“The superspeedway program at Hendrick Motorsports is one of the best and everybody at the shop works so hard on the cars. Not only is it a big weekend because of the Fourth of July, but I have a cool paint scheme that a girl named Noelia designed. She’s a patient at the Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Great Clips had the kids in the Strong Against Cancer program create designs for this weekend’s car. She put a lot of effort into it and the fans voted for her car to win.”
Kasey Kahne
“I think it will be fun to get back to Daytona with SunEnergy1 on the car. I’ve known (SunEnergy 1 CEO and President) Kenny (Habul) for a while and I’m excited to get there. The car looks really cool I think. It will be a good weekend. Daytona is always fun and the Fourth of July race is always one that stands out.”
Chase Elliott
“We have had strong cars at superspeedways this year. Daytona should be a good race to watch. If the race gets off to a slow start, you can probably bank on a wild finish. We have a special Lowe’s Chevrolet this weekend with the patriotic colors on it – would be nice to win this one to honor all the veterans.”
Jimmie Johnson
“We looked at some of the things we were doing on the plate car this year that we didn’t have last year – some new ideas and new theories how to get the car to be fast, and we think that has compromised how the car handles. Last year, we finished in the top two or three in every single plate race and we were the best car at Daytona and Talladega, hands down. So, we’re going to go back on our setup to 2015, and hopefully that is going to give me the confidence and the comfort that I need to drive the car and be aggressive with it in the draft. I’m looking forward to Daytona and getting back to our winning ways there.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“Daytona is a good track for us, obviously. We’ve got confidence going into the race. With the points situation, we need to get a nice cushion. We need to try to protect ourselves – just do what we normally do, run and try to win, and not give away chunks of points. We gave away probably 40 points total at the restrictor plate races this year – Daytona and Talladega – by spinning out. Had we run those races and finished reasonably, I’d say that would be about 40 points that we would be able to tack onto what we have today and that would put us comfortably in position to make the Chase."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.