Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Federated Auto Parts 400 (Richmond International Raceway)
Saturday September 6, 2014
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st BRAD KESELOWSKI
6th JOEY LOGANO
10th ARIC ALMIROLA
19th GREG BIFFLE
22nd CARL EDWARDS
26th RICKY STENHOUSE JR.
27th MARCOS AMBROSE
29th DAVID GILLILAND
33rd DAVID RAGAN
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) – “What a night. Part of me, I pulled into victory lane and I pinched myself once to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. These are nights you don’t forget as a driver and you live for. The Miller Lite Ford Fusion was just flying, and I couldn’t ask for a better way to enter the Chase than to win and take the first seed. We’re ready. We want to run for another Cup. We really feel like this team has it. Team Penske is really clicking. It’s the 400th win for Team Penske, and this feels so lucky to have such an incredible team and a car like we did tonight and be able to execute it and not have any bad luck. We’ve had plenty of bad luck over the last few weeks, but wow, what a night.”
A YEAR AGO YOU WALKED AWAY FROM HERE WITH YOUR HEAD DOWN BECAUSE YOU HAD MISSED THE CHASE. TONIGHT NOT ONLY ARE YOU BACK IN THE CHASE WITH THIS WIN, YOU’RE THE TOP SEED IN THE CHASE. WHAT TURNED IT AROUND FOR THIS TEAM THIS YEAR? “I think a lot of things. I think working with Ford and getting another year under our belt, certainly some major progress there. I think last year was a bit of a kick in the butt, not the way you want but it was enough to really push us all and find another level. We did a great job in 2012, but in the sports world you’ve got to keep progressing, and everyone else progressed and we didn’t. We didn’t progress enough last year, and this year we really have upped our game, and man, this is an incredible team. I feel lucky to drive, I feel lucky to be in the Sprint Cup Series. I want to thank everybody at Sprint and Miller, and we’re going to have a good night tonight.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Finished 6th) – “We are ready to go man. We had a mediocre night tonight. It was hard fought. We ran sixth, seventh and eighth all night long. We wore our tires out and had to drive easy the whole run just to have something at the end. We kept fighting with it but it is over and now we are going to Chicago and have a shot at a championship this year. I am excited about that. We’ve got something we can do something with. It should be fun. I am looking forward to see how this plays out and what the strategies will be for other cars and we will run it hard and see what happens.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 19th) – IT ISN’T HOW YOU WANTED TO GET IN BUT CONGRATS YOU ARE IN THE CHASE. “Thank you. It has been a tough season. I tell you what, when you are that far off it is the hardest thing in the world to drive. Those guys that ran up in the top five probably didn’t break a sweat but I tell you what, this is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, driving and trying to stay in the top-20 like this. At the beginning of the race we were a lot better than we were at the end. We kept losing the handle and trying to adjust on it but weren’t getting anywhere. I drove all I had and that is all I could do to bring it home where I did.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Gwaltney Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) – “This feels really good. We’ve never been in this situation so I am really excited and proud of Trent Owens and all my guys on this Smithfield team. We have a lot of work to do and need to run this good every week for the next 10 weeks. We have to be ultra competitive and execute flawlessly and that is what it will have to take the next 10 weeks. We’ve done that the last two weeks. I am really proud of my guys and can’t wait for our first Chase and we will see what happens. We are underdogs. Nobody expects us to be in this thing anyway and we don’t have a whole lot of pressure on us so we can go out there and let ‘er rip.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Ford Fusion (Finished 22nd) – “That is the perfect style of racing I like but I couldn’t get the car to do what I wanted to do. Last year we won this race and finished last in the Chase so hopefully this poor performance here will turn us around and do us some good. I am excited to go to Chicago and get on with this.”
YOU’VE FINISHED LAST AND BEEN RIGHT UP THERE AT THE END OF A CHASE BEFORE. “Yeah, I think I had a good sense of the Chase they way it was but I don’t think anybody knows how it will go. Hopefully if we make it through the first few, I feel confident about the ones after that. This thing could go any way. It will be crazy.”
FIVE FORDS IN THE CHASE, WHAT DOES THAT SAY? “It is a great night for Ford and great night for Roush Fenway Racing and Team Penske. That is good. If we can’t win we always want to see a Ford win. They put so much into this and that is cool for Brad and everybody. He was really good all night.”
