Penske Racing

Penske Racing, Press Release

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Ryan Newman in Car - Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (Nov. 20, 2011) –

While Newman ran a steady and solid race in his No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet, all eyes were on his teammate and U.S. Army team owner Tony Stewart, who won the event and captured the Sprint Cup season championship in his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet.

Stewart and race runner-up Carl Edwards tied in final points (2403), but with five wins in the 10 Chase playoff races, the tiebreaker went to Stewart. The championship was the third for Stewart, who also won season titles in 2002 and 2005.

Newman finished 10th in points, his sixth career top-10 season points finish.

As soon as Newman exited his black and gold Army race car, he headed to Victory Lane to congratulate Stewart and the No. 14 team.

“An incredible performance by Tony and the No.14 team,” said Newman. “They fought hard and deserved the title. It’s kind of bittersweet when it’s not you, but it’s awesome when it’s your teammate. The championship is a morale builder for the entire Stewart-Haas Racing organization.”

Regarding the 267-lap, 400-mile race, Newman quickly marched to the front after starting 14th. He ran as high as second and virtually ran the entire race in or near the top-10.

“We wanted to be up there contending for the win, but things didn’t quite click for us at the end,” stated Newman. “Our Army Chevrolet was strong, but we couldn’t get the track position to make a move as the race was winding down.

“Overall we had a good season, but the downside was that we didn’t perform as well as we anticipated in the Chase,” explained Newman. “We wanted better results for our Army Strong Soldiers, who inspire this team week in and week out. Driving an Army-sponsored car is a privilege and we’re going to do everything we can to make our Soldiers even more proud of their car in 2012.

Following Stewart and Edwards to the checkered flag were: Martin Truex Jr. (third), Matt Kenseth (fourth) and Jeff Gordon (fifth).

The 2012 season kicks off Sunday, Feb. 26 with the traditional Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

 - DMF Communications for U.S. Army Racing, Press Release

Tony Stewart soaks in the victory celebration with the Sprint Cup in Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 20. - Photo Credit: Chris Trotman, Getty Images for NASCAR

With “Walk-Off Win,” Stewart Takes Third Title At Homestead

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 20, 2011) – Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Tony Stewart went from all-time great to legend, capturing his third career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in grand fashion – a number that places him among a short list of historic NASCAR figures.

With a victory in Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Stewart became the seventh champion to win the season finale in his championship season. He out-dueled runner-up Carl Edwards in a finale befitting a championship showdown, tying Edwards in points – but winning the championship on a tiebreaker. Stewart’s five wins bested Edwards’ one, clinching the title for Stewart.

Stewart won his first championship in 2002 and second in 2005. The Indiana native now joins David Pearson, Lee Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough – all NASCAR Hall of Fame members or inductees – as three-time champions. Nine drivers in NASCAR Sprint Cup history have won three or more championships.

Stewart entered the season-ending race trailing Edwards by three points. It marked the second consecutive season and fourth time since the inception of the position-based points system in 1975 the champion has overcome a points deficit entering the final race.

Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing with Gene Haas, is the first driver-owner to claim the championship since Alan Kulwicki in 1992. The 2011 season is the organization’s third under its current ownership.

Stewart failed to win a race during the 26-race regular season. But he quickly caught fire, winning the first two races of the Chase, at Chicagoland Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He ultimately won five times – twice on consecutive weekends – to break the record for most Chase wins in a single season. Stewart has won 11 times in Chase history, second only to Jimmie Johnson’s 20.

Entering Sunday’s season finale, Stewart had led the points just twice in 2011, ironically after Edwards’ only victory in Las Vegas and following the fall race at New Hampshire. He finished the year with 44 career victories, tied for 15th on the all-time wins list.

Those wins wound up trumping Edwards’ consistency during both the regular season and the playoffs. Stewart’s nine top-five and 19 top-10 finishes trailed Edwards, however, the series-high five wins ultimately were the decisive factor in the championship’s outcome.

- NASCAR, Press Release

Ford Racing

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion –

HAS THIS SEASON BEEN A SUCCESS IN YOUR MIND? “Oh, yeah. You can’t reflect on one race and feel bad about this season. We’ve had a great year and I’m looking forward to 2012 and making it better.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENGINE? “It’s just engine trouble. The guys at Roush Yates do a great job and that was probably just pushing the issue. We are here racing for a win and had a fast car and that is our fourth engine failure of the year. You can’t make the Chase, and you can’t go for a championship having problems like that. They do a great job; we just pushed the envelope too much and were being a little aggressive on our car with not a whole lot to lose. We were trying to find a little horsepower and it didn’t work out.”

DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING? “No we were cruising around and made that green flag pit stop and our car had been real free for most of the race. We had a good car I think, no warning, just broke something big going down the back straightaway.”

THE 9 CAR LOOKS LIKE IT DROPPED A CYLINDER. IS THIS SOMETHING CARL NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT? “I don’t think so. I think Carl probably has a real conservative piece. I doubt they will have any issues. Myself, Marcos and even Greg and AJ, not being in the Chase, we have a little R&D going on. We just got the short straw.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “The engine just gave up. It’s really weird the symptoms we’re having because the oil temperature, water temperature, everything is good. We’re not revving them that high, so there must be something weird going on with them. They make great power and we’ve had good engines all year.” WHAT HAPPENED? “It looked like maybe we had a valve problem or something like that. It’s kind of odd because we’re not revving them that high and the temperatures were really, really good. It must be something with the parts because we’ve had three of them break that I know of and that’s really unusual for our engines. Our engines run really good, really reliable and make really good power. I know Doug and all the guys have worked really hard on durability on this FR9, so this is an unusual problem for us.”

DAVID RAGAN SAID THEY WERE TRYING SOME R&D STUFF. WERE YOU? “I don’t know all the specifics. We could have possibly been trying something for next year. It made good power, it just didn’t quite make it far enough.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion – “It looked like he (Jimmie Johnson) got loose up high and gathered it up, and then it was like he made a hard left like he was gonna come down pit road and I just got in the back of him. We had just got a break there and got back on the lead lap. We were working on the car and even though it wasn’t where we wanted it, we were working hard to try and get it there. We just came up a little short.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – PIT ROAD INTERVIEW – “I just have to say congratulations to Tony. Those guys earned it. They won half the races in the Chase and he is the champion and did a good job. My guys did a great job. We pushed him to the end and that is all I got. That is as hard as I can drive. I think it is really important to give Tony the credit. Those guys did a good job. That is everything I’ve got. I will go home and work harder for next year and be back and make it just as hard on them, hopefully harder. I am proud of Ford, Aflac and our fans. Thank you for making this fun.”

THAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING CHAMPIONSHIP FINISHES THE SPORT HAS EVER SEEN. WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND RIGHT NOW? “Let me thank my sponsors, Aflac, Ford, Kellogg’s, Subway, Scott’s and all the fans. This night is about Tony Stewart. They beat us fair and square. I gave them everything we’ve got and my guys did a really good job. We came here and sat on the pole and led the most laps and Tony still managed to do a good job with their strategy, come out in front of us and that was all I had at the end. That is as hard as I can drive. I told my wife, ‘If I can’t win this thing, I am going to be the best loser NASCAR has ever had and I am going to try really hard to keep my head up and know we will be just as hard to beat next year and the year after that.’ I just hope everybody is proud of the way we performed and our effort. I appreciate everyone’s support. I wish so bad we had that trophy, it just wasn’t meant to be tonight.”

FOR 40 LAPS YOU WERE LOOKING AT THE TARGET AHEAD OF YOU, WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? “It was good because I could see what Tony was doing and I tried all sorts of stuff and that is as hard as I can drive that race car and that is it. I said before this thing started that I would give my best performance and I would be happy with that. I am not quite happy with it, but this is what we’ve got. We will make the most of it. I can tell you one thing, if we are in this position again next year those guys better watch out because that was a lot of work to stay calm and focused and perform the best we can, I learned a ton.”

DID YOU KNOW YOUR FATE DURING THE LAST 20 LAPS? “No, I don’t every quit. I was waiting for his car to run out of fuel coming to the finish line. The only good thing about tonight is that we didn’t make any mistakes, we didn’t mess up and we didn’t beat ourselves. We made Tony and those guys come out and beat us and they did. Congratulations to him. He is the champion and he earned it. I learned a ton, a lot about myself and competition at this level and I will be ready to battle it out just like this every year if I get the opportunity.”

HOW TOUGH IS THIS MOMENT FOR YOU RIGHT NOW? “This moment is pretty tough but not nearly as tough as it could have been if we had a mistake or a problem. We just got out-raced tonight. They did their jobs and came back from adversity and did a good job.”

WHAT DID YOU JUST TELL TONY AT HIS CAR? “I told him I hope we do the same thing next year, it will be fun. That is a good racer. He did a good job. His team did a good job. My guys did really well too. We aren’t going to walk away here feeling like we didn’t give our best performance. We did well and I stand behind all my guys and we will have that same group if I can do anything about it next year and they are going to have to beat us.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – “It was a good run for us. I kind of hit the wall early and this Crown Royal team did a great job getting it fixed up and keeping it really competitive. I just wasn’t as good as the top two. The 56 was better at times and I was a little better than him at times, but the 99 and 14 just had us all night. I don’t know what I would change to make it better. We had the balance pretty good. We had great stops. We did all that stuff, we just didn’t have the grip and the speed they had.”

NICE RUN. “It was. It was pretty good. The Crown Royal guys did a great job. They made great adjustments after we kind of got off and hit the wall a little bit early. We had the car pretty good, we just weren’t as good as the 99 and the 14 and the 56 at the end. Those guys were just a little quicker, but, overall, we had a good car and had a good day.”

HOW MUCH FUN WAS IT TO RACE ON THIS TRACK WITH SO MANY OPTIONS? “It’s a fun track. Before the red flag I hit the wall right in front of Martin and they were laughing at me at the red flag, so I was following him there at the end and he was leaving himself a good half-inch to the wall, so I was kind of waiting for him to return the favor so I could get back around him, but he’s really good at that and he just hung it out right next to the fence and I just couldn’t get by him.”

THE 14 AND 99 DOMINATED THE LAST THREE RACES. WHAT’S IT LIKE AS A COMPETITOR TO SEE A TITLE BATTLE GO DOWN LIKE THAT? “It’s crazy. I don’t know how Carl could have put together a better 10 races. They took bad days and turned them into good days and did all they could, but Tony got on that tear and won all those races on different style race tracks. I’m not sure how he made it there at the end on fuel, but he did. I thought it was Carl’s, to be honest with you. He had tires and Tony didn’t and I thought he was gonna run him down, but he just couldn’t quite catch him.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – “It’s a little bit sad. We accomplished our goal being top 15 in points, but I want so much more though. It’s one of those things that they deserve a little bit more and I wish I’d given it to them. We’ve got some stuff to work on in the winter. We know that. I love working with Greg because he’s helped me so much. I know I still have a ways to go. We’re making steps and we know the areas we need to work on. I wish I could have won for them, but we’ll get them next year.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “We were awesome until the rain came the first time. I guess they saw where our rear-end housing was leaking a little bit, I guess where I got in the wall and knocked a bolt loose, so the first half of the race I was pumped. We were coming and we got to 11th and I thought we were gonna be really good and then that happened and put us back in the field. Then I got in the wall a couple times and then when they crashed on the backstretch we lost our left-front fender when the tire blew, so it wasn’t exactly what we were looking for at the end, but it was really fast and I just wish I could have got a better finish for these guys. I enjoyed working with them all year long and, hopefully, I’ll get to do it again next year because it’s been a great group of people to work with.”

CARL EDWARDS POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE OUT THERE TONIGHT AND THE EFFORT – “Well, the effort was all season. We finished the last two races last season very strong and we believed in what we were capable of this year and I think we proved to ourselves that even with adversity and the things we faced throughout the Chase with the bad runs we had and mistakes we made and recovered from that we can compete for these championships. I guess the only thing I am able to take away from this that is really positive is something I think is really important and that is at least we know that we can compete with any of these people. We can compete with a two-time champion, three-time champion now, and winning half the Chase races and still score as many points as them. That is a big deal. I know there are a lot of tests in life and I think the last three or four weeks have been a huge test for me and my team mentally. For us to keep our confidence up and keep our cool and go out and do our jobs, I am really proud of that. That is it. That is my maximal effort right there and Tony beat us. He is a champion and deserves to be the champion. He did a good job and now we will go home and work even harder and if we are faced with the same test next year hopefully we will do even better.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR THOUGHTS THE LAST 10-15 LAPS? “Well, for me I thought back to a lesson I was reminded of at Iowa the second race with Ricky Stenhouse and that was to never, ever give up, period. I was fully prepared for Tony to run out of fuel or have a tire problem or for anything to happen. For a caution to come out and have a restart and that is all I can do. That is my job, to be as prepared as I can be. I didn’t really let myself think about the consequence of what was going on, I just had to drive the hardest I could and I did. I drove to the edge and beyond and that is all I had.”

I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK YOU WILL SPEND THE OFF SEASON THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO COME BACK AND BE EVEN BETTER THAN YOU ARE RIGHT NOW. IS THAT PRETTY ACCURATE? “Yes. Here is the deal. Whether we won tonight or we lost, tomorrow is the start of the next season. I was prepared before this race began to do exactly what I am going to go do and that is to be even better next year and apply what I have learned here. We knew we could come into this thing and we knew that of all the circumstances that could happen this one was the least probable. For us to finish like that, tied, fighting for the win, that is the least probably outcome. I was prepared for anything. I knew that this was a possibility and I was prepared for this. I told myself and my family that the one thing I am going to do is walk back to that motor home win, lose or draw and be a good example for my kids and work hard and go be better next season. We talked about it before the race. Even if we won this thing you get halfway through next season and struggle and it is quickly forgotten. As painful as this is right now I know we are fortunate to go to Daytona and start all over again and go race.”

WHAT DID YOU SAY TO BOB OSBORNE WHEN YOU GOT OUT OF THE CAR? “I just wanted to make sure that Bob knew I believe he’s the best crew chief here and he will be my crew chief for as long as he wants to be and I will be behind him and his decisions 100 percent. As tough as it is for me, it’s tougher, I think, for those guys – the guys that prepare these cars and determine which things we’re gonna work on through the year and what strategies we’re gonna use. I mean, they make some very, very big decisions that they can’t turn around and change in a heartbeat. As a race car driver, I can make quick decisions out there and I can fix things and make things happen. They make some very, very thought-out decisions and I’m sure their disappointment is as great or great than mine.”

IS THERE ANYTHING COMPARABLE YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED WITH LIKE THIS? “No. I wish I could do this every day. There are lessons that I learned and things I learned about myself, about competition, about failure, about success – things that I could not have learned any other way. If there wasn’t any pressure, there wouldn’t be any diamonds. That’s what my trainer says. We dealt with a lot of pressure and I feel very proud of the way our team and myself and everyone has handled everything through this, and I feel we made it all the way through and although we didn’t come out with the outcome that we wanted, that we are better because of it. I’m not trying to be philosophical or anything, I’m truly telling you that if I’m in this position next year, I’m gonna be better at it. I’ll be better, so that’s cool. That’s something you don’t get every day is a lesson like this.”

WERE YOU PREPARED FOR THIS AND HOW DID YOU DEAL WITH TONY’S TRASH TALKING? “It’s easy. I talked to you guys one time and I said Kipling’s poem, I can’t remember the title of it, but when he says ‘you have to meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same,’ and that’s the truth. There’s nothing saying that this loss here tonight won’t spur a chain of events that could lead to some serious success in the future and you guys are looking at someone who is not gonna miss out on that. I’m very aware that time is a funny thing. You can’t go back and change anything, but you can sure as hell change what’s gonna happen, and I will be better and I will do a good job. And, yes, to answer your question, I was prepared for this. I thought a lot about this. Like I said earlier, I feel like personally I passed the test. I didn’t fall into the trap of the trash-talking. I didn’t change the person that I am to go compete at my highest level. I felt like I did it my way and I’m proud of that.”

THE LAST THREE WEEKS YOU AND TONY HAVE GONE HEAD-TO-HEAD. IS IT NOT SURPRISING IT ENDED THIS WAY? “Like I said earlier, I think it’s been a true test. It’s been a battle. As best I can, if I step back away from this and I look at it and I say, ‘OK, here are two guys – one of which has a lot more experience in these situations than the other, won half of the races in the Chase and the other guy stood his ground and did a darn good job of forcing these guys to perform their best.’ I’m proud of that and I think what you just said, the fact that it was that way, that it just turned into this man-to-man battle, that was very interesting. That was something you don’t see in this sport. It shouldn’t happen. I believe it only happened because subconsciously everybody on these teams just raised their level of performance and, to be honest with you, I was very, very impressed with Tony. I think that for all the talk and all the chest-pounding he did, I could see that he was nervous about this too. They had to perform at a very high level and I honestly thought there was a good chance tonight of them making a mistake, of him over-driving, trying too hard, and they showed a lot of mental toughness to be able to watch us go lead the first half of this race essentially and not panic and not make mistakes. I thought they did a really good job.”

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE FACT IT ENDED IN A TIE? “I’d compete with him in just about anything else to break that tie if we could set up something. That’s pretty amazing. I’m telling you guys, I’m not just saying this because I didn’t win the thing, but I think we could run this race 10 times and it’s a 50-50 deal. A little different pit stop, a little different restart here, 10 pounds of spring somewhere in the car and this race could have been a lot different – not a lot different, but the roles could have been reversed. I think it’s just amazing. I’m sure there will be people who will say this is fake, that this was set up, because it’s just so unbelievable. It’s like a movie.”

WHERE WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND TONY, AND YOU SEEM TO BE PUTTING ON A GOOD FACE. IS THIS HOW YOU FEEL? “I’m telling you, guys, this is how I feel. This is me. I’m not b.s.’ing you. This is me. I’m not gonna go rip the door off my motorhome and freak out or anything. I’m gonna go hang out with my family and we’ll go to the beach tomorrow and go celebrate Ricky’s championship. I think it’s important to look back and to come up and look at things you could do differently to really analyze everything and to see where you did things wrong and where you did things right. My true feeling right now, my gut feeling in my heart, is that I’m obviously disappointed we didn’t win. That would have been a spectacular result, but I’m very proud. Some of the best races I’ve run in my life were this Chase. Kansas was unbelievable. Martinsville, I’ve never used my head as much as I did at Martinsville. I’ve never been able to put down my frustration like I did at Dover. If I look back on this Chase with some of the things we salvaged, I mean, we shouldn’t be tied, we should be a lot farther behind. I’m proud of my guys and proud of every one. There’s not one thing where I say, ‘Man, I wish I’d have done this or I wish I’d have done that.’ This whole season has gone very well. I’m truly proud of this season, but it’s over and we didn’t win it and they did. It’s not like the squeaked by. They came with a vengeance and they did their jobs.”

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOUR OFF-SEASON? “What we now have to focus on, we have to be very careful of is not being frustrated and not letting this disappointment tonight affect us for next season. That’s something you’ve got to do as a competitor, especially at this level, you have to realize that the past is history, it’s done, we have to go be the best we can and, truly, we’ve never run any better than this and there’s no reason we shouldn’t start the next season just as tough or tougher. I think that’s something we’ll talk about, hopefully, really soon after everyone relaxes and gets done with Thanksgiving. We’ll decide how we’re gonna be the best we can next year and build off of this and not let any of this disappointment bring us down. We have to make sure we’re just as tough next year.”

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE RAIN CAME AND YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT FUEL MILEAGE WITH 50-60 TO GO? “What they did was they stayed out. I think they almost ran out of fuel. They came down, pitted. They did a really good job of staying on the lead lap. I’m sorry, I’m mistaken, it’s not hard to do because we pitted, too, so it ended up working out fine for them. But they pitted for four tires, the rain came, caution came out, and we only had a couple laps on our tires, so we came in and we were kind of stuck in a box where if we took four, we were gonna lose a bunch of track position to him, and then if it rains we lose the championship if they say the race is over. So we took two tires while we were cruising around under caution we still had the points lead, so if the rain came really hard and they for some reason shortened the race, we’d have won it that way. That’s the box we were in, so we restarted and as it turns out the guys that took four tires didn’t move forward a bunch, so, looking back, I don’t know if we’d have taken four tires if that would have made the difference or not, but it doesn’t appear so. I think if we had it to do over again, we’d probably do the same thing, we would hope that that rain didn’t come and then we would get another caution.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED HE STAYED OUT SO LONG? “I was and I was trying to figure out what he was doing, but they were just gonna try to make it on that one stop and then save fuel, which is pretty risky, I thought. I really thought for a second, ‘We’ve got ‘em. They’re on the ropes here and they’re trying something that maybe they shouldn’t.’ The Gods were shining down on them. It worked out and it just worked out perfectly, and then they were able to hold us off at the end. I’m telling you, the best minds up there looking at all the possibilities and it both teams did something that they thought was best and it was darn near identical. It just wasn’t much different.”

WERE YOU NERVOUS ABOUT YOUR ENGINE AT ALL AND WHAT DID YOU DO DURING THE RAIN DELAY? “I went back to the motorhome and had some popcorn and hung out with the family and that was pretty fun. I wasn’t worried about the engines because I saw Doug’s interview on TV. He said that the 6 was a different engine, so I’m sure they were trying some stuff and if there was a problem, Doug would have told us, ‘Hey, you’ve got to take it easy on the engine,’ but we didn’t have any trick engine stuff or anything that I was aware of – nobody told me anything about it, so I wasn’t too worried.”

TONY CAME FROM THE BACK TWICE. HOW MINDBOGGLING IS THAT? “They did a good job. I think that’s why the fans saw such a good race is because this track allows you to do that. If you’ve got a fast car and you do your job and you drive hard, you can pass people here. The fans got to see that and that was just a good job. They did a really good job of recovering from that stuff.”

YOU HAD A 4.9 AVERAGE IN THIS CHASE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT BECAUSE THAT WOULD HAVE WON EVERY OTHER CHASE? “We performed very well. I feel like over the whole season we performed really well. I don’t know if anyone scored more points in the whole season than we did, I’m not sure about that, but there’s a lot of pride in that. We did that in 2008 and I think we did that now. We just performed the best we can. Every week we put out the best effort we can and we were one point shy. That’s just the way it is.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS RACE? “It’s neat. It’s neat to be a part of something like that. It’s not neat to lose, but, like I said earlier, that’s a position – I can’t think of another thing I could go do that would capture my attention and my effort, my focus and all of that like this has, so it’s neat to be a part of something like that. I think it’s good to be a part of things like this and I think, in the end, it’ll just make me a better race and a better person to deal with stuff like this. It’s amazing.”

HOW DO YOU THINK BOB WILL HANDLE THIS? “I think Bob will handle it well. Bob is a very, very mentally tough person – very tough. He’s hard on himself. He’ll figure out things that he can do better, but that’s one of the neat things about Bob, he just keeps his head down and works. I think this will be good. We’ll come up with things we can do to be better, but, really, we rose our level of performance. We rose to the occasion, and I truly don’t think we could have done much better in this Chase with, like I said, the circumstances we had and the way things went. I was very proud of every point we gathered through the whole thing.

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Toyota Motorsports Logo

Camry drivers Kasey Kahne (seventh) and Denny Hamlin (ninth) also earned top-10 finishes at the mile-and-a-half oval.

Other Toyota drivers in the field included Brian Vickers (17th), David Reutimann (18th), Joey Logano (19th), Kyle Busch (23rd), Casey Mears (26th), Bobby Labonte (27th), Cole Whitt (37th), Joe Nemechek (40th) and Michael McDowell (43rd).

Four Camry drivers finished the 2011 season in the top-20 in the unofficial NSCS point standings — Hamlin (ninth), Busch (12th), Kahne (14th) and Truex (18th). Camry drivers earned six wins and seven pole positions during the 2011 season.

Toyota has recorded 39 victories and 31 poles since joining the series in 2007.

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 3rd

How much fun did you have racing tonight? “It’s a lot of fun when you can run like that. Just got to thank NAPA, Toyota and everybody on this race car. Michael (Waltrip) and Rob (Kauffman, team owner), they put a lot of resources and a lot of efforts into getting our cars better the second half of the year. We’ve got a lot to build on this season. Scott Miller (director of competition) came over and did a nice job being my interim crew chief while Chad (Johnston) was emailing setups from the race shop. Just proud of everybody on the team for sticking together. We ended the season on a strong note and we know what we’ve got to work on this winter. We’ve had speed all year, we’ve just got to get more consistent. If we can do that next year we’ll do some great things.”

How was your race? “It was a good run for our NAPA Toyota. We had a good car all weekend long. I love coming down here to Homestead. I don’t know what it is about this place but I really enjoy it. I felt like we probably had the car to beat here last year. Tonight we weren’t quite as good. The 14 (Tony Stewart) and 99 (Carl Edwards) were just so stout. Now you know why they battled for the championship this year. A big night for our team. This is a new car we built and took to Texas for the first time. It’s something that the guys have been working on for a big part of this year to get better. Just feels good to come out here and run well and finish the season off. My crew chief (Chad Johnston) is at home emailing setups and notes trying to help us as much as he can through email and text and all of that. I’ve just got to thank Scott Miller for coming on board and helping us. Looking forward to next year. We’ve had speed like this all year, we just have to get more consistency and next year we’ll do great things if we can do that.”

How much were you watching the battle between Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards? “It was exciting to be up front with those two guys all night. We had a really good NAPA Toyota all weekend. It’s just a credit to all of these guys on this team for working hard throughout the season. The 99 (Carl Edwards) and the 14 (Tony Stewart) were really stout. We weren’t going to touch those guys, but we were pretty decent. We’ve got some things to work on this winter and if we can get a little bit more consistency we’ll have a good season next year. We’ve had the speed, we just have to do all of the little things right.”

Are you excited about Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin joining Michael Waltrip Racing next year? “I’m looking forward to it. They’re both obviously good guys and good drivers with good records. Certainly, Mark (Martin) has done a lot. Clint (Bowyer) has had a few good years. It’s going to be fun to work with both of those guys. I’ve worked with Mark before so I kind of know what to expect with him. I’m not real sure about (Clint) Bowyer. He’s a little bit off the wall, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun. Michael (Waltrip) and Rob (Kauffman, owner) and everybody here has just put so much effort into making our cars better and using all of the resources that we have from Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development) and all of those guys. We really had a pretty good season. I know the points don’t show it — all of our finishes don’t show it but we’ve had fast race cars. If we can take care of a lot of little things this winter hopefully we’ll have three cars next year that are capable of winning races week in and week out.”

KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 7th

How was your race? “We had to battle pretty hard during the race. I think we had the best car there those couple runs before the final run. We were flying. It felt really good and then we just got tight in that final run. I was kind of surprised we got tight, but the two runs before that our Red Bull Toyota was I think the fastest car on the track after about 10 laps and we were coming. It was good and it was fun passing cars and having a great car again. The guys did a ton of work today. We started off way too loose and we were loose every run and could go at the end. And then that final one we got a little too tight so we finally went too far. It was still a good day, a good finish for us. The team guys were awesome. They brought a lot of great race cars to the track and nobody gave up and we were right there throughout the whole final three months.”

How much did the track change with the rain delays? “The first one didn’t seem to do a lot. We made a big adjustment so I wouldn’t know. The new setup was completely different. The second one my car wouldn’t turn afterwards. I was a lot tighter than what I was before the rain. I don’t know if other people were that way or not, but I know our car — I had already driven by (Martin) Truex (Jr.) and (Matt) Kenseth and those guys and they just drove right back by me and had nothing for them. It was much tighter after the final run.”

What did you think of the championship battle? “It was crazy. To do that, you can’t ask for anything more. That’s as close as a championship can be, will ever be. Those two guys both deserve to be champions if you ask me. Tony (Stewart) wins it because of wins, but Carl (Edwards) was awesome all season long. One of the best, probably the best car through the whole year. And Tony was, I guess , the bes t car in the Chase.”

Were you keeping track of where Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards were on the track? “I was at times, but then at the end I had my hands full trying to race with Clint (Bowyer). I tried a big slide-job on Clint in (turns) three and four on the final lap and luckily he saw me coming and avoided it or else we both would’ve wrecked. I misjudged it pretty good. Clint saved two cars.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 9th

Did you pay any attention to the championship battle during tonight’s race? “Yeah, you could see Tony (Stewart) was really aggressive on restarts trying to make up some ground. If you can win that many races in the Chase you deserve to win the championship, so it’s a hec k of a run by them.”

How much did the rain impact the race track? “A little bit. It helped us. It seemed like when the track would get cleaned off our car would be a little bit better once the rubber got laid down. We just are a little off in a lot of areas and just have to get a little bit better. It’s a step in the right direction on our mile-and-a-half program though.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 17th

What have the last five years meant to you with Red Bull? “It’s been a good five years. Can’t thank everyone enough. We had some ups and downs. Unfortunately, this year wasn’t one of our better ones. We won a race, made the Chase and sat on poles. The only goal we didn’t accomplish was the championship. Considering we only had four years to do it – I was out of the car for one (with a medical condition) – I don’t think that’s too bad. I just want to thank everyone at Red Bull, Toyota and all the guys for their hard work through the years. This is it.”

What are your plans for next year? “I’m working on several options right now in the Cup Series that I’m very excited about, but until they’re done they’re not done. So, I’m looking forward to hopefully continuing a strong career here in the Cup Series. I love this racing and I love what I do especially with everything I went through last year. It taught me just how much I really do love it.” -more-

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 18th

What are your emotions after the final race of the season? “It’s disappointing. I love my guys. A lot of these guys have been with me since the Truck Series and have come up with me. I’m going to miss them. I’m going to miss my guys most of all. It’s certainly a lot more bitter than it is sweet this week for sure, but we’ll see what happens.”

What tribute did your team do before today’s race? “All of the guys that have been with me for a long time, they autographed the hood. I knew I was going to have a hard enough time keeping it together because it’s kind of an emotional weekend and that made it really tough. I’ve got a great group of guys. A lot of guys have been with me for a lot of years, even from the Truck Series. So, it’s pretty special.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 19th

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 23rd

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 Hard Rock Vodka Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 26th

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Reese Towpower Project Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position: 27th

COLE WHITT, No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 37th

What happened to take you out of the race? “It stinks that we’re out. We worked hard to get back on the lead lap and got the ‘Lucky Dog’ back. We were racing pretty decent there — kind of coming back passing some guys back up on the lead lap and doing pretty good. I feel like we were just getting a little bit better. We were fighting a really loose race car all night and finally got it decent. It looked like Jamie (McMurray) just spun the 51 (Landon Cassill) and the 51 overcorrected where I thought he was just going to spin to the inside. He obviously overcorrected and went the other way and the hole closed up so we got into it with him and just ended our night. It just stinks that we got caught up in someone else’s mess.”

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Motorsports Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 40th

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP Racing, LLC Toyota Camry, HP Racing Finishing Position: 43rd

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release

Tony Stewart emerges from his No. 14 Chevy in Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway after winning the Ford 400 and claiming his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship on Sunday, Nov. 20. - Photo Credit: Chris Graythen, Getty Images

HOMESTEAD, Fla. –

Stewart took his fourth and final lead of the race with 36 laps remaining and finished a little more than one second ahead Carl Edwards. Stewart won a points tie-breaker with Edwards, five victories to one, overcoming a three-point deficit in the finale’.

“What an incredible championship run Tony put on this year,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President of performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Winning a record five of the 10 Chase races and overcoming a deficit in the final race is the very definition of a champion. But, he had been there before and he handled that pressure like the champion that he is.”

After going winless in the first 26 races of the season, Stewart won the first two races of the Chase, at Chicago and New Hampshire, and later added back-to-back victories at Martinsville and Texas before closing the season with the win at Homestead.

Stewart, who previously won titles in 2002 and 2005, becomes the eighth driver in series history to win three championships. Chevrolet now has won 28 driver’s championships, including each of the last seven. Stewart started the streak in 2005, and Jimmie Johnson won an unprecedented five in a row from 2006-2010.

Buck Baker won Chevrolet’s first driver’s championship in 1957.

Tonight’s victory was the 44^th NSCS win for Stewart. He led four times for a total of 65 of the 267-lap race that was delayed by rain three times. Fighting back from adversity that sent him to the back of the field twice as a result of repairs made on pit road by the Darian Grubb-led crew, Stewart passed 118 cars on the way to Victory Lane and the Championship.

“After the way those first 109 laps went today, said Stewart from Victory Lane. “I could not be more proud. We had the problem early and had the hole in the nose, everybody on this Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy team did a great job of getting it back going, then we had the contact with (David) Reutimann and had to come back in and fix it again. I told them “Man, it is really going to make these guys mad when we come back twice and still kick their butt”. It was optimism and trying to keep the guys pumped up and then to come out here and actually do it, is awesome.

“We just fought. This Office Depot/Mobil 1 team is just incredible,” said Darian Grubb, Stewart’s crew chief. “We just didn’t give up. We kept fighting. We went out and earned this championship and showed we’re true champions.”

Four-time NSCS Champion Jeff Gordon drove the No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet to a fifth place finish in tonight’s race. The strong run moved Gordon up to eighth in the final standings. He garnered three wins during the year.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, finished eighth in tonight’s race to finish third in points with four victories during the season.

Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, finished sixth and Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet finished 10^th to give Team Chevy five of the top-10 finishers in the race.

Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, finished sixth in points after a lengthy stay on pit road and a spin on-track put him six laps down to the leaders relegating him to the 32^nd finishing position.

With his 11^th place finish tonight, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, finished seventh in the final standings.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 US Army Chevrolet, was the 12^th place finisher in the season finale and stands 10^th in the final standings to give Team Chevy six of the top-10 drivers in the final top-10 standings.

Carl Edwards (Ford) finished second in tonight’s race. Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota) finished thrid and Matt Kenseth was fourth to complete the top-five finishers.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

FORD 400

HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES

NOVEMBER 20, 2011

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER AND 2011 SPRINT CUP CHAMPION: WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS AND FEELING RIGHT NOW STANDING HERE AS A THREE TIME CHAMPION AND THE FIRST CAR OWNER CHAMPIONS THAT WE HAVE HAD IN ALMOST 20 YEARS? “After the way those first 109 laps went today, I could not be more proud. We had the problem early and had the hole in the nose, everybody on this Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy team did a great job of getting it back going, then we had the contact with (David) Reutimann and had to come back in and fix it again. I told them “Man, it is really going to make these guys mad when we come back twice and still kick their butt”. It was optimism and trying to keep the guys pumped up and then to come out here and actually do it, is awesome. It is an honor to be in the same category with Alan Kulwicki, but Alan did it all on his own and I have a great co-owner with Gene Haas and Joe Custer helped put all this together with Rick Hendrick and Just could not be more proud of our guys and our organization. Everybody Ryan Newman, my teammate, everybody on the US Army/ Tornados Chevy just an honor to be here tonight.”

YOU MADE A COUPLE OF MOVES OUT THERE THAT WERE AMAZING, TALK ABOUT THOSE MOVES?

“That shows how bad I wanted to win this thing. During the season you give guys a little more room than that, but when you are going for a championship, you can’t hold anything back. I was racing around good guys when I did that all night and we just could not leave it on the table, we had to go on the restarts. That was a strong suit for us all night. We took off that one restart I think 12^th and came off the corner 5^th or 6th on the outside. It is just an awesome night when your car drives that good and you can go get it done like that.”

THOSE LAST TWENTY LAPS CARL (EDWARDS) STARTING CLOSING IN, AND THEN YOU STARTED TO PULL AWAY; DID YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT THEN? “Yea, I made sure that if we got in traffic that I had a little something in my back pocket to go with. We took care of it, we knew he was going to have to run hard to catch us and going to have to abuse his tires and if we just ran our pace, when we got to traffic or if he closed in anymore that we could go when we needed to.”

YOU ARE NOW IN THE SAME CATEGORY AS GUYS LIKE PEARSON, WALTRIP, LEE PETTY, ALL HALL- OF –FAMERS, A THREE TIME CHAMPION YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “It is an honor, that is an impressive group to be with and just an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of that with those guys and like I said if it were not for Gene Haas and Joe Custer and everybody at Haas Automation, Darian Grubb, we would not have had this opportunity. Just very proud to have got a group of guys that believed in us when we started and Office Depot is the first company and then to have Mobil 1 to come on board this year, just truly, truly an honor to be here with these guys.”

THE THIRD ONE AND I AM SURE THE MOST SPECIAL: “Yea and you owe me a six-pack for this too!”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – 2011 NASCAR SPRINT CUP DRIVER’S CHAMPION:

“I made sure that if we got in traffic that I had a little something in my back pocket to go with. We took care and we knew that he was going to run hard to catch us and was going to have to abuse his tires and if we just ran our pace that when we got to traffic or if he closed in anymore that we needed to go when we needed to.”

YOU ARE NOW IN THE SAME CATEGORY WITH GUYS LIKE DAVID PEARSON, DARRYL WALTRIP, CALE YARBOROUGH, LEE PETTY; ALL HALL OF FAMERS. YOU’RE A THREE-TIME CHAMPION. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “That’s an honor. That’s an impressive group to be with. It’s just an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of that with those guys. Like I said, if it wasn’t for Gene Haas and Joe Custer and everybody at Haas Automation and Darian Grubb, we wouldn’t have had this opportunity. So I’m just very proud that I’ve got a group of guys that believed in us when we started this. Office Depot was the first company and then to have Mobil 1 come on board this year was just, we’re truly, truly honored.”

TWO OF NASCAR’S HEAVYWEIGHT’S GOING TOE TO TOE AND HEAD TO HEAD IN THE FINAL LAPS, AND YOU WON IT AND THE CHAMPIONSHIP. WHAT’S YOUR EMOTION RIGHT NOW? “Oh, thank the Lord for this one, buddy; man I’m telling you, it’s been a tough summer and a tough fall for us and you’ve got to believe in something; and the man upstairs held this rain off just long enough for us to get this job done. Thanks to all the fans who stuck it out all weekend here at Homestead. Oh, my! I don’t care how long it rains; I’m going to be up all night tonight! For Office Depot for Mobil 1 for Chevrolet for the U.S. Army for Tornados and Quicken Loans and GoDaddy and Ritz and Oreos and Coca-Cola; just everybody who is a part of the Stewart-Haas program; Mac Tools, we couldn’t do it without you guys. This is just unbelievable. We said all week we’d just go out and win the race and we didn’t have to worry about what he (Carl Edwards) did and that’s what we did. If this doesn’t go down as one of the greatest championship battles in history, I don’t know what will.”

IN THE FIRST 100 LAPS, YOU HAD TO GO FROM BACK TO FRONT TWICE. THREE AND FOUR-WIDE PASSES ON THE RESTARTS AND THEN THE GAMBLE ON FUEL. HOW CONCERNED WERE YOU THAT MAYBE THERE WERE JUST TOO MANY OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME AFTER ALL YOU WERE HAVING TO BATTLE TONIGHT? “There is one thing I learned when Gene Haas and Joe Custer gave us this opportunity and our good buddy Rick Hendrick and I couldn’t do it without you bud and everybody at Hendrick Engines and Chassis. And Darian Grubb, and everybody on this team has just dug deep and never given up and this is an awesome night. Eddie Jarvis and everybody at Stewart Haas Racing. I’ve got the best team in the business and it’s just awesome. I’m so grateful to be able to do this for Gene Haas because this man has invested a lot in this sport and for him to have the faith in me to do this; it takes a lot to do what he’s done and I’m glad I can get this done for him.”

THAT NO. 14 BELONGED TO YOUR HERO AND FRIEND, A.J. FOYT, WHO SAID YOU COULD TAKE THE NUMBER BUT DRIVE IT WITH THE TENACITY OF A TEXAN. TONIGHT YOU WON A CHAMPIONSHIP THE WAY HE WON THEM, UP ON THAT WHEEL AND REFUSING TO LOSE. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO TAKE THIS NUMBER, HIS NUMBER, BACK TO A CHAMPIONSHIP STATE? “I guarantee you I’ll probably talk to him tonight and he’s still going to tell me what I did wrong today (laughs). But I’m so proud. A.J. has always been one of my heroes and he’s been very supportive of this when we did this. When I asked him if it would be all right if I took his number, he was the one who gave me his blessing and it meant the world to me.”

WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU SAW CARL EDWARDS BACK THERE, KNOWING HE WAS GOING TO DO EVERYTHING HE COULD TO TRY TO CATCH YOU? YOU HAD TO WIN THE RACE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?

“Those guys have done an awesome job all year and my buddy Ricky Stenhouse won the Nationwide Championship yesterday and Jack (Roush) got the Owner’s Championship so I didn’t feel bad taking this one away from them tonight. But he’s a great competitor and a great guy and we’ve been giving him a rough time this week. But it was all in an effort to do what we did tonight and win this championship. But it shows how classy a guy he is. He was the first one to me over there. And he said, ‘Promise me one thing that you’ll enjoy this and I hope it’s you and me in this position again next year.’ So that just shows how much class he’s got. He’s a great guy.”

DARIAN GRUBB, CREW CHIEF, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET:

YOU SAID EARLIER TODAY THAT NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN YOUR TEAM, YOU’VE JUST GOTTEN THE BREAKS TO GO YOUR WAY IN THE CHASE. TONIGHT YOU MADE YOUR BREAKS; YOU FOUGHT BACK FROM DIFFERENT CHALLENGES AND GAMBLED ON FUEL. HOW DID YOU DO IT TONIGHT?

“We just fought. This Office Depot/Mobil 1 team is just incredible. We just didn’t give up. We kept fighting. We went out and earned this championship and showed we’re true champions.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 US ARMY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12^TH: WHAT A DAY FOR STEWART-HAAS RACING: “Yea, it was pretty good on one side of it. Really proud of Tony (Stewart) and his guys. They delivered in the Chase when they needed to and obviously it kind of came out of nowhere. Really proud of them, really proud of everybody; all our partners at Stewart-Haas Racing. Thank you to Chevrolet for all they do. And the US Army. It’s amazing. It’s kind of bittersweet when it’s not you, but it is awesome when it is your teammate.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11^TH: ON HIS RACE AND SEASON: “The race was ok. I would have liked to have finished in the top-10 and we had a good enough car all day to run there. But, I don’t know, the rain made our car just not handle the way we needed it to at the end. It was great at the start of the race. We got to handling kind of poorly there the last half of the race. But we still managed to do ok. We’ve been learning somethings that I think are important that I think are important for next year. Everything is pretty positive right now.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5^TH: ON HIS RACE: “When the sun went down it didn’t work as well for us. We were good when it was slick and when the grip came, somehow the balance…………and this happens to us a lot and when the balance changes from the cooler track temperatures it seems to shift us into an area that we have a hard time adjusting. But it was a great day, a top-five, great year. We had three wins, got number 85, and came up short in the Chase but we look forward to next year and battling it out for the Sprint Cup.”

THE WAY THE CHAMPIONSHIP ENDED WITH TONY AND CARL ITS JUST GOOD FOR OUR SPORT ISN’T IT? “It’s great for the sport and I think Tony is just one of the all-time greats and he proved that over these last ten races and especially tonight. And it showed Carl what he is made of as well. I think that is awesome.

Look at the people standing up………..they stuck around to see how this one was going to unfold. You thought he was down and out and then he came back and you really thought he wasn’t sitting in the best position and he had to stretch the fuel and everything. And gosh if he didn’t do that too. That is amazing.”

WAS IT AS FUN OUT THERE FOR YOU AS IT WAS FOR US WATCHING? “This is a great racetrack. It offers so many different grooves, and you are slipping and sliding around, which is our kind of race track. It changed for us a little bit when the sun went down. We were not quite as good as we were when the sun was out. We had to make some adjustments, but just a great effort by this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet team. In the pits they were awesome, and we adjusted, we got it better there at the end and started working our way back to the front. Great top-five finish to end the season. I just have to thank Drive to End Hunger, DuPont, Pepsi Max, Quaker State, and Chevrolet, everybody that makes this a great team. Thank Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the guys. They just worked so hard this year, they are a great team; I can’t wait for next year. Congratulations to Tony Stewart, my gosh, what an amazing run he had in these final ten races. He has done some incredible things in his career, but I am guessing that this one is going to top them all. He did it in a fashion that everybody dreams of doing.”

CERTAINLY YOU WANTED TO WIN THE RACE, BUT A TOP-FIVE FINISH IN THE LAST RACE OF THE SEASON HAS TO FEEL GOOD GOING TO THE OFF SEASON LOOKING FORWARD TO 2012: “Well, we have never won here. We have a lot of top-five’s so we added to that. At times I thought we had something for Carl ( Edwards) when Tony ( Stewart) got up there, I said “ Uh-oh” he had a little bit extra that me and Carl did not have and he took that and went on to win the race.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 120 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com .

- Team Chevy, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 20th

YOU FINISHED FIFTH IN POINTS. “I don’t think anyone really expected that out of us, but I never stopped believing that we could be, you know, be a contender and have a lot of fun and do well as a team. I think we’ve got a lot to build off of. We’ll have to work on it, build off it too. I’m real proud of the effort for the whole team.”

HOW DID THE END OF THE RACE PLAY OUT FOR YOU GUYS? YOU HAD TO PIT LATE. “We were just doing what we could to try to get up to third (in the Chase standings). We were going to finish fifth in the points, so we just took a chance to try to get to third. It just didn’t pay off. If we caught a yellow, we could have been in really good position, but just wasn’t meant to be. I think we did all the right things and just didn’t catch the breaks we needed and really just didn’t quite have a fast enough car. We put ourselves in position to have good things happen to us and that’s okay.”

DOES THIS RACE ENCOMPASS YOUR ENTIRE CHASE? “We do an excellent job as a team putting ourselves in position where good things can happen to us and I think we’re rewarded accordingly. The big thing that we have to work on as a team is we’ve got to be a little faster, have faster race cars. If we can do that, we’ll rely less on strategy.”

YOU WON LAST NIGHT AND RAN STRONG TONIGHT. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOUR OFFSEASON AND AS YOU LOOK AHEAD TO 2012? “Well, you know, we’d like to have had a better finish today but, you know, like I said, I was only surprised with how we ran. I’m ready for the offseason (smiles).”

DID YOU CAR GET BETTER AFTER THE RAIN DELAY? “Yeah, when the track didn’t have rubber on it, I thought the car was really strong.”

DID YOU HAVE A BETTER CAR THAN WHERE YOU FINISHED? “We were better than 20th, but we took our chances and just didn’t catch the breaks. I’m not frustrated with that. I think that’s the right strategy. I would just like to be a little bit faster. That’s the only thing I can be frustrated about.”

WHICH IS THE BIGGER ACCOMPLISHMENT: TOP FIVE IN POINTS OR MAKING THE CHASE? “They’re pretty damn equal (smiles).”

HOW WAS YOUR RACE? “We had an up-and-down night here at Homestead. At the end, we took some chances trying to get ourselves up to third in points and it just didn’t pay off. Ended up finishing 20th and if we catch a yellow there, we’ll probably have a fifth to 10th-place day and move up to third in points. But we just didn’t catch the right breaks for that to happen, but still had a decent day and probably a better day than where the finish was. You know, we just need a little more speed in our cars to be able to do something here. You look at the 14 (Tony Stewart) and the 99 (Carl Edwards) and they just had a lot of speed. If we can get a little more speed in our cars, I feel like we can go out there and win a championship.”

DID THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT AFTER THE RAIN DELAY? “Yeah, every time it would rain or do any of that kind of stuff, my Dodge got really good. I could have used a couple more of those showers (smile).”

THOUGHTS ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE COMING DOWN TO STEWART AND EDWARDS. “Did it come down to a tie and Tony won it? Wow – that’s pretty cool. I guess I didn’t do the math. Congrats to him. He had a great year and I don’t think you can ask for much more than that.”

DID YOU EVER THINK THE CHAMPIONSHIP MIGHT COME DOWN TO LITERALLY THE LAST LAP? “Well, you know one year, it’s got to (laughs). This is the year and I don’t think we’ll ever see that again.”

PAUL WOLFE (crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)

“We just didn’t have the car that we were hoping to have tonight. It really would have been nice to finish with a win. We just didn’t have the car we needed. We worked on it and never could really put it all together. We got to the point where we were just trying strategy stuff to see if we could pull something off with this Miller Lite Dodge Charger. It just didn’t work out. I’m proud of the effort by everyone on this team. We were able to earn a top-five spot in the driver point standings and that’s a great accomplishment for this team. I’m proud of the effort. We feel like we know where we need to go during the off-season to make our cars faster and run strong for the championship. It wasn’t from a lack of effort. Everybody put the best effort they could to make this car a championship-caliber car and we did that. I’m very proud of this Miller Lite Dodge team. We’ve made big steps this year. We just have to continue to try and be better and ready once the flag drops at Daytona in a few months.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 34th

“I’ve never been so disappointed in my life. I think I missed a race once my rookie year and this almost tops that.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Tony Stewart next to the 2011 NSCS Championship Trophy - Photo Credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images for NASCAR

Stewart’s win put him in a tie with Edwards in the points standings, but with his five wins over Edwards’ one win for the season, Stewart broke the tie-breaker to capture his 3rd career series championship.

Along with his 5th series win of the 2011 season, Stewart also received his 44th series career win, his third series win at Homestead-Miami Speedway; as well as, his and team co-owner, Gene Haas, their first championship as an owner.

Following Stewart and Edwards to the drop of the checkered flag were Martin Truex, Jr., finishing in third, Matt Kenseth fourth, Jeff Gordon fifth, Clint Bowyer sixth, Kasey Kahne seventh, Kevin Harvick eighth, Denny Hamlin ninth and Jeff Burton rounding out the top-ten finishers.

RACE NOTES:

Average Speed: 114.976 MPH
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 29 Mins, 00 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 1.306 Seconds
Lead Changes: 26 among 15 drivers
Cautions: 8 for 54 laps
Attendance: 73,000

Unofficial Top-Twelve in the Points Standings: 1. Tony Stewart – 2403 (Series Champion With 5 Wins) 2. Carl Edwards – 2403 (0 Points Behind the Champion – 1 Win)  3. Kevin Harvick – 2345 (-58) 4. Matt Kenseth – 2330 (-73) 5. Brad Keselowski – 2319 (-84) 6. Jimmie Johnson – 2304 (-99) 7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2290 (-113) 8. Jeff Gordon – 2287 (-116) 9. Denny Hamlin – 2284 (-119) 10. Ryan Newman – 2284 (-119) 11. Kurt Busch – 2262 (-141) 12. Kyle Busch – 2246 (-157).

Next Up: The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season.

2011 NSCS Ford 400 Race Results

(i) Ineligible for Points in this Series
# Denotes Rookie

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hoists a championship flag after clinching the NASCAR Nationwide Series crown at the Ford 300 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, Nov. 19. - Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

Roush Fenway brings home two titles at Homestead NNS Finale 

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (Nov. 19, 2011) – Roush Fenway Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished second in the season finale at Homestead-Miami and clinched the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship. The championship is Roush Fenway’s sixth NASCAR title and its third Nationwide Series Championship. Stenhouse, who carried a 41-point lead into the race, clinched the championship on lap 27 of the race and won by 45 points.

“It was just a lot of hard work by all these guys – Jack Roush, Ford Racing, everybody at Blackwell Angus Beef and Cargill – this crew right here, they didn’t give up on me,” said Stenhouse. “They were with us all through last year and I’m just glad to be here.

“This is just awesome what this team has done, what Jack Roush has done and everybody at Ford Racing and Nationwide Insurance for giving us this great series to run in and all the fans that come out to watch every week. We really appreciate that, especially the ones that support us.”

Carl Edwards finished third and secured the 2011 Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship for Roush Fenway.

Roush Fenway won its first Nationwide Championship via Greg Biffle in 2002. Edwards won the team’s second driver NNS title in 2007.

RFR will look to make history tomorrow; becoming the first time in NASCAR history to win both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series title in the same season. Edwards leads the Sprint Cup points by three, and will start tomorrow’s Ford 400 finale from the pole.

• Roush Fenway wins its sixth NASCAR drivers championship.
• Roush Fenway wins its third NASCAR drivers Nationwide Series Championship.
• Roush Fenway wins it second NASCAR owners Nationwide Series Championship.
• Roush Fenway will look to become the first team in NASCAR history to win the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series titles in the same season.
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr., led the Nationwide point standings for 17 weeks in 2011, including the final 14.
• Stenhouse Jr,. won the first two races of his career sweeping both races at Iowa Speedway. He earned six top-five and nine top-10 finishes over the final nine races.
• Carl Edwards won eight races in 2011 in the No. 60 Ford Mustang.

Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series with drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions with its exclusive Roush Fenway OnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s only team-focused TV show, and its social marketing channel RickyvsTrevor.com bringing unmatched brand opportunities to sponsors. Visit www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow on Twitter at @roushfenway. For sponsorship inquiries call John Younger at 704.720.4620.

- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release 

Roush Fenway Racing

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (Nov. 19, 2011) –

Roush Fenway is looking to become the first team in NASCAR history to win both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series championships in the same season.

“Thank you to the fans for coming out to support this Ford weekend. It is a big weekend obviously and it is really neat to be part of a battle like this,” said Edwards who also led the season’s final practice session on Saturday. “It is great to be on the pole. It is just one lap and tomorrow we have 267 laps and we have some serious competition out there. We are just going to go put this Ford Fusion up there and get a good pit stall and race hard all day Sunday.

“We focused on our race runs the first practice and had a tire issue the second practice and only made two runs. It worked out great though. I just really appreciate (Roush Fenway teammate) Matt Kenseth’s help and all of my teammates helping me the best they could today to give us the best shot at this pole. I can’t believe we got the pole. We were just hoping to start in front of Tony (Stewart) somewhere and preferably the top five. The pole is a gift.”

Edwards, who leads the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings by three points, is joined in the top 10 by teammates Matt Kenseth (sixth) and Greg Biffle (eighth). David Ragan will start 13th. In addition, Roush Fenway driver Trevor Bayne qualified 20th in the Wood Brothers No. 21 Ford for the race.

Roush Fenway’s 11 poles this season are a record for the organization. Edwards has achieved three poles, in addition to three by Kenseth, three by Biffle and two by Ragan.

Tomorrow’s Sprint Cup Series finale is set for 3:00 p.m. EST and will be televised live on ESPN.

Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series with drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions with its exclusive Roush Fenway OnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s only team-focused TV show, and its social marketing channel RickyvsTrevor.com bringing unmatched brand opportunities to sponsors. Visit www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow on Twitter at @roushfenway. For sponsorship inquiries call John Younger at 704.720.4620.

- Roush Fenway Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) –

YOU WERE SECOND FASTEST IN FIRST PRACTICE AND FASTEST IN FIRST PRACTICE. “That was all qualifying. We focused on our race runs the first practice and had a tire issue the second practice and only made two runs. It worked out great though. I just really appreciate Matt Kenseth’s help and all of my teammates helping me the best they could today to give us the best shot at this pole. I can’t believe we got the pole. We were just hoping to start in front of Tony somewhere and preferably the top-five. The pole is a gift.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 12th) – “That was okay. We struggled a little bit today with the Best Buy Ford. We’ve kind of struggled with getting into the corner and I’ve really struggled to run the top. I think the top is the faster way to go, but I can’t get there right now. It was a solid lap. You can always pick it apart and say it was a little bit better, but we’re working hard. This hasn’t been the best day for us, but Greg Erwin and all the guys are working hard. Hopefully, that gets us a decent starting spot because it’s a long race on Sunday.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 18th) – “I just didn’t know what line to take. I went a bit higher than what I probably should have, but we’ll take it. I’ve just got to thank Ford Racing for putting on this huge show here. It’s great to finish here at the big Ford event. We’ve got Carl with a chance to win, Ford as well, and I’m real excited about it. With Stanley and DeWalt, it’s just been a ripper year. It’s been fantastic to drive with the King and I just want to thank all of my boys and Todd Parrott on the box. It’s been a really strong effort for us.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) - “I think I have a great car for tomorrow. The lap was pretty good. We struggled earlier today in qualifying trim for some reason. Gosh, I let up the gas off of four and it started to slide and chatter a little bit. I lost a lot of momentum and I don’t know if I had to lift. It was one of those things where it was like; uh oh I am in big trouble. I backed off it for a minute and I don’t know. It is so tight up there. That is probably the top of the board but who knows if it would have stuck.

DO YOU HAVE A TOP FIVE CAR IN RACE TRIM? “Oh yeah. We were probably close to being the fastest in race trim. We are pretty dang good as a team. I would say we are all in that area of top-10 somewhere.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 6th)– “I think we just missed the set up a little bit. I thought I got a pretty decent lap. It wasn’t perfect. This is a tough place to get everything because the lines change the way the car handles so much. I think we missed it a little bit but I thought we got most of it.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Qualified 20th) – “I was pretty happy with that pick-up there. I didn’t expect to run a teen. I don’t know how good that’s gonna hold up. We’re fifth right now, but I think it’ll be a decent start. I’m really happy with the adjustments we made. We ran like a .60 in practice and I was hoping for a .30, but we ran a teen there. I caught a little cloud, so that was good for us, but I think we’re gonna race a lot better than we qualify either way. If we end up fifth, then we’ll really be good in the race, but I think there are obviously a lot of good cars still to go. If we can get a top 20, we can race from there. I’d prefer a top-15, so we’ll work on that, but I’m excited about this car so far and just excited to be a part of this all year long. Hopefully, I’ll be back in the 21 next year. We’ll see what happens, but I’ve just really, really enjoyed it so far. I remember a year ago when I was sitting on the pit box watching these guys and Bill Elliott was driving the car. It’s been a crazy year, but it’s been a really memorable one and I’m just excited to have been a part of it.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS My Choice Ford Fusion - “That was a good lap for us; it wasn’t perfect. We made some pretty big adjustments after that last practice because we knew the track was going to cool down just a little bit and maybe we went a little too far. I think we’ve got a great UPS Ford for Sunday. That’s in the top 15 and we’ll be able to go racing with that on Sunday.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 40th) – “It feels nice to be locked into these races because we didn’t really put any emphasis on a qualifying effort today. We really just worked on our race trim stuff. That’s a pretty good lap for us and we gained a lot of speed there, but it’s not gonna shake out very good overall. Still, I’m excited about Sunday.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion (Qualified 38th) – “We have struggled and have been nowhere close to where we needed to be. It’s a little disappointing when you unload that far off, but we made some good gains and we’ll just keep working on it. We’ve still got the race, but I’m a little disappointed. We’ve run really well here the last couple of years, but we’ve just struggled today. The track didn’t have a lot of grip and I know a lot of people are having issues, but hopefully we’ll get a handle on it.”

J.J. YELEY – No. 55 Ingersoll Rand Ford Fusion – “I think it’ll probably be pretty decent. The most important thing, obviously, is we’re in. We were really pretty decent the first practice and lost the balance in the second practice, so I was a little worried about what I had on the lap there. I think I probably gave it an 85 percent lap. I know I probably could have gained another tenth-and-a-half, at the same time I probably could have wrecked the thing, too. The good thing is we had a good run. I know these guys have worked their tails off all year long for me on this 55 car. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m glad that we’ve had a good run here for the final race at Homestead.”

CARL EDWARDS POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE –

ARE THINGS LINING UP LIKE YOU WANTED THEM TO THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, things are good. Today went really well. I felt like our car was very fast in practice in race trim. I wasn’t really sure what to expect in qualifying trim, but that was a very pleasant surprise to run that well. That truly is just one lap, though, and, I mean, the biggest thing is that pit stall selection. That’s gonna be a big help the whole race. That’s something that’s hard to put a value on, so it looked like there were a lot of fast cars in practice. It didn’t look like we were head and shoulders better than anyone else, so this doesn’t dampen the amount of effort we’re gonna go out and put forth. We still have to go out and race this race. I do think that of all the tracks it would be nice to have a big advantage in qualifying at some of them, but this one you can pass at, so if there are faster race cars out there, they’ll be able to make it through the field.”

YOU MADE TWO QUALIFYING RUNS IN PRACTICE. DID YOU JUST FEEL YOU COULDN’T GET IT ANY BETTER? “Yeah, we ran the first practice completely in race trim and we felt that was the best strategy for us was to focus on race trim there, and then focus on qualifying trim the second practice. We actually had a cut in the right-rear tire after the first run in the second practice, so we had two sets of sticker tires, which we would normally run three or four runs total – a couple on the first set and then one final sticker run – but once we looked at that tire we realized we can’t use that again, we just couldn’t do it, so we made one more sticker run, so it was only two laps in the second practice. In a way, it probably helped us from tuning the thing out of contention. It was nice to just focus on two runs.”

DO YOU BELIEVE IN FATE? IT LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE LINING UP FOR YOU? “I don’t know that I believe in fate, but I do believe that things happen for a reason. I do believe that whatever you encounter you have to treat as if that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. You can’t change things, I’ve learned that, so success and failure can both be good in the end, so you’ve got to be careful for what you wish for sometimes, but, yeah, this is going really well so far and, hopefully, this helps us all race. We didn’t need to qualify poorly, get a poor pit stall, have some little thorn in our side the whole race, so this will hopefully help us for the whole event.”

DOES TODAY REPRESENT A MOMENTUM SHIFT? “I don’t know. I didn’t pay any attention to them in practice and I didn’t see where he qualified, so I still don’t know where they qualified. I guess the deal is we’ve still got to go run this race and I know how tough those guys can be, so I’m not counting anything yet. We’re just gonna keep our heads down and work hard and go get the best we can. If anything, this is just good for our morale and for everybody to go sleep easy tonight and know we’re gonna have a good day on pit road, know we’ll hopefully be able to run out front and not get caught up in anything. But, truly, I understand that we still have to go run this race and anything can happen.”

IS TODAY A PRIME EXAMPLE OF YOU SAYING ALL THAT MATTERS IS WHAT HAPPENS ON THE TRACK? “I hope so, but, truly, it is just one lap and I know it could have gone any way. If we were out there and qualified 43rd right now, it wouldn’t change the way I’m gonna approach this race. I’m not just giving you all lip service. I’m here to do a job and to do it well and it truly doesn’t matter what’s said or what happens until that checkered flag falls.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Toyota Motorsports Logo

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 2nd

How was your qualifying lap? “It’s been a good day for the NAPA Toyota so far. We’ve been happy with the car all day. We had a lot of speed in race trim and it was a good qualifying lap for us. The guys made good adjustments from practice and the track picked up grip. Obviously the speeds were up quite a bit from practice so it was a good lap. I wish that Carl (Edwards) hadn’t of beat us, but it seems like he wins everything anymore. I’m happy to be in here today. I feel like we kind of let one slip away here last year in the race. Led a bunch of laps and got a flat tire late so hopefully we can make up for that tomorrow and close the deal. It would be great to end the season on a high note and get this thing in victory lane.”

How much has your team improved over the last few weeks? “I think our team has done a nice job all year as far as bringing fast race cars to the race track. There’s been some other things that we’ve missed on — part failures and making mistakes and things that’s really hurt us in the points. But, we’ve had fast cars all year long. For us this season, it’s been a lot of what could’ve been or what might have been. Going into the offseason I feel like we know our strengths and our weaknesses and what we need to work on to be better. But, as far as the group of guys I have and the cars that we’ve been bringing to the race track, we’ve made huge strides especially at the end of the season here with the mile-and-a-half type tracks where we struggled through the mid part of the season quite a bit. We made huge gains there so we’re excited going into the offseason of what we need to work on and come out of the box strong next year. For us, we just need consistency. We’ve got the speed, we’ve got the team to do it and we’ve got great guys that go over the wall and pit the car. We just need to be smarter, race smarter and make less mistakes next year.”

How much has the grip on the race track changed? “The track just had a little bit more grip than what it had this morning. Anytime we run the single-car runs it’s easy to pick up some of that rubber that’s been sitting there getting hot. We listened to some guys earlier saying the track had more grip and we went with that and luckily it worked out good for us.”

What was your strategy for your qualifying lap? “I couldn’t figure out which groove to run. I ran some in practice up high and I was fast up there and I ran some down low and I was fast there so I said, ‘Heck with them, I’m going to run the middle.’ And it worked out. Our NAPA Toyota has been really fast all day long. I love coming here to Homestead. It’s a great track and I feel like we let one slip away here last year so hopefully we can get that win tomorrow.”

Do you have a favorite for tomorrow’s championship? “There’s no telling. Four hundred miles anything can happen. Those two guys are some of the best out there and obviously they proved that. That’s why they’re in that position and I just hope that I get to race with those guys for the win because I’m sure they will be upfront come the end of the day.”

KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 3rd

How was your qualifying lap? “I felt really good. My Red Bull Toyota stuck really well. I felt like I waited on the front end a little bit getting into (turn) one — maybe a little too long — and then again in (turn) three. Wasted a little bit of time, but either way Carl (Edwards) ran a great lap. A really fast lap. And Martin (Truex Jr.) beat us too. It was still a good run for our guys. Each week they’ve been giving me awesome race cars and it’s been a lot of fun driving them lately.”

Are you happy with your season? “It’s been a really awesome year for myself. This time last year I was kind of making that move to Red Bull and prior to that I was wanting to make that move and ready for a change and ready to work with some new people and a little bit of excitement again. I’ve had that all season long. I feel great about where we’re at right now and how much we’ve gained as a team throughout the season and how strong our cars are, which everybody is a big part of that. And now it’s about over. We qualified third today and have a great car for tomorrow and then it will be another change. So, it’s been a great season. A lot of fun to work with everybody and they’ve given all of us a great opportunity. I wish it was halfway through. I wish the season was 50 percent of the way through and we had a lot more to go this year because I feel like right now is by far the best that I’ve been as a Cup driver and that we’ve had as a team. Everything put together, I think this has been our strongest time ever. It’s about over and hopefully we can finish strong tomorrow and do the best we can and maybe get another win. That would be a great way to end.”

Do you have a favorite for tomorrow’s championship? “I don’t know on the points race. It’s going to be exciting. Carl (Edwards) has probably been the best so far this weekend if you look at where he’s at. I think Tony (Stewart) ran a lot more — longer runs and things. Carl is starting on the pole. Carl was great here last year. He started second and won the race so it will be interesting. I think it’s going to be a good duel.”

What does it say about your team to run so well to close out the season? “I’ve been running really good. The whole Red Bull team has done a great job. It’s been a lot of fun these last 10 to 12 races — it’s been awesome. So, we’re just trying to finish strong tomorrow. We qualified good today. I just wish we could’ve got that pole. We were really close. The balance in the car was great there. Just barely missed it. We’ve had a really solid effort here in the last couple of months.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 10th

Are you pleased with your qualifying lap? “That was a pretty decent qualifying run for us. We usually qualify in the 30s here. It looks like we’ll be somewhere in the top-10 to 12 — a step up. We just struggled for speed all day long. We just couldn’t figure out where to find it — where to get it. Mike (Ford, crew chief) made some good adjustments right there with qualifying.”

Any benefit to running three races this weekend? “You learn some stuff, for sure. It helps you get up to speed a little bit faster. At least it does for me. Even though it’s a lot of work — it does help in certain ways.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 19th

How was your qualifying lap? “Our Interstate Batteries Camry wasn’t bad. Our balance was pretty good but just needed a little more speed in qualifying. I was happy with our car in race trim this morning, so I think we can race them with what we worked on in race trim.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 24th

Are you happy with your race car? “No. I’d like for the qualifying to be better. I’m pretty happy with the race car. Qualifying trim we weren’t as good as we needed to be. I just kind of lost the nose in the center and just kind of washed out a little bit. I’m not really happy with where my line is. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here — it’s been a couple years. I think the track has changed a good bit since the last time I was here. It’s been two years. So, I think it’s changed a decent amount — so still got to figure that out. In race trim, I think we’re pretty good. In qualifying we were a little off.”

Did you meet with NASCAR and Matt Kenseth? “Yeah. We did meet with NASCAR and it was a good conversation. It was good to air out everything. I think it was good for everybody to hear both sides of the story. NASCAR gave their perspective of how things transpired. Matt (Kenseth) gave his and I gave mine. I think that once Matt understood my perspective and I understood some of his — then I think now we’re more on the same page. When he first was describing kind of his perspective — I think there was a lot of information he didn’t have about like when I was underneath him at Martinsville. You know, we rubbed fenders a few times. I think that’s pretty common for Martinsville. I don’t think we were the first two guys to touch at Martinsville Speedway. I know I raced him clean, I raced him as clean as I was probably racing anybody that day. The only time I really got into him was when the 14 (Tony Stewart) hit me in the middle of the corner — you know was bumping me in the middle of the corner. I think that was a perspective that Matt didn’t really have. He didn’t know that. Even if that wasn’t the case, I still think him just dumping us at Martinsville — just flat pushed me up in the corner until I hit the wall — was a bit of an overstep.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 28th

COLE WHITT, No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 29th

Were you pleased with your qualifying lap? “Yeah. Just happy to be in (the race). That’s what we come down here to do — get in the race. First thing first. It’s pretty amazing for me. It’s a big step. So, I’m just glad we could come out and do this.”

Do you have any goals for Sunday’s race? “Seat time is definitely crucial. We’re not going to be as tame as we were in Phoenix. In Phoenix, we held back a lot. Here, now that we’re in the race, we’ll try and race for anything we can get. See what we can do.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 32nd

How was your qualifying lap? “There was no grip out there. We just haven’t had enough speed in our cars. Still got to figure something out here. We’re not very fast in race trim or qualifying trim right now. So, we have to figure something out.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP Racing, LLC Toyota Camry, HP Racing Starting Position: 33rd

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Reese Towpower Project Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 35th

How was your qualifying lap? “It was okay. A little too free to come to the free and then we still struggled with something there. It was a little bit too free to come to the green and after that it was alright. Nothing special. It seemed like our car was balanced pretty good in race trim, just needed to have a little bit more grip on the front end. Other than that it wasn’t bad in race trim. It’s been a pretty calm day.”

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Motorsports Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 37th

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 Hard Rock Vodka Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 39th

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release

Team Chevy Logo

Also nailing down a top-10 starting position was five-time defending NSCS champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, who will start ninth in the 43-car field.

Championship contender Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, will roll off 15^th in Sunday’s 267-lap/400.5 mile race in his bid for a third NSCS driver’s crown.

Carl Edwards (Ford) was the pole winner. Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota), Kasey Kahne (Toyota), Kurt Busch (Dodge) and Brad Keselowski (Dodge) completed the top-five qualifiers.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11^TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It was pretty decent. We had a car and a good opportunity at qualifying well. We haven’t all year long. This weekend the car has been pretty good. Had good speed. I probably could have done a little bit better on the line and the car was a little bit loose on the throttle off the corner that just cost us a little bit of time here and there. But, I was pretty pleased.”

WAS THE WIND A FACTOR AT ALL DURING QUALIFYING? “No. It will be a factor in race trim, when you put the car in race trim it is a little bit of a factor on older tires.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 15^TH: ON QUALIFYING AND GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND’S RACE: “Well, the qualifying deal isn’t how our race is going to play out. So, this is one lap of how many hundred miles we’ve got to go. I don’t know where we’re going to end up here, but it looks like we’re going to be solid. That’s the main thing. We didn’t have a pole-winning car today, but our Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy is pretty good in race trim. I’m glad we spent more time working on race trim than qualifying trim. So, we’ll see how it plays out.”

YOU’VE GOT QUALIFYING DONE AND YOUR PRACTICES ARE DONE. YOU’VE JUST GOT ONE THING LEFT. DO YOU HAVE A CAR GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP HERE IN 2011? “We’ll know in 399 miles. I’ll let you know after that.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 9^TH: ON HIS LAP: “It wasn’t bad. It was decent. It wasn’t bad at all. We felt better about our qualifying than our race trim. So I think we have a little bit of work to do yet on our set-up for the race. But the qualifying aspect has gone well today.”

WAS THE WIND A FACTOR IN QUALIFYING TODAY? “No, it’s definitely been there; but fortunately it’s been the same all day. So I kind of knew what I had to do. But it is gusty, for sure.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 7^TH: HOW WAS YOUR RUN? “I’m really happy with it. We had a good day today and I felt like going out late certainly helped and I thought the Drive to End Hunger team did a great job tuning for qualifying. The car was really close.”

WAS THE WIND A FACTOR? “I didn’t feel it to be a big factor in qualifying; I thought it would be a bigger factor with the tire started to fall off.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 120 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com .

-  Team Chevy, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

YOU AND BRAD KESELOWSKI ARE CURRENTLY AT THE TOP OF THE BOARD. “We ran the same speed which means we did our job. That’s all we could get out of our Penske Dodges. It’s been a great season for us in qualifying. I don’t know if that’ll be pole material, but our Shell/Pennzoil guys have been working hard. We just feel real proud of the way we’ve qualified this year and put ourselves in Chase contention. We’ll see what we can give ‘em tomorrow in the afternoon race. With the season ending, it’s tough to see it go.”

HOW BIG WOULD WINNING THIS RACE BE GOING INTO THE OFF SEASON? “We’ve been hot, we’ve been cold; I guess it’s our description through the Chase as well as leading up to the Chase. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us win if we can get it all put together right. Last week, we had a winning car and we threw it away with fuel mileage.”

WERE YOUR SURPRISED AT HOW MUCH THE TRACK CHANGED? “It always picks up a little bit. I’m just hoping that the rest of the guys have to battle the sun because we were in full sun. We’ll see. We’re happy with that lap and if we end up tenth, that’ll be perfect.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Qualified 5th
YOU HAD A NICE QUALIFYING RUN DESPITE A LITTLE SLIP UP DURING YOUR LAP? “Yeah, you’re going to slip up a bit if you have the car right and you’re pushing it hard enough. It’s amazing that Kurt and I both started off bad, but we kept working on our cars and it looks like we’ve made some headway. I’m not sure a 39.40 (second) lap is good or bad, but so far it looks OK. Kurt and I have been on top of each other for time. We’ll just have to see how it plays out for the race. I’m really proud of where we’re at with our team.”

HOW MUCH DID THAT QUICK CLOUD COVER HELP YOUR LAP? “Probably a little bit. I’m not sure if I had it or the next guy had it, but clouds never hurt.”

WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING THAT HELPED YOUR LAP? “We threw everything at it. We were not very good at all in practice. It’s kind of been the story of our season of late. We’ve been qualifying much better than we’ve been racing. Hopefully, this weekend it changes. I think that we made some big gains in practice that should apply to our race setup.”

REED SORENSON (No. 7 SPEED Energy/MAPEI Dodge Charger R/T) DNQ
“We picked up three tenths so yeah, that’s good for us. It’s been tough. We’ll see if it makes it. It’ll be close.”

YOU PRACTICE IN THE MORNING, QUALIFY IN THE AFTERNOON AND WILL RACE INTO THE EVENING TOMORROW. IS IT A GUESS TO FIND THE RIGHT SETUP? “I think so. The Nationwide race I think starts at 4:30 and it’s quite a bit of change. It usually starts out really free and then the track changes a little bit once it gets dark.”

WILL YOU RUN SOME RACES FOR ROBBY GORDON NEXT SEASON? “Yeah, maybe. I don’t think he knows what he’s doing yet. He’s doing the Baja this weekend and he asked me to come out here and do it. I’ve been trying to help him when I can. His guys are actually in Mexico all week, the ones that work on this car. They’ve been real busy too, so hopefully it will make the race.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Carl Edwards - Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images

This was Edwards’ third series pole of the 2011 season, his tenth series career pole and his second series pole at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Starting on the outside pole in second with a qualifying lap speed of 174.808 mph, will be Martin Truex Jr., followed by Kasey Kahne (174.582 mph) who will start third, Kurt Busch (174.520) fourth and Brad Keselowski (174.492) will start fifth.

Rounding out the top-ten starting positions will be Matt Kenseth (174.475 mph) starting sixth, Jeff Gordon (174.436)  seventh, Greg Biffle (174.109) eighth, Jimmie Johnson (174.098) ninth and Denny Hamlin (173.969) will start from the tenth position.

Failing to make the starting lineup were the #46 driven by Scott Speed; #7 driven by Reed Sorenson; #37 driven by Mike Skinner; #36 driven by Geoffrey Bodine; #92 driven by Scott Riggs and the #93 driven by Grant Enfinger.

The green flag for the Ford 400 on Sunday is scheduled to drop around 3:20 PM (ET) and ESPN will begin their (pre-race) television coverage at 2:00 PM (ET).

2011 NSCS Ford 400 Starting Lineup

(i) Ineligible for Points in this Series
# Denotes Rookie
* Required to Qualify on Time