NASCAR Cup PR

Brad Keselowski passed Martin Truex Jr. with two laps to go to score a fifth-place finish in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 Sunday evening at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. Keselowski claimed his third top-five in three NASCAR Playoffs races this season and will advance to the Round of 12. The driver of the Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang claimed his best finish in two starts at the 2.32-mile racetrack. The 109-lap race was held in unusually warm weather conditions, with the temperature in the low 90s on Sunday afternoon, creating brutal conditions for drivers and crew members. Keselowski claimed his 12th top-five of the season and enters the Round of 12 seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings, 22 points behind leader Kyle Busch.

The cutoff race for the opening round of the NASCAR Playoffs came down to one final restart for Ryan Newman. Despite battling every inch – just as he and the No. 6 team have done all season – his fight came up just short and he will not advance through to the round of 12.

"We invested a lot of time and effort preparing for this race, including simulator time right down to Friday night after qualifying. Even though we qualified far back in the field, we had confidence that we could race our way to a decent finish. My crew chief Danny Stockman and the whole team did a great job utilizing pit strategy to get the Jack Daniel's Chevrolet as high as the top five in the running order."

Paul Menard and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang ran in the top 10 – and often in the top five – for most of the first two stages of Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway before the craziness of the final stage left them with a 16th-place finish.

After an emotional week, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove his Sunny D Ford to a 17th-place finish in the second annual Roval race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Roush Fenway Racing announced earlier this week that Chris Buescher would be rejoining the organization to drive the team’s No. 17 Ford Mustang in 2020. Owner Jack Roush, president Steve Newmark and Buescher held a press conference today at Charlotte Motor Speedway to talk about the situation.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to media at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course:

Behind the wheel of his No. 24 UniFirst Camaro ZL1, William Byron took the top position in qualifying for the Bank of America Roval 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with a fast lap of 80.932 seconds, 103.198 mph. The feat was Byron’s fifth pole in 65 MENCS races, his 13th top-10 start in 2019, and his first career pole at the 17-turn, 2.28-mile road course known as the Roval.

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Sunny D Ford Mustang – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT CAME DOWN THIS WEEK? “A lot came down. It was unfortunate, for sure. Definitely tough timing for myself and my group to try to find another option, but, all in all, I’ve got to look back on the 11 years that I had with Jack and winning races and championships and getting my first Cup win and being competitive – not as consistent as what we wanted, but the end of it all I’m very thankful that Jack took a chance on a dirt racer from Mississippi to come drive his car. "

Martin Truex Jr. was the top Toyota qualifier in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course on Friday evening.