NASCAR Cup Series

Never in my 25 years of watching NASCAR have I seen what I saw on Friday. Jimmie Johnson and his team elected to not qualify for the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway electing to start in the rear of the field. It’s a bigger problem than you think.

Kyle Larson captured the pole position in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS for the Auto Club 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race with a lap of 38.493 seconds, 187.047 mph. Larson, who is the current MENSC points leader, with three consecutive runner-up finishes in four races this year, will lead the 39-car field to the green at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Starting Position: 2nd - How special would a win at California’s Auto Club Speedway mean to you? “It’s top of my list since 2013. Just as a race track, it’s been a great one for us. We’ve come very close. It’s been tough on me physically and mentally. You want to kind of overcome and get a win at a track like this, for sure.”

KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Busch Ford Fusion – “It wasn’t bad at all. I don’t think I did a very good job of just relaying what I needed as far as what I was feeling. It was too tight there the second and third rounds. I thought it was OK after the second round and I had overdrove it, but the third round it just got a little bit tighter. I should have gone with my gut and loosened the car up, but that’s what happens sometimes when you run fast in the first round you get a little bit gun shy, but the car is driving really good and everything should be fine.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER - YOU CHANGED UP YOUR LINE THERE WAS THAT WHAT IT TOOK TO GET THE POLE? “I think so. I haven’t seen a lap tracker, but I felt like I messed up there in (Turns) 1 and 2 and I got a little bit loose off the wall on entry and it got me to split the seam in (Turns) 1 and 2, but I was able to get committed to wide-open pretty good off of (Turn) 2 and then, yeah, I hadn’t run up high in (Turns) 3 and 4 at all in practice or qualifying here."

California native Kyle Larson stormed to the Coors Light Pole Award in Friday qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Auto Club Speedway.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – On team’s decision not to participate in Qualifying today for Sunday’s race: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HAVING TO START IN THE BACK ON SUNDAY? “We had a tough practice session and mid-pack was probably going to be our goal anyway."

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Auto Club Speedway and discussed being the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point leader, racing on dirt, thoughts on stage racing and many other topics.

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed his win last weekend at Phoenix, extreme heat conditions, his approach to the season after earning a spot in the playoffs, how the cars handle this year compared to last year, and more.

For the last few years, attendance at The Brickyard for NASCAR events has dwindled and the sanctioning body is looking for any measure to rectify the racing. Their solution, slap restrictor plates on the cars.