NASCAR Cup PR

Paul Menard and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team spent most of Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway working to make up lost ground.

Martin Truex Jr. won his second-consecutive event this season, and second-consecutive race at Richmond Raceway on Saturday evening.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 7th “If maybe I could have gotten a better restart there that last time, I could have been a spot or two better. But, we ran better than I thought I would. At the beginning of the race I was kind of falling back. But, then we made it better each stop. Actually, I had a pretty good car in the long run there at the end. So, I was happy about that. And, I haven’t seen the points, but it seemed like a lot of guys had a bad night. So, I’m sure we gained a little bit on the cutoff, so that’s always good.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – IS IT CONCERNING GOING FORWARD TO SEE HOW GOOD JGR IS RIGHT NOW? “It’s definitely not good news. We’ve got work to do. They’re really strong and we’re not where we need to be to be able to beat them heads-up, but we threw everything we had at them. We put down a great qualifying lap, got the first pit stall, had great pit stops and got to the lead, but just didn’t have the raw speed to keep it.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE – WHEN YOU DON’T MAKE A QUALIFYING RUN IN PRACTICE DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE CAR WILL DO IN QUALIFYING? “No, not at all and that’s part of the enjoyment of today."

Kyle Busch was the top Toyota driver in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Richmond Raceway on Friday evening.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media at Richmond Raceway:

HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT RICHMOND? IT’S A TOUGH TRACK. ARE WE GOING TO SEE FIREWORKS? “I don’t know if we’re gong to see fireworks. I don’t know if we’ll be fast enough for that. We’ve been pretty terrible since we unloaded. We’ll throw the kitchen sink at it for the race and hopefully we better. We need to be better than where we are. We’re pretty terrible.”

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR MEMORIES OF MIKE STEFANIK AND WHAT HE MEANT TO YOUR CAREER? ‘I’ve been privileged to race against a lot of great drivers. I’m from the Northeast. I’ve learned a lot of lessons from Mike and others just in general, those lessons you won’t learn racing against young guys that haven’t learned those lessons."

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 CSU/One Cure Ford Mustang – WHAT WAS LAST YEAR LIKE AT THE ROVAL WITH ALL THE UNCERTAINTY AND HOW DID YOU HANDLE THAT? “A lot of unknowns going into something like the Roval or any new race track or endeavor that we do with our sport it’s always nerve-racking times. I think the Roval, you get so busy in your days and living in the moment, living in that week wherever that week may be, whether it’s leading up to the Playoffs or before, you don’t think about the distant future until it becomes the near future.