Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Lilly Diabetes 250 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Ford Finishing Order:
5th – Joey Logano
9th – Trevor Bayne
11th – Chris Buescher
13th – David Ragan
17th – Dakoda Armstrong
20th – Ryan Reed
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “We didn’t have the best strategy there. We were in good shape when that caution came out, we were leading the race, and some of those guys pitted before and then cycled themselves back up to the lead and had to save fuel to make it. The car was good enough to win and we were better than the 3 car when we were out front, but it’s just so hard to pass. Then we had an alternator go bad and got really tight at the end. I couldn’t pass the 20 and couldn’t do anything, so we’ll have to wait a whole year to come back and try again.” ANY SEGMENT YOU WERE BETTER? “When we were up front like everybody else. Whoever gets out front is gonna win the race. That’s how this place is and that’s why strategy and restarts are so important to make up as much time as you can because it’s just one lane around here.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang – “My cool box didn’t work, so it was hot. It was an OK day for us in the points and the Dash for Cash again, so that’s about the only bright side. We didn’t have the driveability I had here last year. I felt like we were the car to beat last year and everybody is doing different things now and you’ve got to keep up with them, but it just didn’t work for us today. I don’t know what we’ve got to do. We’re a ninth-place car every week, so we steal some sometimes when we can get up on the high side or something, but this weekend we didn’t have it. From practice, qualifying and the race we were about a 10th-place car, so we finished ninth and we’ll keep moving forward.” WHEN DID THE COOL BOX GO OUT? “At lap zero. It didn’t work from the beginning.”
RYAN REED – No. 16 ADA Drive to Stop Diabetes Ford Mustang – “We were pretty good. I felt like we were a solid top-10 car. We were playing the fuel strategy game and came in right when we went green on that last caution. We knew we would be good on fuel for the rest of the way, but when I was leaving the pits and coming back on the back straightaway I felt like something broke in the motor. They’re checking it out right now, but we lost a lot of horsepower and it was unfortunate because we had a really good Ford Mustang and some good strategy, but what are you going to do?”
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 Roush Performance Parts Ford Mustang – “It was a long day for us, but it was good. For my first time at Indy to come home 11th is not bad. That’s pretty respectable. Our Roush Performance Mustang was good in practice. I thought it would be a little better in the race, but we pulled together there at the end. We started picking up some speed. It’s a shame we didn’t have about 10 more laps or we would have had two or three more laps, but that’s the way these things go. We didn’t really have any chance to gain track position because it seemed we always needed four tires. With a green race track we opted to go for that and just stay on a pretty normal strategy.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 98 Denbeste Heavy Equipment Rental Ford Mustang – “For a part-time, single-car effort that’s a good effort. We’re all very hungry to run better. Fred Biagi and Phil Denbeste spend a lot of money and a lot of sacrifices to provide us what we need to go fast. We beat a lot of good teams, but we want to be better. We’ve got to just keep working hard. I’ve got to do a better job. The pit crew and our strategy can be a little better, so we’ll keep going. It was fun. We didn’t put a scratch on the car and we’ll get ready for the next one.”
