Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Federated Auto Parts 400 (Richmond International Raceway)
NSCS Post Race Quotes
Saturday, September 7, 2013
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st Carl Edwards
10th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12th Greg Biffle
17th Brad Keselowski
20th Aric Almirola
22nd Joey Logano
23rd David Gilliland
26th Casey Mears
27th Marcos Ambrose
29th David Ragan
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW? “I don’t really have any emotions right now. We weren’t good enough to make it and we didn’t. That is the reality.”
TAKE US THROUGH HOW YOUR RACE UNFOLDED TONIGHT. “We were pretty good at the start and led a lot of laps. I think we led the most laps but we just weren’t strong enough to really stay up there. We needed clean air to really run well and once we lost that we just weren’t strong enough.”
WE HEARD YOU ON THE RADIO TALKING TO YOUR GUYS AND SAYING YOU NEEDED TO SWING FOR THE FENCES. WHAT IS THAT LIKE IN THE MOMENT WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A CAR THAT IS CAPABLE OF WINNING THE RACE AND IT STARTS TO WANE ON YOU A BIT? “Yeah, that is just the way our cars have been this year. They haven’t been good enough and we haven’t executed as well as we needed to. We have work to do. At the end of the day, the thing about points is it is the best measuring stick in sports. You know who deserves to be where because the results speak for themselves. We didn’t have enough results to get where we needed to be.”
HOW CLOSE WERE YOU AT THE END OF THAT RACE TO THE 15? THERE WAS SOME QUESTION AS TO IF CLINT MIGHT HAVE SPUN HIMSELF ON PURPOSE. “No, I couldn’t tell you that. I didn’t see it.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “Well, we are in. If feels great. Man, what a terrible race though. We were hanging on the whole time. I didn’t know where we were and every time I asked where we stood and they didn’t answer me. I thought that wasn’t good if they weren’t answering me. It feels good to put one of these Chase hats on and we can regroup and go for a championship now. It feels good. It has been a lot of years I have been trying to get into the Chase. It is a big accomplishment. Once you are in doesn’t mean you are done. I want to try to go for it. I have 100-percent confidence in this team to make it happen. We are going to forget about tonight’s finish and make the most of this Chase.”
YOU ARE ONE OF THE SEXY PICKS TO WIN THIS THING. DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE A PICK TO WIN THIS THING? “Oh yeah. We can win this thing. We just have to run better than what we did tonight.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED –
THE FLIP SIDE IS YOUR TEAMMATE BRAD KESELOWSKI FINDS HIMSELF NOT IN THE CHASE. “Yeah, that is tough. Brad has had fast cars. It is so hard to make this Chase. We both went through a lot this season of having bad finishes and fast race cars. It feels good to get in it but I know what he is going through right now and it is tough. He is a champion though and he will get through it. If anyone things he is going to run over and die they are crazy. He will win some races for sure.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET IN? “It feels really good after having such a rough night. The car was really struggling all night. I kept asking Todd where we were, if we were good or bad and he never really answered me, so I was thinking, ‘I don’t think that’s good.’ Thank God for that last caution, I guess. I think we were out before that, so we’ve got to forget this finish tonight and reset our goals for the championship and try to get this Shell/Pennzoil Ford a championship. This team is capable of doing it. Thank God we’re not ever coming back to Richmond until next year and we’ve got to score some points and score some wins now.”
OVER THE LAST 6 OR 7 WEEKS YOU HAVE BEEN STRONG. HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU FOR THE CHASE? “I’m encouraged for sure. All of our finishes leading up to this race were really, really good. I feel like we were the hottest team in NASCAR coming into this race, so we’re not gonna let this kill our momentum. We’re gonna take this momentum we have getting into the Chase and let ‘er rip and have some fun.”
ROGER PENSKE, OWNER, No. 22 Shell Penzoil Ford Fusion – YOUR THOUGHTS ON JOEY MAKING THE CHASE. “First I have to thank Carl Edwards for winning that race. That made a huge difference there at the end because if Newman would have won we would have been out. Joey persevered all season and I guess when he had those couple DNF’s that tonight was something in our favor. We just thank the Dear Lord and everyone for taking care of us tonight and giving us a safe race. We are in the Chase. That is what we came here for. Now we start all over again.”
THE FLIP SIDE IS BRAD DOES NOT MAKE THE CHASE. “Brad has done such a great job and as I told him today before the race, I said that we might not get in but it is like business, you will have some good months and bad months but we have a great company. He has done a great job for us with what he is doing on the Nationwide side as well. He deserved better than he got and I think we let him down a couple of times but overall he is a class guy and a great guy to have on the team and I need to thank him for getting us Joey Logano.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 Scotchgard Ford Fusion – “I feel really good right now. I gave up there at the end. Those guys were going crazy. I wish I would have gotten a top-five finish out of that. I don’t even know where I finished. I am happy for Carl and we worked hard all night. We had a great car. I just couldn’t get it right getting into one and as the speed started picking up I started getting worse. I just could never get it right getting into one down there.”
IT’S BEEN AN UP AND DOWN YEAR FOR YOU. NOW THAT YOU ARE IN THE CHASE, HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING FORWARD? “We feel good. Look at how we ran here tonight. Man, if our Chase looks like that, we are right where we need to be. I am happy about that.”
CARL EDWARDS CAPTURES RICHMOND WIN; THREE FORDS CLINCH CHASE SPOTS
· Carl Edwards captured his second win of the season, claiming the checkers at Richmond International Raceway Saturday night.
· The win is also the second of the season for Edwards (Phoenix).
· The win gives the fifth Cup victory of the season for Ford
· In addition to Edwards, Joey Logano and Greg Biffle clinched Chase spots Saturday night.
· Logano is in the Chase for the first time in his career.
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Kellogg’s/Cheeze-It Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “That’s my pit crew that won this race for us. It was just an awesome job by them. It’s so cool to put Kellogg’s in Victory Lane – Kellogg’s, Fastenal, Ford, Subway, Aflac, The Geek Squad, UPS, Sprint – all the fans, Wiley X, everybody who has been behind us all year, especially my fans. It was up at the beginning with Jimmy and our new team, and then we struggled for a little while, but the last three weeks have been great. We’ve led a bunch of laps and have had fast race cars and we’re having fun. Thanks to Jack Roush. We got Greg Biffle in the Chase. We got Ford to Victory Lane and I’ve just got to thank New Holland and Cesna also. They give me a lot of support through the year, but this is really cool. I’m sure I haven’t won a race here in the Cup car, so it’s a big night for us.”
HOW STRONG CAN YOU BE IN THE CHASE? “We’re gonna win the championship. That’s our mission. That seemed like a crazy idea about a month-and-a-half ago, but Jimmy and these guys have buckled down. Everybody back at the shop, all the guys building these race cars, all of our Ford teammates – Brad, Joey and all the Penske guys – everybody has rallied together. I can’t say enough about Robbie Reiser, Bob Osborne, Chip Bolin, all the guys at the shop. We’ve got two guys in the Chase. We’ve got Ricky Stenhouse, who had an awesome night tonight, but this championship would mean the world to me. The next 10 weeks, we’re gonna be on them hard. They’re gonna know we’re here.”
JOEY LOGANO POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
JOEY LOGANO THIS IS YOUR FIRST CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP, FIRST YEAR OVER AT PENSKE RACING. CONGRATULATIONS. WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE FOR YOU? “It feels great. I mean, obviously tonight wasn’t the night we were looking for as far as where we ran on the racetrack. We struggled pretty hard tonight with our Shell Pennzoil Ford. To get into the top 10 and get our three bonus points there, it was huge. These last three, four weeks have been very stressful. Feels like a big weight has been lifted off your shoulders to get in this thing.”
JOEY, YOU’RE THE ONE DRIVER NOT GOING IN WITH A TEAMMATE. I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT KESELOWSKI WON’T BE A TREMENDOUS ASSISTANCE TO YOU. TALK ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT HE’S GOING TO BE. “I think he’ll be very important. It’s unfortunate that Brad missed the Chase. Obviously, our goal tonight was to get both Penske cars in the Chase. We got one in. Brad is a champion no matter what you say. He won the championship last year. He still will be out there in contention to win races. I’m sure he’ll win some races before the year is out. At the same time we can use him as a teammate right now to try some things, try to improve what we got. That’s what we do now. Nothing is going to change because of this. I know Brad is really strong. I’m sure it’s tough on him right now, but he’s going to be okay. Yeah, I mean, like I said, it’s tough. But nothing is really going to change within our organization. I feel like we work as a team very well, Penske Racing does, with two teams. You have to share your notes, the crew chiefs and drivers need to be even tighter. I don’t see us changing that at all.”
CARL EDWARDS, JACK ROUSH, JIMMY FENNIG RACE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE
THIS IS CARL’S 21ST WIN, HIS SECOND VICTORY IN 2013, HIS FIRST WIN HERE AT RICHMOND. CARL WAS THE REGULAR‑SEASON POINTS LEADER, ONE POINT AHEAD OF JIMMIE JOHNSON. HE COMES IN AT FIFTH AFTER THE CHASE RESEED.
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Ford Fusion – “We’re ahead of Jimmie in the points right now?” That’s a hell of a deal. We passed Jimmie like he was standing still, didn’t we (smiling)? Hopefully we can keep that up.”
CERTAINLY A BIG WIN HERE TONIGHT AND YOU GET EXTRA BONUS POINTS. YOU GOT YOUR FIRST WIN AT RICHMOND. JUST TALK ABOUT THAT. IT’S ALWAYS GOOD TO COME INTO CHICAGO AFTER A WIN. “It will make all the media stuff and dinners a lot of fun this week. Really, tonight was about three points. That’s what this was about. It was three points for our Chase. I know firsthand, we all know up here, what a point in the Chase is worth. We came here with the mission to get those three points. The last three weeks have been spectacular. We had an extremely fast race car at Bristol. Atlanta went well the first half of the race. To come here, have another week where we run up front, win the race, this is great. I’d say a month or two ago I wasn’t so sure about our chances in the Chase. Jimmy and I, we had a meeting about that and talked about it, it was not looking good. We turned things around. Jack has done a great job with the cars. The pit crew is spectacular. I am excited about going to run these 10 races.”
JACK, TALK ABOUT CARL’S PERFORMANCE, YOUR TWO CARS IN THE CHASE AND A SOLID FINISH WITH RICKY STENHOUSE, JR. TONIGHT.
JACK ROUSH, co-owner, Roush Fenway Racing – “Tonight was a great night for us. In this business you work behind the scenes, hard on the car, hard on the engine. Suffer through the broken parts. Sometimes it seems like there’s no end to it. This is the third new configuration we’ve had and chassis for the cars this year. As late as 10:00 this morning, Carl and I sat in the motor home and talked about whether or not we thought our car had what it needed to be competitive here. I came away thinking maybe we needed another car before we went to Loudon. Came back with that kind of result. The car was competitive. Carl did a great job. The pit crew and the four tires at the end made the difference. Jimmy was the man. No doubt he was going to take four tires.”
JIMMY FENNIG, ABOUT THE WIN HERE TONIGHT, HOW YOU THINK THAT WILL HELP THE TEAM THE NEXT 10 RACES?
JIMMY FENNIG, crew chief, No. 99 Ford Fusion — “Well, it was big to get the win tonight because that moment going into the Chase means a lot to everybody, to all the guys at the shop, everybody that’s working hard, it’s a big deal for them that we came out of here with a win. Hopefully we can turn everything around. Last month we started to turn things around, starting in Watkins Glen. Hopefully we’ll see what we can do in the Chase. A win here is very special.”
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED –
JACK, IT SEEMS LIKE ALMOST EVERY RACE THIS YEAR IS WON ON THE FINAL PIT STOP OR ON THE FINAL RESTART AFTER THE PIT STOP. YOU’RE AN ENGINEERING GUY. HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR STRATEGY GOING INTO THE CHASE? DO YOU DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU WOULD HAVE 10 YEARS AGO BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE RACES SEEM TO FLOW NOW? “You’ve got to make an effort to make sure that you have your best foot forward as it relates to your team, your pit team. We’ve moved people around, not for what their individual skills are, but what their ability was to have good, positive chemistry together. If you have a front tire changer that’s too fast, he intimidates the rear tire changer, that’s not good. We made a change and put a tire changer on one of our teams that was not as fast, and the overall team picked up its performance. So there’s a human psychology dimension to it that I’m not the master of that the guys work on. That has come to fruition with two of our teams that was a little bit of a problem this year. The last couple races, the pit stops on the 99 team have been spectacular. They were good at Atlanta for the 16 team until we broke a gun. Yeah, there’s more to the racing, unfortunately, than just making horsepower out of the engine or making a good, reliable car that won’t have its brakes fall off of it. You’ve got to have the athletic performance aspect of it as well. I think as I look at the engine, as I look at the car, as I look at the racetracks in front of us in the Chase, I think that we’ve got more momentum than we’ve ever had as we look at it going forward.
CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED –
HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK TONIGHT’S VICTORY IS TO THE MOMENTUM OVER THE FOLLOWING 10 RACES? “Well, I think the last three weeks have been really good for our team in that we’ve been able to just take a little bit more risk, try things, make bigger changes than we’ve made. As far as getting to know Jimmy, it’s really been good for me to have him as a crew chief. He has a lot of experience. He doesn’t pull any punches. He tells me exactly what he needs from me. It’s a really open, simple relationship. We’re going to do whatever we can to win. I told Jack, I think it was a year ago or so, we talked about having a crew chief that would be somebody that would tell me what he needs out of me, and I will go do that. Jimmy takes control of the whole team in that manner. That’s huge. We’ve had some really good runs. Phoenix was won because of our pit crew, Jimmy’s decision on the box. Throughout the year we struggled, really had some struggles. Even though we did well in points, we were very slow at races. That forced us and Jack to make sure we’re making the right changes when we make changes. It makes me be a little bit more communicative during the race, telling them what I need more. Basically when I tell him how the car is doing, it’s like Bob and I used to be, he tells me, Hey, I’m thinking about making this adjustment. That’s the one I’m already thinking of. I don’t think we could be much better.”
JIMMY FENNIG CONTINUED — “No, me and Carl get along good. We both want one thing: the win. Carl sits there and debriefs great now. When he debriefs in the truck with me and the engineers, we’ll go ahead and pick everything apart. Before we make any changes, we’ll talk about it as a team, because this is what it’s about. But we get along great right now.”
CARL, IN EARLIER CONVERSATION JEFF GORDON WAS TALKING ABOUT WHAT TO EXPECT ON THAT FIRST RACE GOING INTO THE RACE WITH KESELOWSKI AND BUSCH ON HIS TAIL. WHAT CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED — WAS YOUR TAKE ON THE RACE AS FAR AS THE COMPLEXION OF IT? WAS IT PRETTY MUCH WHAT YOU ANTICIPATED? “Coming in here I heard some stuff that had gone on. From the driver’s standpoint, you don’t know all the things that happened during the race. I was right behind Jeff when he had some sort of trouble, I don’t know what happened to his car. That was pretty huge. What was that? Did he lose a cylinder? I mean, I’ve been in the position as a driver of having to make it in. At the end of the race, talking to Truex, realizes he tied in points and made it in, the fact that Newman had it in the bag basically, that didn’t work out. Joey got in. That’s as dramatic as I think it can be. I look forward going back to watch this race to see how it all played out. The emotions in the car, I can’t describe how tough that is. I hope they shared some of that with you. It’s spectacular how hard it is as a driver to be in that position.”
CARL, THROUGHOUT THE MAJORITY OF THE RACE, YOU WERE AROUND 10TH PLACE OR SO. I WAS WONDERING IF THERE WAS A BREAKING POINT WHERE YOU FELT YOU COULD ADVANCE? WAS THERE SOMETHING THAT JUST KIND OF CLICKED OR CHANGED? WHAT CAUSED THAT CHANGE IN POSITION AND MAYBE MADE YOU THINK THAT TAKING THE RACE WAS WITHIN REACH? “That’s a good question. Two things happened. Our car was good on the long run. When the run would start, 30 laps in, that’s when we could pick guys off and pass them. At the end, Jimmy made a couple really good adjustments. That added just that little extra speed for us off the corners and we were able to get up there. Plus it was a genius call on Jimmy’s part to not pit. We waited. We saw that the 48 was having a little trouble. Then that caution came out. That’s what ratcheted us up to the front and put us in the lead. A lot of tiny things that put us up to the front. It was a battle all night.”
CARL, I WANT TO ASK YOU ABOUT THE LAST RESTART, WHERE YOU TOOK THE LEAD. SLUGGER IS CLAIMING YOU JUMPED THAT FINAL RESTART. I WANTED TO ASK YOU ABOUT THAT. “Yeah, I can understand why he’d be frustrated about that restart. What happened on that restart is Paul had two tires. I knew he was going to be at a big disadvantage with grip. He took off. I waited until he went to go. As we were going, his car actually touched my door. I think it surprised him a little bit or something. He turned a little bit. I heard his engine speed up. He spun the tires. At that point, I mean, I really have a choice to either lift off the throttle and wait for him to try to gather it up. I’ve never seen a guy able to gather is up too quickly when they spin that bad, or go and hope NASCAR understands that he spun his tires. In this case they did, they understand he came up and hit me and spun his tires. The guy in second place in that circumstance is in a tough position. If I had lifted and waited, I think the whole field would have run over us. You just can’t. If he had four tires, it probably would have been different
