AdvoCare 500 (Atlanta Motor Speedway)
Sunday, September 1, 2013Ford Finishing Order
2nd – Joey Logano
13th – Marcos Ambrose
15th – Greg Biffle
16th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – David Gilliland
18th – Carl Edwards
20th – Aric Almirola
22nd – Casey Mears
23rd – David Ragan
35th – Brad Keselowski
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “What can you do? You can sit here and be mad and stomp your feet and be a jerk about it, but it just broke. That’s racing. It’s kind of been the story of our year.” DID YOU THINK YOU COULD MAKE IT TO THE END? “You never know. When they’re wounded you know they’re gonna break, you just don’t know when and we didn’t make it.”
WHAT ABOUT THE CHALLENGE YOU FACE NOW AT RICHMOND? “We don’t dictate our own fate, which is never good. Obviously, we have the speed and performance to get there, but we haven’t put together the execution or the luck. There’s only so much you can control. Maybe this was control and maybe it wasn’t, I don’t know until the guys take it apart and look at it, but we ran up front and we continue to show that we at least have the pieces of what it takes every week to be a title threat and to be in the Chase, but we just haven’t put together all those pieces every week and that’s what it takes. That doesn’t mean we don’t have what it takes, we just don’t have the consistency in putting all those pieces together this year. I know that all those pieces could come together tomorrow. Unfortunately, it didn’t come together today and that’s what matters the most.”
WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CONSISTENCY? “It’s not there. That’s what happened. I don’t know why, but some things are out of our control and some aren’t and we just have to find those.”
CAN YOU BEGIN TO DESCRIBE YOUR FRUSTRATION? “At this point it’s not frustration. I’m beyond frustration. At this point you’re just looking above going, ‘This must be some kind of test to prove how strong we are and what our character is’ because I believe in the people I’m around. I think they’re doing the right things, but it’s just not working. So I’m reserved to this being a test and I love challenges and this is gonna be one helluva challenge.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “I think my best finish here before was about 43rd (laughing), but my guys gave me a great car here at this race track. This was a great Shell/Pennzoil Ford. It took probably six laps to get it going and we proved that we had the long run car, and we were trying to get there. I just needed five more laps for me to have a shot at it. It’s just so frustrating when you’ve got the winning car and you don’t win. That’s three straight top fives with this car, thought, and that’s impressive. We’ll take that and it was a big points day for us for Richmond next week, so we have nothing to hold our heads down about, but, at the same time, I’m mad at myself on that one restart when we started third. I was a little too close to Kyle and when he spun his tires I had to check up not to hit him, and I can’t pass him before the start-finish line, so I gave the 56 a big run and he got underneath me. Then you get shuffled out to the back and it’s just a cluster after that, but it was a hard-fought day. The guys did great. Second sucks, but we can’t be too mad about it.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – “I’m just really proud of my team. We fought all night. We didn’t have the fastest car, but we got ourselves in a good position. If there hadn’t been another restart there, I just needed clean air on the nose and when I didn’t get it there on that last restart I was in trouble. But I’m really proud of my guys. It was a decent night. It’s not the finish that we wanted, but we sure ran strong.” ARE YOU TURNING A CORNER HERE OF LATE? “Yeah, we certainly are. We’re working good as a team. I’m driving a little more relaxed and that helps too, so we have some work to do as a company, but we’re running decent and we’ve got something to build from.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion – “We ran in the top 20 all night and were pretty much on the lead lap all night long. We got lapped once, but got the lucky dog right away, so I’m just real proud of my guys. We felt good about our car after practice. I felt like it was good in race trim and it was when the race started, so we just tuned on it and were up there racing that next set of cars, so I’m real proud of my guys and our effort today.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Subway Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU AND JEFF GORDON DURING THE RACE AND AFTER? “We don’t agree on what happened and finally he got frustrated enough with the conversation that he just walked away, which might be smart. We were racing really early and he just slides on me and I thought it was really out of character for him and I didn’t understand what was going on there, so I did everything I could to not wreck us both. So naturally the next time we were around each other I raced him as hard as I could, and then going down the back straightaway I thought he just ran into my door and it kind of tore up our right side. He thought I ran into him, so I think it was a case where both of us were mad at each other. He wasn’t very happy with our conversation, but at the end of the day I felt like he was the aggressor and didn’t give me much of an opportunity to drive my race car that first time. That was pretty tough, so I don’t understand it, but the bigger picture for us is we had a pretty bad night with our Subway Fusion. It started out so good and I thought we could win the race, and then at the end it was too tight, so we’ve got to work on some stuff.”
DO YOU FEEL THE CONTACT WITH JEFF MADE YOUR CAR TOO TIGHT? “I wasn’t so sure what made my car so tight and then after looking at it, Jimmy Fennig and I were looking at the right side, and I think some of that contact was what caused it. Whether or not Jeff and I agree, I do believe him that he didn’t mean to run into me and I hope he understands I didn’t mean to run into him there. The rest of it was just hard racing. I don’t think we’ll see it any other way after tomorrow, but right now that was pretty frustrating so we’ll see.”
YOU CLINCHED A CHASE SPOT. “Yeah, that’s the first mission of the season is to clinch a Chase spot and now we go win the championship. We’ll go race ‘em.” YOU EXPECTED TO BE GOOD TONIGHT. “Practice went so well and qualifying went really well and I was really hoping for a win. At the beginning of the race I thought this could happen. There were some guys that were really fast and then at the end the car just got very tight, I had a lot of trouble with it. I think some of the damage on the right side might have been part of it, but it was hard to understand exactly how the car could go away that bad, but the first part of the race was a blast.”
JEFF THOUGHT YOU WERE MAD AT HIM. “I was, but it’s just difficult when a guy drives in like that. I don’t know, maybe he’ll get a chance to look at the replay, but it was extremely aggressive that first one and it was all I could do to not wreck both of us. It was 100 percent defensive on my part to not wreck us. I don’t know what was going on and then later on I felt like he was looking for another excuse to be mad at me and I don’t understand that. I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. That’s out of character. We don’t have these kind of problems, so we’ll just move on and hopefully laugh about it when we’re both in the Chase in Chicago.”
HOW IS IT TO GO TO RICHMOND WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT MAKING THE CHASE? “It’s nice going to Richmond without having to worry about the Chase. I thought we had the fastest car on the long run in the spring. I thought we had the fastest car in the fall last year and almost won it, so we want to go get another win. Our plan was to go win Bristol, this one and Richmond. We were really close at Bristol and I thought we were gonna be good here, so I guess we’ll just have a shot at Richmond.”
HOW WAS THE TRACK? “The track actually got slicker than I expected, which was good. If they ever want to repave this place I’ll be laying in front of the road grater because this is as good as it gets. That’s fun racing. There’s no more fun oval that we go to.”
WHAT ABOUT THE DECISION TO NOT PIT? “In hindsight that was a bad decision, but that was right after we got the damage with the 24 car, so I didn’t think our car was gonna be that bad. Joey hung on. Joey did a good job and his car was good enough, and I thought we were almost as fast as him, so when we didn’t pit, we did not expect to drop to the back and be that bad.”
JOEY LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE – “My guys did a great job. They gave me an awesome Shell/Pennzoil Ford today. The only thing I would change about it is it being better the first six laps of a run. After that that thing was a rocket ship and we overcame a loose wheel early in the race and cycled ourselves back to the lead after all that, and then we restarted third with 30 to go or so and Kyle spun his tires. You can’t pass him, you’re trying to get everything going and the 56 had a big run and he stuck it three-wide, which I don’t blame him, it was a great move and when that happens you’re kind of shuffled out and I got put all the way back to sixth, and then another caution. So I just needed 30 laps of green flag to get all the way up there. When there’s a restart after another restart and you don’t have a car that’s very good on the first five or six laps of a run, it just didn’t give me the greatest opportunity there, but we were catching him the last few laps. We needed about five more laps to get him, maybe less.”
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A FAVORITE TO WIN THE CHASE? “If we get in, I feel like with three straight top fives right now we have a really good shot at it. I think you can’t count us out right now. This team is super-strong and it looks like we’re hitting our stride right at the right time here, so as long as we get in first, and then we’ll see what happens. All the guys we were racing tonight – the 56, Newman, the 78 – the all had a good night too, so obviously your points day isn’t as good as you wanted it to be, but, in general, it is a big deal to help us get into the Chase next week in Richmond. But, yeah, I do feel like right now we do have a shot at it, but one step at a time right now.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS SEASON AFTER EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED THIS LAST YEAR? “It’s obviously really tough for Brad tonight. I don’t know exactly what happened to his motor, but those are things you can’t afford to have happen when you’re in the position that both of our cars were in, so we’ll have to go back and look at that. But the season in general after going through a points penalty and going through some tough luck in the beginning of the season, I’m pleased with where we’re at, but I want more. I want to win more races. I want to be up towards the front a little more often. Obviously, the last three weeks we’ve been there, but I’m happy with the way we’ve been running the last few weeks.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEW TIRE? “I liked it more tonight than I did last night. I don’t know what happened last night to our tire, I don’t think it had anything to do with the dual compound deal, but I didn’t have an issue with it. It ran pretty good for me. Every time we had a pit stop Todd came over the radio and said the tires looked good, so a lot of guys were pushing them hard. I don’t know if there were any tire failures tonight or not, but it seemed like it was a pretty solid tire and it hung on strong. I thought it put on a good race for the most part.”
