NASCAR Cup PR

DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang - Qualified 1st “My car has been very fast the entire day. I feel that we had probably the fastest car in the last practice and the fastest car in qualifying again. I am very proud of my guys and Ford Performance and Stewart-Haas Racing and everyone that makes this program go. We have been working very hard.”

Notes: Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang team led the Team Penske charge in qualifying for Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway by claiming the third place starting position for the race. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at Kentucky, Keselowski was the fastest man in final practice before holding down the top spot in qualifying until late in the session when two fellow Ford Performance competitors topped him as the track temperatures cooled. Points leader Joey Logano will roll off from the 11th position in the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang, followed by Ryan Blaney in 15th in the No. 12 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang.

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Auto Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Qualifying Position: 8th - What changes did you make that helped you from practice to qualifying? “Yeah, just made some really good changes I think after practice."

MATT TIFFT, No. 36 Southwestern Trucking Ford Mustang -- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PJ1 USAGE HERE? “I think all year if somebody is stuck on the bottom and you have a top lane moving, the top is going to prevail just because of the drag that goes on the bottom lane cars. I think there is a shot for some interesting stuff there."

“I’ve gotten that question more and more over the last couple of weeks. I think that throughout the very end of the first 10 or so races, we started turning the corner as a group. We’ve been putting one foot in front of the other. We are doing the right thing as a group in trying to maximize weekends. We’ve got some room to grow and things we need to do better as a whole, and just cleaning things up. We’ve had some really clean weekends that we can have decent results. I’m looking forward to going back to some of these tracks and seeing what we can do.”

RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Acorns Ford Mustang -- HOW DO YOU FEEL AFTER THE PRACTICE SESSIONS? “I feel like there are still a bunch of things we wanted to try in our race car, we just didn’t have the time to do it. Not a perfect day by any means for our Acorns Ford but the guys are just kind of going through everything and hopefully making the right adjustments for us to be better than where we are come race time.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 PLANTERS CAMARO ZL1, AND RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1, met with media to discuss the confidence level going into the second half of the season, how they are handling the intense aggression level, what to expect for tomorrow’s track conditions, and more. Full Transcript:

“Definitely a lot on our mind coming here just because of this year and what it’s been all about. It’s so different. I think back to the last couple of years and we’ve really been able to kind of come in here with the same strategy, mindset, setup and look for the same things throughout the weekend. Now with the new cars this year and PJ1 on the track, all those things, different tires, it’s quite a bit different. We didn’t have a great day of practice. Hopefully we’ll make some good changes for the race. It’s tough these days when you come with a new package you don’t get a lot of practice, so we were off quite a bit to start and playing a little bit of catch up right now.”

PAUL MENARD No. 21 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang -- HOW WOULD YOU GAUGE YOUR SEASON SO FAR, HALFWAY THROUGH? “It is certainly not where we want to be. I feel like we have definitely shown some speed in the races, it is just a matter of putting together the entire race, something we have struggled to do. It starts on Friday, or qualifying day. The package that we are dealt this year it is really hard to pass and track position is as important as it has ever been and when you qualify 15th it is hard to make up passes and get stage points and do the things you need to do to make the playoffs. The times we have qualified in the top-10 we have been able to get stage points and finish in the top-10 a few times. Track position is key. That is something we have been working on for sure but it isn’t playing out to our satisfaction but we keep working on it.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – 12th IN STANDINGS “You know, Kentucky has lost a lot of grip quickly. They repaved it less than five years ago and it has really gotten greyer and greyer each year. I’m sure it’s going to be even more slick this year when we go back. It’s one of those tracks that takes a while to get rubber, so you just have to almost wait for that process to happen and make sure you tune your car to the rubber and not the clean track. That’s really all I’m worried about is once the rubber lays down you know it’s going to be a different race track.”