Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
STP 500 Advance – Martinsville Speedway
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Ford Finishing Results:
4th – Joey Logano
5th – Marcos Ambrose
8th – Aric Almirola
13th – Carl Edwards
18th – Greg Biffle
26th – David Gilliland
28th – David Ragan
38th – Brad Keselowski
40th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – GARAGE INTERVIEW AFTER INCIDENT ON PIT ROAD. “I started to check up and I just barely got in the back of him and Kurt (Busch) just accelerated and drove through us, absolutely drove through us. I tell you what, I’m about tired of his recklessness. Kurt tore the whole suspension off the car, so it won’t turn, it won’t do anything.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “We spent a lot of money and a lot of effort in getting Richard Petty Motorsports back on the map and I think you’re seeing the results. We’ve been fast for about four weeks in a row and we’re just starting to hit our stride. We’re gonna win one of these soon and lock ourselves in the Chase and feel good about our chances.” A SOLID DAY. “Just a really proud day for the DeWalt team on the 9 side for Richard Petty Motorsports. We’ve had a really tough week. We lost Miss Lynda. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Petty family right now. We really wanted to win for them bad out there, but we’ll take a top five. We’re really proud of our efforts. We had great pit stops all day. Our guys probably had their best day on pit road in a long time and Drew Blickensderfer and Derek on the pit box made great calls late in the race and if we would have had another round of pit stops, we might have had something for them.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “It was a battle. We lost a bunch of spots on pit road when we had our fender knocked in and couldn’t get the tire back in. This race is really hard, but we finished where we deserved to finish. That’s about what we had. That’s where we ran. I wish we had a little more. At the beginning of the race I thought we were pretty good, but didn’t quite have enough on the long run. We fought from being a little tight in the center to a little free off – going back and forth – and unfortunately we just didn’t have enough but we fought hard. We got us a top five and at least we finished where we deserved for the first time in two weeks. I feel like if we just keep on this roll and those wins will come. We’re leading laps every race, so we’ve just got to lead the right ones.” DID YOU HAVE TO SAVE YOUR TIRES QUITE A BIT ON EACH RUN? “I saved my stuff pretty well and the craziest thing is when people pass you and they’re all sideways and you’re like, ‘OK, he’s gonna come back to me,’ and they don’t and you’re like, ‘Why aren’t they coming back to me?’ But you run 80 percent most of the race just trying to save what you’ve got and then those last 30 laps that’s all I had every lap.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 STP Ford Fusion – “We went back and forth on our adjustments and never really got it exactly where we needed it, but I’m really proud of all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports. Marcos had a really good run as well, so we’re doing things right. If we keep running like this, we’ll get to victory lane.” HOW MUCH DID WEATHER COME IN TO PLAY? “Our car was very touchy to the clouds. When it would cloud up my car would get real loose and then when the sun would come out my car would get better and it would tighten out, but we bounced around on adjustments all day and couldn’t ever get the car balanced right. We would either be too tight or too loose and we really struggled for forward drive, which really hurt us on longer runs. All in all, I’m still really proud of these guys. Everybody on this STP Ford Fusion did a great job and we’ll take an eighth after last weekend, get some points back and keep going.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – POST RACE – WHAT HAPPENED WITH KURT OUT THERE? “The replay shows it. We jumbled up on pit road and he just drove right through me and ruined our day. We probably had a race-winning car and it doesn’t matter. That’s the way it goes.” WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM WINNING? “That’s just racing. You can’t get caught up in that stuff. It doesn’t make you happy, but it’s just racing.” DID YOU TRY TO GO AFTER HIM? “I’m good with that.” YOU HAD AN ISSUE AT KENTUCKY WITH HIM WASN’T IT? “Yeah, the same thing. He wrecked me for no reason 15-30 laps in, whatever, early in the race just being overaggressive. Aggressive is good, but lap 50 wrecking somebody, if you’re gonna be aggressive wreck yourself don’t wreck me. I’ll remember that when it’s lap 50 and he needs a break and he’ll find his ass turned around in the wall just like he tore my car up. That stuff will come around. Once or twice when it happens you go, ‘Oh, it happens,’ but when it happens repeatedly then you just realize who the person is that’s at fault and you just have to make sure that you show them you’re not gonna take that, and I’m not gonna take that. I know this 2 team is not gonna take it. We had a race-winning car today, instead we finished thirty-whatever with the whole front end tore off of it. That’s inexcusable and I’m not gonna put up with that.” YOU HAD A LOT OF RESPECT FOR HIM WHEN YOU WERE TEAMMATES. “I still do. He does awesome things for charity and he’s probably the most talented race car driver, but he’s also one of the dumbest, so put those three together.” HE SAID HE WANTED TO REARRANGE YOUR FACE. “Tell him come here. I’m right here. He knows where I’m at. Leave victory lane and we’ll go.”
