Ford Racing NNS Notes & Quotes:
Buckle Up 200 (Dover International Speedway)
Saturday, May 31, 2014
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
2nd Trevor Bayne
3rd Joey Logano
11th Chris Buescher
16th Dakoda Armstrong
27th Ryan Reed
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 2nd
“This team has made some really big gains this week. We have been eight to 10th place every week and it kind of stinks to be that close. I will never complain about a second place finish but when you can get that close you want to keep going. There were times I would catch Kyle and times he would pull away. The last 10 laps we got really tight and he got through lap traffic better than we did. About 15 to go I really started gaining on him and I thought we had a good shot and I was just going to be patient but I ran my front tires off trying to get to him. I am really proud of my AdvoCare Ford team for not giving up this season. I feel like we are hitting our stride and we need to continue that.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 3rd
“That is frustrating. I feel like I had the winning car but we were too loose there. We were loose that last run and couldn’t pass anyone. As soon as I got close enough to a car I would lose all the air on it and get free and really couldn’t get there. Yeah, I need better restarts and needed to get up closer there. I thought we were going to have a shot at Kyle but he got ahold of his stuff and was able to pull back away and I couldn’t get close to anyone. I was too loose to clear him. I guess all good things must come to an end.”
JOEY LOGANO & TREVOR BAYNE POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCES
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang – TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE OUT THERE TODAY. “It was okay. We didn’t win. We were going for that five in a row here today and just came up short there. We never really had good restarts on the inside and we didn’t have a good enough spot or start to be able to pass cars on the restarts. Our car was just too loose. Every time I would get to someone I would get more free and if I was able to get under them I was too loose to clear them. It was kind of frustrating out there. It is still frustrating. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and we will give it another shot in the fall and hopefully a couple years later we will be sitting in the same spot again.”
DESPITE A CAROUSEL OF DRIVERS IN THE 22 CAR YOU GUYS GET GOOD FINISHES. WHAT IS THE APPROACH WITH DIFFERENT DRIVERS TO HAVE GOOD CARS? “It is difficult for Jeremy to be able to do that. I have been running here the last year or so and at least at this track we kind of know what I like and he can go off the notes there but when you are switching from driver to driver it makes it more challenging than it needs to be. He is able to put together a good race car for all of us and it takes Jeremy some time to be able to learn each one of us. It isn’t like he is getting four or five races of the same driver. It is a different one every week and it makes it tough on him but he is doing a great job. We have had fast race cars and run up front leading laps; we just came up short today.”
IT MUST BE COOL TO HAVE TEAM PENSKE SWEEPING THE POLE POSITIONS IN THREE DIFFERENT SERIES’ THIS WEEKEND. “Yeah, that part is cool. Unfortunately I didn’t carry the flag today for the racing part but I thought in qualifying to have Brad on the pole tomorrow and us on the pole today and having them up there in IndyCar race being able to get the pole is cool. To have all three series with Penske cars up front is cool. I don’t know if we have done that before or not but it is a great way to start the weekend.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang – “I am just glad we had a good run because I was a little worried I might eat my words a little bit. Jack Roush came up to me at the drivers meeting and I told him this was the best Dover car I have ever had. He asked me if I was sure and I said yes, so I knew we had to battle hard today to get that run I promised him. This is a great start to the summer for us. We were a little more competitive last weekend at Charlotte and have made big gains here at Dover with my best finish I have had here. I am really proud of this AdvoCare team. It seems like the first part of the season we have been a top-10 car all weekend but didn’t have the speed to break into the top-five. Chad and the guys have worked really hard at the shop trying to get these things figured out and I feel like we were a lot closer this weekend and it was a solid run for our AdvoCare Mustang.”
DID LAST WEEK’S ANNOUNCEMENT AT CHARLOTTE GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE? YOU LOOKED PRETTY STRONG HERE TODAY. “I wish I could relate confidence to speed but it doesn’t every seem to work that way. Sometimes I have had all the confidence in the world and it makes me overdrive it and slow down. I think it is the fact we are starting to hit it a little bit in the summer, which is normally when we are better anyway. That announcement last week is definitely no hindrance. It is great to talk about but I don’t think it really changes anything for this year. This Nationwide Series is really tough and we have to work hard and I feel like this weekend we hit on a couple things and got that speed we have been looking for all season.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO GET BACK TO VICTORY LANE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE GAINS ON THE LEADERS OR CAN YOU DO IT THROUGH CONSISTENCY AND LUCK? “I think consistency will pay off, especially as we get to the road courses and a superspeedway race. As close as we are, one bad race will bring those guys right back. We need to be consistent. I think it is a lot easier to race toward the front though. When you get in that top-five it seems like everything is easier. Your car drives better; the guys don’t race you as hard. Racing ninth-12th every weekend feels like you are on the edge every lap. Having fast race cars makes it easy for us to make gains in points and I feel like we need to get a win this season, with or without points. We were able to do that last year and to be competitive at this level you need to get to victory lane. On days like today you get a little greedy. When you get that close and finish second you want more and to get to victory lane. If we can run like today consistently we will find our way to victory lane.”
WITH 15 TO GO YOU GOT CLOSE TO KYLE. DID YOU THINK YOU HAD ANYTHING FOR HIM AT THAT POINT? “Yeah I definitely did. It seemed like with about 20 to go we started making good gains on him and his car was really loose. If he missed it a little it would wiggle up the race track and that is what allowed me to catch him as much as I did within three-tenths. The way our forward drive was on exit I thought I was going to be able to get to him and make a move. He got through lap traffic better than I did on timing and that separated us a little bit. I caught him again and just ran the front tires off the car trying to catch him. We struggled with being tight in and off today and that last run we got it even tighter somehow. His car being free seemed to last longer than mine did. He said he was giving it everything he had in the end. I went to talk to him in victory lane and he said it was all he had to get it done and I can promise you it is all I had to try to catch him. We just couldn’t be consistent enough to keep it on the bottom. If I missed the bottom by a foot it would take off and I would lose a couple car lengths. Maybe if I hit it perfect every lap I could have been at his rear bumper and made a run at him but I was too inconsistent in the end and it allowed him to get away.”
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE WITH THIS TEAM FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR? “I feel like we were a little hot and cold last year. We would either really hit it or have a bad days and the bad days sometimes were self inflicted. I feel like I have matured a little bit as a driver on those days when we have an eighth place car, I try to run a little better than that if I can but if we end up eighth that is where we end up. You aren’t going to win places with an eighth place car as good as the field is now. We know we have to work on our race cars and take what we can and I feel like we have done a better job of that. Jason Hedlesky, my spotter, has done a great job keeping me calm. When we were three wide today battling for second it was getting crazy and without Jason keeping me calm who knows what might have happened. I feel like it is a whole team chemistry. If you are pushing too hard when the car doesn’t have it in it you make mistakes and we have eliminated that better this year. With guys like Chase running like he does, they really hit it and have won races or do what we did last year and have a couple races where stuff happens and that will happen throughout the season, that is why I feel we need to consistently run top-five if we are going to be in this championship battle.”
WHAT WILL YOU DO ON YOUR OFF-WEEKEND NEXT WEEK AND CAN YOU LOOK AHEAD TO GOING TO MICHIGAN? “Chase seems to do pretty good at places he has never been so I don’t think he should worry too much. For us, my wife and I, it is our one-year anniversary this year and AdvoCare, Richard and Sherry Wright have a little place down in Sea Side we are going to hang out at for a little bit at the beach. It will be a nice little time off but I promise you we will be thinking about Michigan. Chad and those guys aren’t going to the beach but they will be working hard getting our cars dialed in. I will send them a picture or something. I really like Michigan International Speedway. It is a Ford racetrack so it is a big weekend for us running double duty in the Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford in the Cup series and I like getting double track time because I feel like I learn a lot and we had a strong run there last time so I am looking forward to it.”
