NASCAR Cup PR

With Dog’s Most Wanted WGNA adorning his No. 17 Ford, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. worked his way inside the top-15 before being plagued with a mechanical issue forcing him to settle with a 33rd-place finish in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Darlington Raceway.

"I saw the 8 start to get loose like he blew a tire and chased it up the track. I was already on the bottom and I saw the 11 and a few other cars on the top and they were just trying to get down and we all kind of jumped on the brakes."

"This is just the night we needed at Darlington Raceway. My crew chief Danny Stockman and the team did a great job all night working on the handling of our No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, and it paid off. The track loosened up a lot more than we expected tonight, so we had to adjust for that and figure out which groove on the track worked for us with that handling."

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Ford Mustang – “It was kind of a blue-collar top five. We just hung around fifth to tenth all day and was able to clear off a few cars there at the end and ended up fifth. We had really good short run speed with the Miller Ford, but we didn’t really have the long run speed and the long runs, you’ve got to have that.”

Camry driver Erik Jones won his second career NASCAR Cup Series event in his 100th career-series start at Darlington Raceway on Sunday morning.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd WHAT ELSE DID YOU NEED TO WIN THE RACE? “Six inches less in the spoiler probably, for everybody. It was just really hard to pass. I think this package has been good for a lot of places but here. It’s a high grip track, already narrow. It was just tough to pass."

Denny Hamlin was the top Toyota driver in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Darlington Raceway on Saturday afternoon.

William Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Autoguard/City Chevrolet Throwback Camaro ZL1 captured the top position in qualifying for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Darlington Raceway, with a fast lap of 28.51 seconds, 172.487 mph. It is Byron’s fourth pole and 12th Top 10 start in 2019, and his first career pole at the 1.366-mile track known as the “Lady in Black’ and the ‘Track to Tough to Tame’.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 3rd “I felt good about my lap, the balance was fine. I could have maybe come to the green a little bit better, but I don’t think I would have had a shot at the pole. We had a lot of speed in happy hour, so I’m pretty confident going into the race tomorrow. You never know until the race starts, but I felt really good about it.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Mustang – “The time that we qualified I’m not sure being early or late is a big difference. The sun is gonna get a little bit lower in the sky, but the air temp is actually supposed to go up a little bit, so I don’t think that’s an issue. I felt there was more grip than I anticipated. Yesterday the track was hot and slippery with all the cars running and now you’re out here by yourself and the track doesn’t have as much heat in it, and it’s got a lot of grip.”