"It’s been awesome to go back there. I think the last time I raced there before the last couple of years was 2005. It’s amazing how different the track is now and how good it is. The racing there was incredible with this NextGen car. We were going back there thinking that this was going to be one-groove with everyone on the bottom and it’s going to be hard to pass, and that’s not been the case at all. We use the whole racetrack and that’s what makes it good now. It’s a fun track with really long straightaways, but you have to use the brakes, you have to slow down for the corners. It’s the only place we downshift twice on an oval to make a corner and it’s really produced some really good racing and it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve had a good season but would love to get in the win column this weekend with our Bass Pro Shops Camry. It’s a place we are capable of winning at, for sure." - Martin Truex Jr.

"I feel like the racetrack lends itself to a different challenge than what we’re accustomed to. A lot of times you run these racetracks and both ends of the track are very similar. You have to drive World Wide Technology Raceway differently than other places we go. As a driver, that’s fun and gives you a different challenge. It’s also unique because it’s not quite a short track but it’s not quite a superspeedway. It’s egg-shaped and drives like a short track. There’s a big, heavy braking moment getting into Turn 1, a really tight corner in 1 and 2, and then a long, sweeping, and much faster corner in 3 and 4. We’ve been fast the last couple of years and we want to make sure we do it again this weekend." - Kyle Busch

"[Turns] 3 and 4 are more similar to Phoenix, or even like Loudon or any of those flat tracks just because it has a long, flat corner. But [turns] 1 and 2 are extremely tight and it’s just a ton of braking. We downshift from fifth all the way down to third gear, so you’re just super busy. I would say it’s more like a super-fast Martinsville corner. You pair those types of corners, and then you look at the racetracks that they kind of compare to, and they’re some of the tracks that we typically run well at. I hope it all kind of goes our way.

"Hopefully, we’re definitely more like the first year. It seemed like that second year we went back, everybody else just had gotten way better. I don’t know if we were necessarily any worse, it’s just that everybody else picked up their game. I guess it’s the only positive of struggling that bad last year, we knew we had to put a lot of work into it this year. I felt like we’ve put a lot of effort into it and I feel like we were in a pretty good spot at the simulator. It’s hard to say until you actually get there and do it, but I certainly feel pretty good going into it." - Chase Briscoe

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.