Ford Racing NNS Notes & Quotes:
Indiana 250 Notes & Quotes (Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
Saturday, July 27, 2013
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
3rd JOEY LOGANO
9th MICHAEL ANNETT
10th TRAVIS PASTRANA
16th TREVOR BAYNE
34th SAM HORNISH JR.
JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD MUSTANG (FINISHED 3rd) – “I was willing to take the risk to pen the 54 on the bottom and take the air off him. That was my only shot I had to take the lead and I thought if I take the lead that I could beat him. I felt like I had a good shot on the outside and had a good restart. I pinned him down there and he got loose and slid me up into the marbles. It is good hard racing and nothing to be mad about. I put him in a bad position hoping that he could hang onto his car and he could . That is hard racing and part of the fun out here and the risk you take to win these things. It was fun. I let him go when he got underneath me thinking him and the 11 would race the heck out of each other and I would time it right and pass both of them. I couldn’t get it timed right and was too lose in traffic and couldn’t get both of them. Man it was a lot of fun though. The last 10 laps was a lot of fun.”
MICHAEL ANNETT, NO. 43 PILOT TRAVEL CENTERS FORD MUSTANG (FINISHED 9th) – “It was a long day. A long day but honestly the best handling car we have had in a long time. That part was exciting it was just hard to pass. We were really good by ourselves and seemed like when we caught people we got even better and they struggled. That was a good thing, especially here. We tried some things with two tires and honestly I don’t think we gave it a fair shot. The inside lines were important on restarts today and it seemed like we got it on the initial start and that was it. We knew that would be big on the last restart. We were able to hang on and got some later on. It was a good run and one of the best handling cars we have had in a long time.”
SAM HORNISH JR., NO. 12 WURTH FORD MUSTANG (FINISHED 34th) – WHAT HAPPENED TO CAUSE THE ENGINE TO BLOW UP? “It was a piece of debris on the grille and we got it off when we got to one of the lap markers but it was grass, somebody drove through grass on the restart not right in front of us but back in the field and when everyone came around somehow we managed to get it completely covering our grille. We were the closest ones to being hot while everybody else was coming down pit road to get their stuff we had already had our issue and we didn’t get enough cool water back into it trying not to lose the laps. Then we melted it down because our procedure failed us on that one I guess. I don’t know exactly what we were supposed to do. We didn’t have everything we needed properly and we need to go back to the drawing board and make sure we get everything figured out on how to be better next time.”
JOEY LOGANO POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
TALK ABOUT HOW THINGS WENT OUT THERE TODAY. “To start the race we were picking our way through the field. We all know how hard it is to pass here. Starting 13th we were able to work our way to sixth or seventh and needed some cautions and restarts to get us going. We were able to get track position through pit strategy and then I knew it was Kyle vs. Joey. Here we go and let’s have some fun with it. The first two restarts I got beat and the last one I thought I knew what I had to do and thought maybe the third one was the charm. I got a good restart and was able to get up a little bit in front of him by the time I got into the corner. I knew what I had to do. I had to pin him on the bottom and pretty much door jam him and take the air off the side of his car to get out in front of him. Once you get that clean air I think I could have stayed in front of him. I thought my car was fast enough to stay up there. I know when I was running second he was screwing with me the whole time. His cars have been superior and the fastest car won the race. I tried to hold him down there and he came sliding up the race track and put me up in the marbles. It isn’t like I am mad at him. I put him in that position and it was my shot to win the race and I was willing to sacrifice the race car to try to win here at Indy. We gave it our best shot. I thought maybe the 54 and the 2 would race the heck out of each other and I would get a big run and pass them both. That was my second shot but I wasn’t able to get either one of them. All in all it was a decent finish for our Discount Tire Ford. It is frustrating because we were close. I feel like I did the right thing on the restart, we just didn’t win the race.”
HOW COME YOU DIDN’T BATTLE LONGER WITH KYLE SO I COULD GET OUT FRONT? (ASKED BY DRIVER BRIAN SCOTT) – “Well I was hoping you two would race each other. I figured it would be really hard for me to hold him off. I didn’t feel like your car was as fast as his car in all honesty. He had the fastest car all weekend and I think we all knew that. That was my theory on trying to win the race, the best shot for my car to win the race. Sorry.”
HOW WILL THE PENSKE TRADITION PLAY INTO YOUR SUCCESS TODAY AND POTENTIAL SUCCESS TOMORROW? “Roger has had great success here and every time I walk into the shop the first thing you see is all his Indy 500 trophies lined up. You say, ‘Wow’. This place really means a lot to the Penske organization and Roger in particular. You want to win here for him. This is his turf and you want to defend that for him. With Brad being able to win here last year you want to go defend that win. We came close. We gave it our best shot and it isn’t anything to hang our heads about. We want to keep the momentum and take what we have learned today about the cars that are faster than us and apply it when we come back.”
