NASCAR Cup Series

There was no stopping Martin Truex Jr. from making a return trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway’s victory lane on Sunday. Truex surged ahead in the final 60 laps and survived a pair of late-race restarts to capture the Bank of America 500 – his sixth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serieswin of the season and his second in the last four races at Charlotte.

In the opening race of the second segment of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) Playoffs at Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS), Chase Elliott captured a second-place finish in his No. 24 SunEnergy1 Chevy SS at the Bank of America 500.

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion, overcame damage sustained from contact with the outside retaining wall and improved 11 positions during the final stage of Sunday afternoon’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) event at Charlotte Motor Speedway to record a 14th-place finish.

If you need evidence of how competitive the NASCAR Playoffs are, consider this: Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team came to Charlotte Motor Speedway ninth in the standings, finished the Bank of America 500 a strong eighth in overtime and left the track 11th in the championship chase.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 SUNENERGY1 CHEVROLET SS- Finished 2nd - THIS IS YOUR SIXTH RUNNER-UP FINISH OF THE YEAR. WHAT WERE YOU MISSING TO BE ABLE TO CONTEND FOR THE WIN? “We needed to be a little better I think in the middle stage and not lose so much track position. That was where Martin (Truex, Jr.) came on and got his track position and we lost ours and it was just hard to get all of it back there toward the end. It was a hard-fought day and really, from where we were in those middle stages, I was proud of the way we fought back and were able to get back to the front. It’s frustrating to run like this. We’re definitely tired of running second. But, if we keep running like we are, hopefully the opportunities will be there.”

KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion – “That’s about about where we were gonna run, second or third. We just kind of lost a little bit of the track there as the VHT started to wear off in the second half of the race. But they did a great job all day. For the most part, we had good stops all day – just the timing of the bad one came at the end, but, for the most part, they did a great job. Everybody in the field had a bad stop at some point today, so it was a good day for our Jimmy John’s/Busch Ford, and everybody is doing a good job with the speed of the cars.”

Charlotte Motor Speedway presented legendary crew chief Tony Eury Sr. with the speedway’s prestigious Smokey Yunick Award on Sunday prior to the Bank of America 500.

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."