Race Highlights:

• Richard Childress Racing teammates finished 10th (Kevin Harvick), 19th (Jeff Burton) and 30th (Paul Menard) in the Quaker State 400.
• Following the event at Kentucky Speedway, Harvick remains fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, trailing leader Jimmie Johnson by 66 markers, while Menard ranks 15th, 151 points back, and Burton sits 21st, 182 points out of the top position.
• The No. 29 Chevrolet SS team ranks fourth in the Sprint Cup Series owner championship point standings, with the No. 27 team 15th and the No. 31 team 22nd.
• According to NASCAR's Post-Race Loop-Data Statistics, Harvick completed 33 passes while running in the top 15, ranking him fifth in Quality Passes.
• Harvick made 61 Green-Flag Passes, ranking him fifth in that category.
• Burton was the ninth-Fastest Driver Early In a Run and made 62 Green-Flag Passes ranking him third overall.
• Menard was credited with two of The Fastest Laps run and made 13 Green-Flag passes during the event.
• Matt Kenseth earned his fourth victory of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and was followed to the finish line by Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch.
• The next Sprint Cup Series race is the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, July 6. The 18th race of the 2013 season is scheduled to be televised live on TNT beginning at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Satellite Radio.

Menard Finishes 30th at Kentucky Speedway After Early Involvement in Multi-Car Incident

Paul Menard started the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway from the 24th position after persistent rain showers postponed the originally scheduled Saturday night event until Sunday afternoon. In the early laps, Menard relayed to the crew that his SYLVANIA/Menards Chevrolet was loose on entry and tight through the middle of the corners. A competition-caution on lap 30 allowed Menard to come down pit road for fresh tires, fuel and spring rubber and wedge adjustments. The chassis adjustments seemed to help the handling of the No. 27 machine and Menard had worked his way up to 20th at lap 42. Just five laps later, the Eau Claire, Wis., native was involved in a multi-car incident, which ultimately brought out the red flag on lap 48. Menard sustained significant right-front fender and front bumper damage during the on-track melee and the crew went to work making repairs during multiple pit stops once the red flag was lifted. Restarting in the 36th position, four laps down to the leader, Menard struggled with a tight condition for the reminder of race. Though he had a battle-scarred race car, Menard and the crew never gave up. By virtue of not having to take the car to the garage, Menard was able to gain six positions in the remaining laps of the event to finish 30th, earning valuable points in his quest to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Menard now sits 15th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings heading into Daytona International Speedway next weekend.

       Start - 24th               Finish - 30th            Laps Led - 0          Points - 15th

PAUL MENARD QUOTE:

"It's unfortunate we got caught up in a wreck early at Kentucky Speedway. We never really got a chance to see what our SYLVANIA/Menards Chevrolet had. I have to thank my guys though, they did a great job of getting the car patched up, which allowed me to stay on the racetrack and gain several positions over the course of the event. We've got to keep our heads up and hope our luck changes next weekend at Daytona International Speedway."

After being rained out Saturday evening, the NASCAR Sprint Cup engines fired back to life on Sunday with Kevin Harvick and No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team rolling off the grid 22nd at Kentucky Speedway. NASCAR mandated a competition caution at lap 30 to allow teams to check tire wear and address handling issues because rain washed rubber off the track following Saturday's heavy storms. Harvick started the first run by quickly picking off several spots, moving up to 17th place in just the first five laps.  With the competition yellow out on lap 30, crew chief Gil Martin dialed up a few quick adjustments to fix the tight handling No. 29 car and opted to only take two two tires for track position on the first stop of the day.  The strategy paid off with some ensuing caution laps pushing the team up to 11th place on lap 38.  On the next restart, Harvick was able to squeak by a big wreck that put the field under a red flag condition.  After making it to fifth by lap 60, the car began to develop a loose condition that would ultimately play a factor for the rest of the race.  The following green flag stop saw a slew of cars get caught by an ill-timed caution, which included Harvick and the Budweiser Chevrolet SS. The team rallied back to the lead lap with a few fortunate cautions going their way. Through laps 214 to 243, Harvick maintained a tough battle for a top-10 spot with the No. 5 and No. 24 cars, until the yellow came out again and put the spotlight back on Gil and the crew for one final strategy call to take the team to the end.  Right side tires and fuel with a small air pressure adjustment sorted the No. 29 Chevy back to ninth when the field took the green on lap 246.  When the dust settled, Harvick brought home a 10th place finish and maintained his fourth place slot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship points Race to the Chase.

Jeff Burton Overcomes Adversity to Finish 19th at Kentucky Speedway

Start - 15th            Finish - 19th          Laps Led - 0        Points - 21

JEFF BURTON QUOTE: "This was not the finish this Caterpillar team deserved. We were good in the early part of the race, then got way too tight before the car went to loose. It was very frustrating. Those speeding penalties on pit road cost us some, but we ended up racing our back into the top-10 for a while. The last part of the race just didn't go the way needed it to for this team. I hate it, but I know we're going to be good when we get to Daytona (International Speedway) next weekend."

RCR PR

In the closing laps of the Kentucky 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ryan Newman was sitting just outside the top-10 and poised to pick up his eighth top-10 finish of the 2013 season.

The Quicken Loans team made adjustments all race long, but a late-race caution that saw Newman restart deeper in the running order than he should have, combined with three-wide racing over the closing laps, resulted in a 14th-place finish.

“I really don’t know what happened on that last restart,” Newman said. “My spotter came over the radio and gave me the lineup. They had me scored behind several cars, one of which was the No. 78 car. I was ahead of him on the track, but they had me lining up behind him. I had (crew chief) Matt Borland argue that with the officials, but they saw things differently. So, needless to say, I wasn’t very happy with that.”

After starting seventh in the race that was postponed for a day due to rain Saturday night, an ill-handling racecar dropped Newman to 18th. During the race’s scheduled competition caution period, Newman made his first trip to pit road to take four tires and fuel, and adjustments to wedge and the left-front shock. Newman continued to struggle with his Quicken Loans Chevrolet as the laps clicked off but caught a break at lap 89 when the caution flag was displayed in the middle of the race leaders hitting pit road for scheduled green-flag pit stops. Newman, in the sixth position, was able to take advantage of the track position he lacked to that point.

While Newman’s position fluctuated over the remaining laps, he hovered just outside the top 10. With 20 laps remaining, Newman restarted in the 12th position and made a daring move to the high side of the racetrack that saw him advance several positions. But NASCAR officials instructed the driver of the No. 39 to line up in the 11th position for the final restart. Aggressive, three-wide racing over the closing laps saw Newman lose three positions before the checkered flag waved.

“We had a really good Quicken Loans Chevrolet at the end of the race,” Newman said. “Matt kept taking big swings every time we’d come to pit road. With the car being set up for racing at night, we were obviously off a bit, setup-wise. We weren’t alone in that, as everyone was dealt the same hand. But at the end, we had the car where I felt it was capable of bringing home at least a top-10 finish. It’s unfortunate, and I don’t understand the scoring issue, but we know we probably had a better finish coming than we were left with.”

Newman’s teammate Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS, finished 20th. The third member of SHR, Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 23rd.

Matt Kenseth won the Kentucky 400 to score his 28th career Sprint Cup victory, his fourth of the season and his first at Kentucky.

Jamie McMurray finished .699 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five. Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 10 caution periods for 42 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish the 267-lap race.

With round 17 of 36 complete, Stewart continues to lead the SHR contingent in the championship point standings. He dropped one spot to 16th and has 457 points, 153 back of series leader Johnson and 22 points behind 10th-place Logano. Newman maintained his 18th-place standing and has 448 points, 162 out of first and 31 behind Logano. Patrick maintained her 27th-place standing and has 313 points, 297 behind Johnson and 166 away from 10th.

Nine races remain before the 12-driver, 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins Sept. 15 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. Only the top-10 in points are locked into the Chase. Positions 11 and 12 in the Chase are wild cards, awarded to the two drivers between 11th and 20th in points with the most wins. If multiple drivers have the same number of wins, a driver’s point standing serves as the tiebreaker.

Kasey Kahne and Stewart are the only drivers between 11th and 20th in points with a victory, so they hold the first and second wild-card spots, respectively.

Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished six spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 17th.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday, July 6 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 6:30 p.m.

TSC PR

Tony Stewart started 25^th and finished 20^th in the Kentucky 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.

While it wasn’t a finish to be remembered, Stewart had to work all day for it after waiting all night, as the race was postponed from Saturday night due to rain.

His No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) was either too loose or too tight during the 267-lap race around the incredibly bumpy 1.5-mile oval. Nonetheless, Stewart climbed as high as fourth by lap 84 thanks to tenacious driving and savvy pit calls by crew chief Steve Addington.

Unfortunately, what seemed to be a slowly deflating tire dropped Stewart from the top-10 to 26^th by lap 120. Stewart was the last driver on the lead lap, but he rode it out until a timely caution on lap 149 allowed him to pit. The right side of the car checked out OK, and with four fresh tires, a full tank of fuel and some tweaks to the chassis, Stewart was on his way. He restarted 22^nd on lap 155.

The car’s ill handling continued to rear its head, as Stewart radioed on lap 161 that he had “no grip”. The Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevy became even looser as laps clicked off the board.

On the team’s final pit stop while under caution on lap 243, a bevy of changes was made, which included adjusting the car’s nose weight.

Stewart restarted in 17^th. When leader Jimmie Johnson spun to bring out the race’s final caution on lap 248, Stewart moved up to 16^th.

A top-15 finish seemed possible, but in what has become commonplace lately in the Sprint Cup Series, the restart resulted in a mad dash. The field went racing three-wide into turn one, and Stewart was forced to the outside where he had to tip-toe through the gray asphalt where grip was nearly non-existent. In one lap, Stewart dropped from 16^th to 23^rd. But as is Stewart’s nature, he didn’t quit, rallying his way to 20^th in the final 15 laps.

“We made a bunch of changes to the car throughout the race,” Stewart said. “When we started out, it felt like it was up on top of the racetrack. We needed it to get planted better. We made gains, but we eventually got it to where it was too tight into turns one and two. Then on that final restart where we got forced high – turns one and two were already tough enough for us – I had to pedal it, and we lost a bunch of spots. We got some of them back, but track position being what it was, it was hard to get any more of them back. Not the greatest showing, but we did what we could with it.”

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet for SHR, finished 14^th. Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 23^rd.

Matt Kenseth won the Kentucky 400 to score his 28^th career Sprint Cup victory, his series-leading fourth of the season and his first at Kentucky.

Jamie McMurray finished .699 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five. Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Johnson and Kevin Harvick comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 10 caution periods for 42 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish.

With round 17 of 36 complete, Stewart continues to lead the SHR contingent in the championship point standings. He dropped one spot to 16^th and has 457 points, 153 back of series leader Johnson and 22 behind 10^th-place Logano. Newman maintained his 18^th-place standing and has 448 points, 162 out of first and 31 behind Logano. Patrick maintained her 27^th-place standing and has 313 points, 297 behind Johnson and 166 away from 10^th.

Nine races remain before the 12-driver, 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins Sept. 15 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. Only the top-10 in points are locked into the Chase. Positions 11 and 12 in the Chase are wild cards, awarded to the two drivers between 11^th and 20^th in points with the most wins. If multiple drivers have the same number of wins, a driver’s point standing serves as the tiebreaker.

Kasey Kahne and Stewart are the only drivers between 11^th and 20^th in points with a victory, so they hold the first and second wild-card spots, respectively.

Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished six spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 17^th.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday, July 6 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 6:30 p.m.

TSC PR

Matt Kenseth corralled his first Kentucky Speedway NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) victory by gaining the race lead on a fuel-only pit stop with 23 laps remaining and raced away to a 0.699 of a second victory in the Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts.

Kenseth registers his first top-five Kentucky Speedway NSCS finish and is one of four drivers to own three top-10 finishes at the speedway through three series starts. The first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver's previous best Kentucky Speedway NSCS finish was sixth on July 9, 2011 and he placed seventh on June 30, 2012.

"I didn't roll the dice, (crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) did. I thought he was a slightly crazy when it happened.

"This is such a great team and a great opportunity for me. It's been just an unbelievable season and year of my life, honestly. Jason did a great job. I didn't think there was any way we were going to hold on for that win. He made the right call at the right time and these guys got it done on pit road," Kenseth said.

After ending a 15-year tenure with Roush Fenway Racing at the end of 2012, he said he's a bit surprised to be holding the lead in NSCS victories near the midpoint of the season.

"I dreamed about it, but I didn't imagine it would be realistic. It's been incredible. We've had some moments that have tested us already this season, but it's great to have the four wins. Hopefully we'll be able to keep it rolling. It's been fun," he added.

The oldest NSCS race winner in track history at age 41, Kenseth qualified 16th and posted the greatest improvement from a starting position by a Kentucky Speedway NSCS race winner. He raced second on Lap 60, led for the first time from Laps 95-108 and improved from the fourth spot on a gutsy late pit stop. He led the closing 23 circuits of the 267-lap event and paced 38 laps on the day.

He captured today's Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts title by the series' second-closest margin of victory at the track ahead of Earnhardt Ganassi driver Jamie McMurray.

Michael Waltrip Racing driver Clint Bowyer, Penske Racing's Joey Logano and Kenseth's JGR teammate, Kyle Busch, the inaugural Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts winner, rounded out the race top five.

McMurray snared his first NSCS top-five finish at Kentucky Speedway.

"It was a really good day for us. I wasn't sure after Happy Hour what we had. We've had really quick cars for the last two months, and have not been able to capitalize on it. We've had really unfortunate luck. But it's cool to have a really good run. I was quite a bit quicker than him (Clint Bowyer), and I guess the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) wasn't on tires, so you are just fighting to get by as quick as you can because you never know when a caution is going to come out, or how it is going to play out," McMurray said.

Hendrick Motorsports driver and current NSCS championship leader Jimmie Johnson had a solid day ruined on the Lap 247 restart that followed Kenseth's winning pit move. Johnson's No. 48 spun in Turn 2, but he rebounded with a ninth-place showing that marks his second career top-10 Kentucky Speedway NSCS finish. He led a series single-race track record 182 laps. Busch held the previous record after leading 125 laps during his victorious inaugural event effort.

Today's race concludes a tripleheader NASCAR weekend at the speedway. Action returns to the 1.5-mile Bluegrass State tri-oval September 20 with the ARCA Racing Series ZLOOP 150 and September 21 NASCAR Nationwide Series Kentucky 300.

KYS PR

Danica Patrick finished a respectable 23^rd in the Kentucky 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.

Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), ran a smooth, clean race in weather that was quite different than teams expected.

The race was scheduled for Saturday night, but persistent rain forced NASCAR officials to postpone the race until Sunday at noon EDT. So instead of the race being conducted at night with cooler temperatures, drivers and teams raced with the sun shining on the track surface and air temperatures approaching 80 degrees.

With the hot conditions, Patrick fought a car that wasn’t quite to her liking throughout the day.

“We had a couple of runs where the GoDaddy car was pretty good,” Patrick said. “But every time we tried to make another adjustment and get the car better, it seemed to get worse. So we’d have to go back on the adjustment and try something new. We were really loose in turn three, and then at the end of the race we were just loose all over the place. The guys worked hard, and I hate that everyone had to stay an extra day.”

Patrick’s teammate Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS, finished 14^th, while the third member of SHR, Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 20^th.

Matt Kenseth won the Kentucky 400 to score his 28^th career Sprint Cup victory, his fourth of the season and his first at Kentucky.

Jamie McMurray finished .699 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five. Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 10 caution periods for 42 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish the 267-lap race.

With round 17 of 36 complete, Stewart continues to lead the SHR contingent in the championship point standings. He dropped one spot to 16^th and has 457 points, 153 back of series leader Johnson and 22 points behind 10^th-place Logano. Newman maintained his 18^th-place standing and has 448 points, 162 out of first and 31 behind Logano. Patrick maintained her 27^th-place standing and has 313 points, 297 behind Johnson and 166 away from 10^th.

Nine races remain before the 12-driver, 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins Sept. 15 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. Only the top-10 in points are locked into the Chase. Positions 11 and 12 in the Chase are wild cards, awarded to the two drivers between 11^th and 20^th in points with the most wins. If multiple drivers have the same number of wins, a driver’s point standing serves as the tiebreaker.

Kasey Kahne and Stewart are the only drivers between 11^th and 20^th in points with a victory, so they hold the first and second wild-card spots, respectively.

Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished six spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 17^th.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday, July 6 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 6:30 p.m.

TSC PR

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (INVOLVED IN ACCIDENT ON LAP 48) – WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON WHAT HAPPENED? “It is a wreck. Wrecks happen. It takes a chain of events to get there. We had the bottom lane on two or three restarts in a row and got shuffled back a little bit. We were trying to get patient because it looked like we will get the whole race in before rain and there is no reason to drive like an animal. Apparently I am the only one that got that memo. It is one of those deals.”

THE 78 DID APOLOGIZE; DOES THAT MAKE IT ANY BETTER AT ALL? “I know he didn’t intentionally wreck me but it is just one of those things. A chain of events with the way the cars drive and the track has that really bad bump down there and we all know it. There is no reason to go down there but he still did.”

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE TRACK CONDITIONS? “I thought they were pretty good actually. I thought the track had a lot of grip and I like running this track. It is a shame we won’t do as well as we did last year.”

WHAT DID YOU SEE ON THE REPLAY? “I got hit from behind or in the quarter panel or however it is. They had a good draft to get up to me and used it and there was nowhere to go so they went through us.”

WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU HAVE? “We had a decent car. I don’t know if we would have threatened for the win but I think we could have ran fifth and had a decent day. But obviously not now.”

HOW HARD WAS THE HIT? “It was a pretty good hit but the back of these Cup cars have a lot of safety zones in them and if there is a place to take a hit like that, that is the spot. I am thankful for that.”

WHAT DOES THIS DO TO YOU IN TERMS OF POINTS? DO YOU HAVE TO CHANGE HOW YOU RACE NOW? “Nope. We are just going to go do our thing and we are just on a streak of bad luck. It will turn around and when it does we will be in victory lane and be alright.”

DOES KURT’S (BUSCH) APOLOGY HAVE AN AFFECT ON HOW YOU VIEW THE INCIDENT? “I am still wrecked so I don’t know. He is smarter than that. He knows better than that.”

GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (INVOLVED IN ACCIDENT ON LAP 48) – DO YOU THINK THE ROUGH RACE TRACK CAUSED THAT? “No, I don’t think so. It is just a rough race track and he said things are looking dicey out there, the cars do move around a lot on this race track. That doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with that, it just makes it hard to get your car tuned in to get going. That last change there we got our car working pretty good. I was kind of having fun there for the little bit of the race that I was in. I don’t know what happened there. I don’t know what happened with the 18 earlier but we got lucky and missed that one. We weren’t fortunate enough to miss this one. I was trying to get to the bottom to miss the 2 and couldn’t get it. I was on the brakes and the nose might have been on the race track or something. I couldn’t get to the bottom to miss him.”

GUYS HAVE TALKED ABOUT THE BUMPS HERE ALL WEEKEND LONG. DOES SOMETHING HAVE TO BE DONE IN YOUR OPINION? “It makes it really difficult to get your car set up here. It is equal for everyone so the car bouncing and jumping all over the place down the straightaway and the corners is kind of what we have to do. It would be no different than racing on a dirt track. If they said we have to race there, we go race there. We race here, so that is what we have to do. Would it be nice to be repaved and we could get our cars set up to haul around this place? Yeah, it would be fun. It is what it is.”

HOW DEVASTATING IS IT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN SO EARLY IN THE RACE? “I have been here before. That will knock us out of the top-10 in points but you just have to keep working hard. That is all we can do. We can’t point fingers until we go back and watch the replay and analyze exactly what happened. Reality is we should have been up further but they were wrecking up there too. I don’t know what happened yet but we will have to wait and see. I am sure someone got aggressive or made a mistake or did something to cause that. I don’t think Brad (Keselowski) lost it on his own but we will have to take a look and see.”

Ford Racing PR

Persistent rain forced postponement of Saturday night's Quaker State 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway, turning a scheduled night race into a day race.

The 17th Cup event of the season has been rescheduled for noon ET Sunday, with record-setting pole winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading the field to green. TNT will carry the race live.

The Cup garage will open at 9 a.m. Parking lots will open at 8 a.m. with gates open to the public at 10 a.m. This is the first race postponement of the 2013 Cup season.

Sunday's race will be the third Cup event held at the 1.5-mile intermediate track. Kyle Busch won the inaugural running of the race in 2011, and Brad Keselowski took the checkered flag last year en route to the series championship.

The Quaker State 400 marks the start of the 10-event Race to the Chase, the defining stretch for drivers trying to gain or hold positions in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the 10-race playoff that will determine the Cup champion.

The top 10 drivers in the standings earn berths in the Chase, along with the two drivers in positions 11-20 with the most victories. Position in the standings is the tiebreaker among drivers with the same number of wins.

Earnhardt, who qualified at a track-record 183.636 mph, hasn't won since June of last year at Michigan, but he's currently tied with Greg Biffle for sixth in the Cup standings. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson leads the series by 25 points over second-place Carl Edwards.

Edwards and Johnson qualified second and third, respectively for the Quaker State 400.