NASCAR Cup PR

DANIEL HEMRICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 met with media in a breakout session at Talladega Superspeedway. Select highlights:

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang -- HOW WAS YOUR PRACTICE? “It was fun. Anytime you have this many changes with the package you want to get some seat time and figure out the runs and figure out how to time passes and where the momentum is going to come from."

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to the media in Talladega:

“We didn’t get to draft yet so I actually had to watch pretty closely to see what to expect. We were working on single car stuff and getting some of our little quirks and little issues right. There was different single car stuff that we had to work on and get right."

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing - Can you talk about the sensation you felt during the first practice session? “It feels really fast, but you look at the speeds and look at the times and actually the fastest car wasn’t even as fast as we were here last year."

DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 Shriners Hospitals for Children Ford Mustang - WHAT DID YOU PICK UP ON IN PRACTICE? “I think we have learned that it isn’t fun to wreck in practice so we try to be a little conservative. Right off the bat I felt my car accelerate right off the bat from pit road, a lot faster than normal at a speedway. I felt the runs were incredible. I have never been able to get such a quick run catching a car in front of me."

Talladega Superspeedway is ready to crank up the excitement for this weekend’s motorsports tripleheader, announcing the lineup for pre-race dignitaries for the GEICO 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event, the MoneyLion 300 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the ARCA Menards Series’ General Tire 200.

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Toco Warranty Ford Mustang -- DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE BETTER TO BE OUT FRONT IN THE FINAL LAP OR BE SECOND OR THIRD OR WHAT? “It is always better to be out front whether you are at Talladega or Texas or anywhere in between. Out front is where everyone wants to be.

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang -- WHAT WILL WE SEE THIS WEEKEND? TANDEMS? WEIRD COMBINATION OF TANDEMS? NO TANDEMS AT ALL? “I will get back to you. I honestly don't know. I think there is a lot of speculation about what we will see."

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 MoneyLion Ford Mustang -- WITH THE ARCA SERIES BEING HERE THIS WEEK, YOU GOT YOUR LAUNCH AS A DEVELOPMENT DRIVER AND RAN SOME RACES FOR VENTURINI MOTORSPORTS. WHAT WAS THAT EXPERIENCE LIKE?