really windy on one end. It was hard to keep up with the car but I did a good job adapting to the first run. I got through 1 and 2 okay and as I got into 3 the front end washed out and then the back stepped out and got up a lane. Still a good run considering what was on the line for pit stall selection.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 9th - ON HIS RUN AND HIS OUTLOOK WITH HIS CAR: “I thought we would be a little bit better. I thought the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) was going to be a little bit better too. The track was quite a bit slower on the first round, which I think that threw everyone for a little bit of a curveball because it was cooler out. Shocking that it wouldn’t have been quite a bit faster. And the balance was a little bit different. It was weird to me that Kyle (Larson) was fighting a different balance issue than I was from practice. Our cars kind of went two different directions. But, it wasn’t bad. We could get through (Turns) 1 and 2 really good, we couldn’t get through (Turns) 3 and 4 and lost all of our time down there.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO.48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Kansas Speedway and discussed how he’s feeling going into this week’s Playoff cutoff race, his confidence in his team and pit crew, the youth of Hendrick Motorsports and many other topics.