NASCAR Cup PR

Newman will make his second start at the ROVAL on Sunday, and 38th overall road course start in the Cup Series.

After sweeping the inaugural Roval weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway last season, Ford will look to do it again as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competes in its first elimination race of the Playoffs and the NASCAR XFINITY Series runs its second post-season event of the year.  Chase Briscoe earned his first NXS victory in this event last season and then Ryan Blaney followed that up with a dramatic triumph one day later.  Here’s a look at where Ford drivers stand going into this weekend’s action.

Legendary NASCAR crew chief and Charlotte, North Carolina, native Jeff Hammond will be presented with Charlotte Motor Speedway’s prestigious Smokey Yunick Award prior to Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL™ 400

"That was a tough one. Our No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang qualified really strong, but unfortunately when we took the green flag, we were really free through both corners and that hurt us a little. My guys did a good job of making adjustments and got us more competitive, but we went down a lap and were forced to take a wave-around under caution, putting us off sequence with the rest of the field and had to pit under green. That ultimately sent us 3 laps down to where we just couldn’t overcome it."

Brad Keselowski scored a fourth-place finish in the Federated Auto Parts 400 Saturday night at Richmond Raceway. Keselowski claimed his 11th top-five finish of the season. He collected his fifth top-five in 21 starts at Richmond but his first since the 2017 spring race. The driver of the Discount Tire Ford is fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 35 points behind leader Martin Truex Jr. and 11 points behind third-place Kyle Busch.

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."