Best quotes from the Monster Energy Series awards

Martin Truex Jr.: “Shout out to Canada! What can I say about Cole Pearn? He’s a Furniture Row T-shirt-wearing Canadian. He never sleeps and he’s more competitive than anyone I’ve ever met in my entire life. He’s the best crew chief and team leader I’ve ever known and buddy, thank you for making me a champion.”

Martin Truex Jr. taking the stage: “Been in a hurry all damn year, haven’t I? Sorry Kyle [Busch]. ... At the top, I’ve got to start with Mom and Dad. Thank you for all the love and support through the years and making me who I am. Dad, we did it.'

Martin Truex Jr.: “Barney Visser is the heart of this team. People thought he was crazy 12 years ago starting a NASCAR team in Denver. Barney, who’s crazy now?'

Kevin Harvick: “What a year it’s been for Stewart-Haas Racing. In fact, it was literally transformational. Once the 2016 checkered flag waved in Homestead the entire company had about 75 days to turn everything over to Ford. … Our family is going through our own exciting transformation and growing by 25 percent this offseason. We can’t wait to welcome our daughter into this world and nice to know we have more than 75 days to prepare for the transition.”

Matt Kenseth on his Phoenix victory: “I was just glad not to see a caution. It was an emotional race for us, it was a great way to end the season and most likely my career. Just real thankful through the years to drive for two really great organizations. We were able to win early at JGR, I think our third race in and win our second-to-last race.”

Kurt Busch: “Daytona [500] wins happen in 10 days. A championship is over 10 weeks. But the effort that’s put forth is that type of championship effort and focus at Daytona. It was an amazing win for me, but more for the team and for [crew chief] Tony Gibson. I loved it.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: “It finally felt good to get that one [win] and check it off our list. … Great year. Our organization really grew and felt like we got stronger as the season went on and really thankful for all the hard work that they put in and look forward to hopefully continuing that on the restrictor-plate [tracks] starting at Daytona and getting stronger everywhere else.”

Jimmie Johnson: “Stage racing has changed the game and it’s amplified everything and it made it much more intense. We got off to a good start (in the) beginning of the season, unfortunately just didn’t finish how we wanted to.”

Ryan Newman on Martin Truex Jr.: “Want to say congratulations to Martin, Sherry and everybody at Furniture Row. I’m not going to say what I want to say because he gets the mic last, but he knows what I would say. Congratulations.”

Denny Hamlin: “The thing I think about with our 11 FedEx team is that we’re so close. We’re really close to the goals we want to achieve. Obviously, any year without a championship is not a successful year, by our standards. So, we’re just going to keep digging.”

Austin Dillon on winning the Coca-Cola 600: “I grew up watching Jimmie Johnson win races there in Turn 1 and how he would get through there is kind of how I wanted to make myself get better at Charlotte. He would always run that low line. I could see him and as we were inching up on him, he ran out of gas and I was like, 'Wow, I could win at my home track and beat one of the greatest of all times.''

Jamie McMurray: “It was awesome. From 2010 when it seemed everything went right to 2011, 2012 when there was struggles, it’s been amazing to see the turnaround that our organization has had and the commitment from Chip [Ganassi] and Felix [Sabates] and Rob [Kauffman] to get the cars where they can contend every single week. It made this year a lot of fun.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “It's a real honor. I always tell people all the time that all I wanted to be able to do in racing was be able to pay my bills and be able to race for a long time and just enjoy being a part of the sport. I didn't know whether I would win races or have opportunities to win championships. I just wanted to be in it, be involved in it. Feel lucky and fortunate to be able to do some good things inside and outside the car. I've always tried to take a lot of pride in taking the sport to new places and introducing it to new people.'

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 'I got to thank the fans because without them none of the opportunities I ever had in racing would have happened. None of the partnerships with corporate America, none of the opportunities to drive for some of the greatest race teams in the sport, none of the opportunities to do MTV Cribs or late-night shows or TV cameos. All of that stuff happened because of that fan support and so, it always comes back to fans. It really does. I got to thank them for helping this train stay on the tracks and keep going all these years.'

Brad Keselowski: “There’s a lot of pressure coming up here for a number of reasons. I had to follow Dale Jr., is one. And being the first to make it to the (Championship) Four and speak is another. But I got to tell you the biggest one is with this format, three minutes to speak. That’s not a lot of time. In fact, I was asking Mike Forde, the producer of the show about it and he told 'Make sure you stay under three minutes because if you don’t, I’m going to talk to Steve O’Donnell and recommend an encumbered post-banquet speech.' I’m going to try to avoid that, I need my crew chief next year.”

Ryan Blaney on winning for the Wood Brothers: “I think being a part of that list and being able to win for the Wood Brothers and getting one of the wins out of their 99, which is a very small part of it, but just to be up on their wall of people who have won for them in their race cars is really special for me. I wanted to be on that wall ever since I got there.”

Kyle Busch: “To Dale [Earnhardt Jr.], thanks for the friendship that we’ve grown over the years and of course, for you converting Junior Nation into Rowdy fans. It’s going to be very different getting all those cheers next year at driver intros.”

Martin Truex Jr.: “And finally, back to the love of my life. No, not racing. Sherry. Babe, I love you and thank you for the change you’ve caused in my life. You’re an inspiration to all of us in this room and winning is a great feeling but spending life with you is the real victory.”