Kasey Kahne, who has three career victories at Lowe’s Motor Speedway qualified third for Saturday’s NASCAR Banking 500 only from Bank of America. (Photo Credit: Getty Images for NASCAR)
"The best teams continue to rise to the top, and they do that by bringing good cars and making them better throughout the practices and all race long. Everyone is building for the end of the race when everything is on the line." - Denny Hamlin.
"It really is two different seasons here in our sport. You do what it takes to make the Chase, and you might as well put those stats from the first 26 races aside." - Kurt Busch.
"You know, we’re getting close to our first win (of the season). We know it’s going to happen, but I think that’s why we fall behind in the Chase. Did you think we were going to be this competitive when the Chase started? No. We just wanted to make the Chase, and we played our strategy to make the Chase." - Juan Pablo Montoya.
"When you’ve been successful at a track like we have here at Lowe’s, you gain a sense of confidence because you understand where to be successful on the race track. You still need a good car, but confidence does give you a sense of comfort inside of the race car." - Kasey Kahne.
"What the reality is, the racing decides." - Mark Martin.
"There is no quit in this team at all. We just keep digging. I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care if we have to go 12 laps down and have the right side knocked off of it, if it gets us a top five at the end of the day, that is what we have to do the rest of the season. At the end of the day, no matter what the circumstance that got us behind, we’ve been able to rebound from it, not get all the way up to where we wanted, but we were able to make gains on it at the end and salvage a better finish than where we were." - Tony Stewart.
"Charlotte is still probably my favorite race track. Just growing up, watching races on TV, I loved watching the All-Star Race under the lights and the 600 with all the sparks flying." - Kyle Busch.
"Since it was resurfaced, it just changed the dynamic of the race for us. I had some lines that worked really well. I think our setup worked really well for the abrasive track. Rough tracks with bumps and things like that seem to work well for me with my background. It just worked. … It was resurfaced and we were competitive but we didn’t have an advantage by any means. … It has made the track more forgiving than it was in the past, and I think it helped close the gap. I’m hoping the track hurries up and ages and gets rough and bumpy and turns back into the track it used to be." - Jimmie Johnson.
"We all love racing at Charlotte because we’re home for the week, but it’s also a fun Saturday-night race for us. Any time we race under the lights at Charlotte, there’s an added level of excitement." - Greg Biffle.
"We’re doing everything we can to be good enough, but it’s just not there. So we’ve got to search and find something." - Jeff Gordon.
"The thing you have to remember is that as aero tight as these new cars are, you have to be able to run a line that the guy in front of you is not, so you can get as much clean air as possible." - Matt Kenseth.
"I’ve always told my crew chief, whoever it is at the time, ‘If you give me a straight arrow, I’ll shoot it straight. But don’t expect me to shoot a crooked arrow to the pole.’" - Ryan Newman.
"It’s hard to imagine I’ll be making my 850th NASCAR start (in the three major touring series). I’m not one to count how many starts I’ve made, but I can certainly say that I have a lot more starts in my future. Competing in NASCAR’s top levels of racing is something I’ve dreamed of since I was five years old. Thirty-seven years later, I still have a passion for what I do and look forward to capturing more trophies and, hopefully, a championship along the way." - Jeff Burton (No. 850 is in Friday’s Nationwide Series race).
"This might be the biggest race we have left this season. You always want to run well no matter where we race, but just about anyone who’s involved in the sport shows up at Charlotte at some point during the weekend." - A.J. Allmendinger.
"Any time you can race under similar conditions the whole race, it’s going to make it easier to keep up with changes. In the (Coca-Cola) 600, you’re trying to see what you can put up with just so you can get to the nighttime and really dial your car in for the finish. With this weekend’s racing being run all at night, it makes it easier to try to focus on being good the whole race." - Casey Mears.
"I love racing at night. The track has more grip at night, which makes for fast and exciting racing. As for the fans, with it being at night they get to see all the sparks from the cars. It makes the entire atmosphere different." - David Gilliland.
"Charlotte’s a track where I’m ‘hit or miss.’ It’s my worst track, by far. I’ll either run good, or I’ll run horrible. I’ve had a lot of bad luck there, too. Last year, the second lap of the race, a hot dog wrapper got on the grill and overheated the car. We had to pit, lost two laps in the process and never could get them back. Hopefully, it’ll be the hit and not the miss this time around." - Clint Bowyer.
"We have to find a way to keep everything together. If we can do that, I think we can leave Charlotte with a top-five finish." - Kevin Harvick.
"Charlotte is a tough track to figure out. In the history of the world, when it gets darker, tracks tighten up. But nowadays, the cars seem to be getting looser when the sun goes down. And when the temperature goes down, the front tires usually stick better than the back tires. There are a bunch of curves that you get thrown when you race under the lights. At Charlotte, for whatever reason, it throws more curves than any other track we go to." - Michael Waltrip.
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