“I’ve been close to winning there, but haven’t been able to pull it off yet. It’s a tough place because you run so close to the wall and it's slippery. You have to race the racetrack, you can’t get caught up in racing other people. The racing lanes have changed a lot over the years and they even change throughout the race. It’s one of my favorite tracks and to win at Darlington would be unbelievable.”
Kasey Kahne on racing at Darlington
“I think a couple of things – running up by the wall is one part of it. The track is worn out, so running next to the wall is difficult. You are slipping and sliding, so that can make that hard. Also, one end being so different from the other, having your car balanced to where it drives good on both ends or drives as good as you can get it on both ends is important there. It can be done, it’s just really hard to do.”
Chase Elliott on racing at Darlington
“Darlington commands a ton of respect. To qualify well requires a lot of bravery, to win there you have to be smart. It’s a tough track. I’m pumped to run the throwback scheme again. Every year the garage embraces this more and more. It’s really fun. Also, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Houston. We will be thinking of them this weekend.”
Jimmie Johnson on racing at Darlington
“Basically, Tony (Eury) Sr. went to bat for me and told dad, ‘We’ll take Junior, and me and Tony Jr. will make a driver out of him’ – and that’s what happened. That’s how I found out, just a month before Daytona that I was going to race this car. That’s the way I stumbled into knowing about this job and that I was going to be a full-time racer in ’98. This scheme means a good deal to me and I hope we have as much success at Darlington as we had in this car in ’98 and ’99. We almost won at Darlington in one of those races (in ‘98) – we were door-to-door with Dick Trickle coming to the finish line and lost by a few feet. So, hopefully we can recreate some of that magic. I think that the primary sponsor Nationwide Insurance is a great pairing with this scheme. It went together really well, so I was very happy with what it looked like on the design sheet."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on getting his start in NASCAR and his throwback scheme