NASCAR Cup PR

Amid ongoing preparations to become “ROVAL™-ready” for the second running of the historic Bank of America ROVAL™ 400 on Sept. 27-29, Charlotte Motor Speedway officials on Sunday announced groundbreaking changes to the 2.28-mile road course oval’s backstretch chicane.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Qualifying Position: 6th - How did the new curb in turn five affect you? “It didn’t affect me any. I wasn’t one of the guys that was getting off the track."

Kyle Larson drove his No. 42 Credit One Bank Camaro ZL1 to the top spot in qualifying for the Toyota/SaveMart 350 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Sonoma Raceway, with a fast lap of 94.784 seconds, 95.712 mph. It was the third consecutive pole (2017-2019) in six races at Sonoma for Larson, and his eighth career pole in the MENCS.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT THE TRENDS YOU’RE SEEING FOR THE RACE TOMORROW? “I guess the trend of getting the pole and then struggling in the race (laughs).. I hope it’s not the same for tomorrow. I felt good. I had a mock run yesterday in practice."

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang -- Qualified 3rd “I feel like my lap was pretty good, I was just a little loose. I feel like I got through it mainly pretty decent. I got a little loose off of 10. If I could find one spot, I got too loose off 10 trying to throttle up too aggressively and stuck half my left sides up in the dirt and got loose and knocked a few mile an hour off on the exit compared to what I would have been."

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 met with media and discussed his previous poles at Sonoma, his views of running the Carousel, racing at his hometown track, and more. Full Transcript:

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang -- HOW DID THE CAROUSEL EFFECT THE PRACTICES FOR YOU? “I think it affected us before we got here trying to figure out what it was going to take to go fast through the carousel but still have the control you need through the rest of the race track. You have a few laps trying to figure out where you are going and what you need in your car and then start working on it. We all have plenty of time to work on it and figure it out. The thing that is still an unknown is how it races. We got behind some cars in traffic in practice to see what effect it has to your car and those little things. There are a lot of unknowns until we race in all honesty.”

Did you ever doubt that NASCAR would ever disqualify someone? Does that send a message to the garage? “I really never thought about it. If they are going to take a win away, it’s pretty big. Yeah, they said they were going to do it and they did it. I am not surprised.”

“It’s pretty fun. It’s a cool course. I like it, and we have a lot of the same old characteristics of Sonoma where you fight forward drive and grip. That’s what we love. The carousel is cool. It’s going to be an important corner. It’s going to be where you are going to need to pass going into turn seven. It’s a different corner for us now, but it’s going to be one of our main passing zones. It could be a pretty critical corner.”

“I didn’t even get a chance to look at it before I spun out. I got out and went up Turn 3 and thought man, these tires are cold and I spun out. So now, that is now the top of the board for the most embarrassing moment because we were just cruising around. We were just kind of cruising. Putting stuff together and the next thing you know, I was looking at the dirt. And I was like all right. Here we go. We got it out of the way.