NASCAR Cup Series

Martin Truex Jr. will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday in the Queen City. The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota scored the pole for Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a time of 28.077 and a speed of 192.328 mph. It’s his ninth career pole and second of 2016.

MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing - Starting Position: 1st - How strong is this race car compared to what you had last year when you were so competitive? “I liked what I felt last year and I’ve been thinking about this race a lot since then. We had a really good car that day and thought we were going to go to victory lane and got beat on fuel mileage."

Jimmie Johnson was fastest among the Chevrolet drivers in qualifying for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The six time NSCS champion posted the seventh fastest lap with a time of 190.282 mph/ 28.379 seconds in his No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet SS. Johnson leads all drivers with seven victories at the 1.5-mile track.

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion, is coming off a victory in last weekend’s Sprint All-Star Race. He’ll be looking to sweep the 10 Days of Thunder at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday when the Coca-Cola 600 takes place. He spoke about his chances after today’s practice session with members of the media.

CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Subway Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - What is it like to run the name of a fallen military member on your Camry this weekend? “It’s a true privilege to be able to honor, in my case Captain Jablonsky for giving his life in Vietnam and for the man that he was."

Kurt Busch topped the chart in the first Sprint Cup Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.002 and a speed of 192.843 mph.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Charlotte Motor Speedway and discussed his connection to 600 Miles of Remembrance, being on the cusp of earning his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, the new rule changes and many other topics.

NASCAR will test changes for the 2017 aero package in two races this season in their continuing effort to remove downforce from the cars and improve competition. NASCAR announced Thursday that modifications to the aerodynamic package will be implemented for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway and the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the XFINITY Series will compete at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend. The Camping World Truck Series is off. Please check below for the complete schedule of events.

Let me be clear. Any race format that artificially moves entries from behind to plop them up front is a dumb one. I do not care if it is NASCAR’s All-Star Race or one that allows me to charge ahead of the Kentucky Derby field while wearing sneakers and a propeller hat. Dumb is as dumb does.