NASCAR Cup Series

Ryan Blaney opened the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season by driving the fuel-starved Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion to second place in the 59th Daytona 500.

RYAN, PLEASE WALK US THROUGH THE FINAL LAPS FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE. “Yeah, I thought we had a good car all day to start off. We showed that definitely in the first half of the race. Then we got some damage there in one of those big wrecks about middle of the race. Kind of hurt our car a little bit. AJ (Allmendinger) and I are just talking. Looks like everyone ran a race at Martinsville. Everyone's stuff was tore up.

AJ Allmendinger finished in third place to lead Team Chevy in the 59th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday. Allmendinger started in row 19 and overcame an early issue with the left front of his No. 47 Kroger ClickList Chevrolet SS en route to equaling his best-ever finish The Great American Race.

After blowing both front tires early on in the 59th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was caught up in a late race accident with 63 laps remaining forcing him to settle with a 31st-place finish.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH "It was a disappointing finish to a good day. Just one of those things you can't do anything about. I'm happy with how the NAPA team performed, and we are going to learn from it. I'm proud of how hard everyone worked all week. We're looking forward to getting back at it in Atlanta."

KURT BUSCH -- No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) -- YOU ARE A DAYTONA 500 WINNER. YOUR INITIAL REACTIONS AND EMOTIONS? “There is nothing predictable about this race anymore and the more years that have gone by that I didn’t win I kept trying to go back to patterns that I had seen in the past. My mirror fell off with 30 laps to go and I couldn’t even see out the back."

JOEY LOGANO -- No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion -- “I just couldn’t get anyone to go for it at the end. Everyone was so conservative and I don’t understand why. We kept trying to go to the bottom and make a run down there and no one would go with us. We had three cars that kind of wanted to do it, but it’s a matter of getting the right run and getting the right cars behind us and we didn’t have enough of them and couldn’t get up to the lead pack. I don’t know why everyone was so conservative today.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD “I was kind of looking at the fuel pressure gauge, the window, the mirror; and the last 10 laps, knowing that we were pretty close, I was just trying to run in that pack and run quarter throttle and trying to hold my spot the best I could."

KURT BUSCH -- No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Fusion -- YOU ARE A DAYTONA 500 WINNER. YOUR INITIAL REACTIONS AND EMOTIONS? “There is nothing predictable about this race anymore and the more years that have gone by that I didn’t win I kept trying to go back to patterns that I had seen in the past. My mirror fell off with 30 laps to go and I couldn’t even see out the back. And I thought that was an omen."

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Did you have any indication you had a tire issue? “No. I wished I would’ve. If I would’ve, I would’ve tried to wave off as many guys behind me as I could, but it happened just as soon as we started picking up load into turn three. Just spun around and you know it actually felt like I hung onto it for a long ways and then finally it went."