NASCAR Cup Series

Alex Bowman surprised a lot of people running in the top-10 most of the back half of the Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire before a tire blowout in the closing laps relegated him to a back half finish in his substitute drive for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr.

" I feel like we are getting better each week now. Buga (Mike Bugarewicz, crew chief) is doing a great job on the box. You can see the confidence not only in him but all the guys on the team. Our Chevy’s are fast right now. I feel like we are gaining on it.

Matt Kenseth will be dining on lobster following enduring a flurry of cautions late in the going to score the victory at the Magic Mile.

“Yeah. I will take a third place after all that. We were awful at the beginning of the race. We tried some new things and apparently they didn’t work so we aborted mission in the middle of the race and got some speed back in the 22 but not enough to beat the 20.

Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson captured the 50th pole position for the Chevrolet SS race car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) with a quick lap of 28.430 seconds/133.971 mph in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy SS. It marked Johnson’s 35th career pole in 526 races and his first of the 2016 season thus far.

"The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading..." and I need to unload the question of whether you really want to see Jeff Gordon in a Sprint Cup car next week.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Starting Position: 2nd - Did you have anything for the pole-winning lap that Jimmie Johnson posted? “No, I thought we were kind of close to that in the second round. Overall, I messed up a couple times on that lap that we had and a little bit off of four and definitely checked up and had to get out of the gas just to save the car and come down and have a good lap."

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – Qualified 9th – POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE - YOU COME INTO THIS RACE WITH A LOT OF MOMENTUM. “It sure has been a good ride the last two weeks and that is all you can ask for as a driver, to be up front and have a chance to win races. We have had that and been able to capitalize on it. I feel really good about that."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER - THAT WAS AM IMPRESSIVE LAP DID YOU THINK YOUR CAR HAD THAT IN IT? “I knew the car was good. We had something really weird go on in our mock run in practice for qualifying. It had us kind of confused. We went back to kind of square one and where we unloaded."

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Qualified 6th “We just got a little bit snug the last lap in the last round there. I am not sure we could have gone as fast as the 48 did anyway but I feel like we gave up a least a half a tenth down in one and two."