NASCAR Cup Series

Charlotte Motor Speedway hosts the opening race of the Playoff’s Round of 12 this year with the Bank of America 500 Sunday afternoon. Martin Truex Jr. leads the hunt for the championship trophy but Kyle Busch is closing fast.

It was “Go Time” and “Bo Time” for Denny Hamlin on Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota rocketed around Charlotte’s 1.5-mile superspeedway with a pole-winning 191.598 mph lap during the final round of an exhilarating Bojangles’ Pole Night.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Starting Position: 1st - How big is it to get the pole at a race like this? “It’s good, you always like to keep streaks alive. Hadn’t had a pole this year and have had one every other year, but it’s good. We’ve been so close and we’ve made so many final rounds, been in the top-five, but not as fast as our teammates. Today we adjusted on it, got it a little better each round and had some good will."

KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion – HOW WAS ROUND THREE DIFFERENT FROM ONE AND TWO? “I didn’t feel like I got to the green quite as good and I felt like I had a little bit to spare in one and I didn’t. I got the ground just a little bit and got up a foot and just had to wait a split-second, but we have a really good car. We had three good rounds, a good starting spot and we’ll go from there.”

Martin Truex Jr. qualified 17th and Erik Jones will start 38th after missing qualifying for Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Truex drove the No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota to a second-round lap of 28.496 seconds at 189.500 mph under the lights on the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Truex will line up on the inside of Row 9

TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES: CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 SUNENERGY1 CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 7th - WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT TONIGHT AT CHARLOTTE? “Yeah, it was okay. I think we ended up seventh, the NO. 2 (Brad Keselowski) got me there at the end. It was alright, a little better than we have been qualifying by a spot or two, so small gains are worth something.”

Denny Hamlin captured the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coors Light Pole Award Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a qualifying speed of 191.598 mph. It was his first pole this season, his second at Charlotte and his 25th career pole.

MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 78 Auto Owner’s Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - How are the Playoffs shaping up and how are you and the team approaching the next few races? “Definitely looking forward to the second round. This is the one that got us last year, so I think everybody is looking at Talladega and looking at that with a little bit of nerves. IN general, feel good about our team and where we’re at, what we’re doing. We’ll just try to take it one race at a time and hopefully kick it off strong here at Charlotte. So far today has been a bit eventful for a lot of teams. Fortunately, we had a pretty fairly smooth practice. Looking forward to qualifying tonight and see what we can do. Hopefully have a great weekend here.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion, came to the infield media center after Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway to discuss advancing to the Round of 12.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media and discussed, his gift from Charlotte Motor Speedway, his high school sports career, this thoughts on the sticky stuff applied to the surface of Charlotte Motor Speedway, his thoughts on the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 race cars unveiled by Hendrick Motorsports last night and many other topics.