Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
NSCS AAA Texas 500
Friday Oct. 31, 2014
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
3rd Brad Keselowski
9th Carl Edwards
12th Joey Logano
13th Greg Biffle
14th Aric Almirola
23rd Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27th Marcos Ambrose
32nd David Ragan
34th David Gilliland
39th Trevor Bayne
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion | FINISHED: 3rd (PIT ROAD INTERVIEW)
WHAT WAS YOUR VIEW OF THE CONTACT WITH JEFF GORDON? “There was a hole and I went for it. It closed up and we bounced off each other and kept going. It was just a battle for the win.” KEVIN HARVICK CAME UP HERE ON PIT ROAD AND GAVE YOU A SHOVE AND THAT KIND OF SET EVERYTHING OFF DOWN HERE. “Kevin likes everybody to fight for some reason. I came here to race, not to fight. I raced as hard as I could and these guys just didn’t like it.” LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY. YOU NEEDED A WIN AND ALMOST GOT IT. “We did a lot of clawing. I wish we would have gotten a better finish out of it but we didn’t. It was hard fought. I am doing everything I can to win this race and stay in the championship hunt.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion | FINISHED: 9th
“We got super luck there at the end and my guys never quit. I am so proud of my guys. I have no idea where we are at in points but we certainly finished better than we should have tonight. It was a great night when for awhile it didn’t look like it was going to be. We get to move on to Phoenix now and we will know what we have to do there. We will take it. My guys didn’t quit and I know they won’t quit and we are going to go next week and go for this thing.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion | FINISHED: 12th
“We were able to salvage something decent out of tonight. We were a top five car and possibly a winning car if scenarios played out right. I don’t know what happened with the glue on the pit stop and I haven’t gotten the full story yet but we had a hell of a time trying to put rear tires on the car. We lost all our track position with 30 to go and I came off the corner and the 9 hit me and popped my right rear and then we spun out. We put tires back on it and then just held on til the end and got something decent out of something that could have been way worse. I am proud of everyone that kept their heads down and kept digging. That isn’t the way we wanted to do it, that is for sure.” “You have to expect that though when you put yourself back there with a few laps to go. We put ourselves in a bad spot for something to happen. It is a snowball effect. We put ourselves in a bad spot and got in an even worse spot and then dug ourselves halfway out of a whole there.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE – TALK ABOUT YOUR PERFORMANCE TODAY. “Yeah, we just weren’t as fast as we wanted to be. Pretty much all weekend that was the case. It was a scratch and claw fest. We needed some breaks to get back in it and every time I thought we were going to catch one it would kind of fall short. Whether it was coming in a putting tires on and driving all the way to fifth and needing to get to fourth to be in one of the front two lanes and the yellow came out. That jammed us up. Then another yellow and another yellow and they all jammed us up. It was one consecutive loop of yellow after yellow and we couldn’t get momentum but Paul Wolfe and the guys did a great job of never giving up and adjusting and having good strategy at the end. We almost made a win out of it despite that. In the end, Jimmie was just stronger than we were. Even with a little bit older tires he was just stronger. I didn’t have the turn I needed to really run with him and he did a great job holding us off. That was just the story of the night. The stuff afterwards which I am sure you will ask your own questions about, I am doing everything I can to win this championship racing at 100-percent and that is something I am not going to be ashamed for. If I was out there wrecking guys to do it, that would be one thing, but a little bit of rubbing is how this sport was created and probably how it should move forward. I don’t mind getting raced that way and I don’t mind racing that way. I got a little rub there at the end too from the 4 car and that was just good racing. I am proud of our effort but just wish I would have been able to make two more spots out of it. We were very close and will keep fighting the good fight.”
YOU ALLUDED TO IT, BUT YOU’RE MAKING A LOT OF ENEMIES IN THE GARAGE BECAUSE OF YOUR AGGRESSIVE RACING. YOU SEEM TO BE FINE WITH THAT BECAUSE IT IS WHAT IT IS. “Yeah, I mean, the sport, specifically the driving corps, is stuck in the year 1999, 2000. With the testing bans, the COT cars, all these different things that have happened, the only way for a guy like me to break through is to drive the way I’ve drove over the last four or five years. I think last year I got away from being as aggressive as I was in 2012 and this year. I didn’t make the Chase. We won one race. That’s not acceptable to me. I’m here to win races for Roger Penske and for my team. That means when there’s a gap, I have to take it. If it requires a tiny bit of rubbing, that’s okay. It’s not anything I don’t expect on the other side. Plenty of times where I got rubbed. It will go both ways. That’s okay by me. I’m not asking anyone to take ‑‑ I’m not trying to dish out something that I couldn’t take myself. But these guys have their own code, and they race differently than that. That’s their right. We’ll go through these battles. I’ve gone through them before and come out stronger. I’ll go through them again and come out stronger, a better race car driver. What I’m not going to do is back down. I’m not going to get in the spot where I was in 2013 where, you know, I tried to be exactly what they all wanted me to be, because what they want me to be is a loser, and I’m not here to lose, I’m here to win. That means I’m going to have to drive my car, harder, stronger, faster than everybody out there. That’s what I feel like I did today. With a 10th‑ to 15th‑place car, we almost won today. That happened because of that attitude and that fight. That’s going to make some people mad because they don’t race that way. I understand that. Like I said, I’m not trying to dish something out I couldn’t take. The way I raced today is what I would define as great racing that defined this sport and I hope it will continue to define it for years to come. If a guy like me caves, whether it’s Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, list out the drivers that I’ve had run‑ins with, whenever they try to push back on me, if I cave, that will end that run in this sport, and that will be a shame. That would be a shame for everybody. It would be a shame for the history of this sport. It would be a shame for the fans that come here to see us race 100%. That’s what I did today. For that I’m not going to be ashamed. Would I be disappointed if I just dumped somebody to win the race? Yeah. I think you look through my history of racing, and that’s never been the case. That’s not the way I race. I don’t wreck people to win. I’ve been in incidents at the end of the race, but I could say with a clear mind and heart that they weren’t intentional, that they were all out going for the win and some things happen. Today something happened. There was a gap. It closed up. By the time it closed up, I was committed, and I stayed in it. That almost won me the race. It hurt somebody else’s day. That’s a shame. But the reality is there was a gap. You know, I’m not Dale Earnhardt or Senna. I read how they raced, how great they were for this sport. They would sit here and tell you they would go for that same gap. I’m not them, but I’m inspired by that, and I’m going to race that way.”
NOW YOU HAVE GUYS POSSIBLY GUNNING FOR YOU. DO YOU WORRY ABOUT THAT? “It doesn’t help. I’m not trying to sit here and sugarcoat it and try to be the intimidator, say they better not race, ta‑da, ta‑da, ta‑da. That’s not what I’m trying to say. My expectation is if there’s a gap, they’ll go for it. If there’s a gap, I’ll go for it. If it closes up, there’s contact, then that’s racing. And that’s what happened today. Intentional wrecking and whatnot, no, I don’t support that. I never have. I make it a point to try not to do it. I’m not always innocent of not doing it. I had the run‑in at Charlotte and so forth after the race. I could have intentionally during that race if I wanted to, it was frustrating not to do so, but didn’t. Will those guys race me hard or harder than others? Absolutely, I’m certain they will. But that’s just part of it. I can’t fault them for that. I just feel like I have to go for the gap if it’s there and I have to race the way I race or I won’t even be in NASCAR. I’d rather have enemies in NASCAR than have friends and be sitting at home.
QUESTION INAUDIBLE “The rhetoric gets pretty thick, you know. I’m sure that all plays into the intimidation factor or the attempt to intimidate. But going back to what I said earlier, you know, I’ve already gone much further than I thought I’d ever go in this sport with the mentality that I have. I’m not going to give up on it because there’s some resistance now. That would be a shame. That would be a tragedy. I’m going to continue to push forward with what I’m doing. It served me in the past and I believe it will serve me in the future.”
DO YOU RELISH BEING THE VILLAIN? A LOT OF FANS BOOED YOU. DO YOU ENJOY THAT ROLE? “Well, you know, I don’t necessarily enjoy being disliked. But it beats the alternative of not being known at all by a long ways. From my perspective, I think I’ve come to the reality that there’s a lot worse things in this world than me. If I’m a villain, the people that think I’m a villain have a pretty good life and should be proud of that. All this stuff that’s going on in the world, if your villain is me racing 100%, you’ve got it pretty good and I don’t feel too bad for you.”
DID YOU ACTUALLY GET HIT? “Yeah, I couldn’t even tell you what happened. Just a melee of people. I couldn’t tell you what happened after the race. That’s why there are cameras.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY QUALMS WITH HARVICK GETTING HIMSELF IN THERE AND TELLING YOU TO GO FIGHT YOUR OWN FIGHT? “I came here to race, not fight. If I wanted to be a fighter, I would have joined the UFC or have a management team like he does. I came here to race, 100-percent. That’s what I did today. The only thing I wouldn’t be proud of is if I went and started fights or jumped in fights. I wouldn’t be proud of that. I came here to race 100-percent. The people that want to see fights are not true race fans. They need to watch UFC because that’s not true racing. I know in my heart that I raced 100-percent and I did what should be done to be a professional race car driver.”
EARLY IN THE RACE, LAP 70 OR 65, IT WAS MENTIONED THAT YOU HAD PROBLEMS WITH VIBRATIONS. CAN YOU GET INTO MORE DETAILS. DID YOU EXPECT AT THAT TIME YOU MAYBE WOULD FINISH THIRD? IN THE END YOU HAD UNBELIEVABLE SPEED. “Yeah, every other run we’d have a vibration. It didn’t really add up. I don’t know the answer to your question. But it seemed to be intermittent. It could have been tires, could have been wheels or could have been a number of things. But I’m not sure at this time to answer your question fairly.”
SEVENTH IN POINTS HEADING TO PHOENIX NEXT WEEK. DO YOU APPROACH THE RACE AS YOU DID TODAY, EVEN THOUGH WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE RACE? “I think most likely we’re going to have to win Phoenix, just like I felt we were going to have to win here today. I’m sure there’s going to be some contact along the way, across the board. Everybody is very desperate. The points are very, very, very close. Anybody can have a bad day and be out of it. And that’s just the reality.”
PHOENIX, CAN YOU COMPARTMENTALIZE NOW AND FORGET ABOUT THIS, NOT GET OVERALL EMOTIONAL, TAKE A COLD, CLINICAL APPROACH TO PHOENIX? “If you can tell right now, I’m not too emotional about it. I’ve come to the reality of where I am in this sport, the fight it’s going to take for me to be a winner and a champion for years to come. Like I said, there’s going to be moments like this. I’ve been through them in the past. I’ll go through them in the future. I’ll come back each and every time as hard if not harder. That’s who I am, that’s what I’ll do. That’s what I plan to do next week and every week in my future.”
HOW DOES YOUR TEAM REACT TO THIS? IT’S GOING TO BE TALKED ABOUT FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK. “A lot of my strength personally comes from my team, whether that’s the guys how work on the team or my boss, Roger Penske. If Roger Penske came up to me tomorrow and said, Brad, you drove that race wrong, you shouldn’t have done what you did, it would affect me. But the management team at Penske tells me to drive the way I did and tells me there’s nothing to be ashamed of and continues to support me. And they’re my boss. My boss isn’t the other drivers in the field. My boss is them. As long as they’re on my side, I feel strong and I feel proud and encouraged to continue.”
WOULD YOUR TEAM BE ABLE TO FOCUS? “My team’s pretty strong, yeah. They’ll probably get a couple good laughs out of it and be even more hungry.”
DO YOU WORRY ABOUT WITH TWO RACES LEFT IF A DRIVER THAT YOU’VE PISSED OFF CAN’T WIN MAKES SURE HE DUMPS YOU? “Well, I think Jeff Gluck was alluding to that earlier. I’m going to be in this sport for a while. Got the safest cars in the world. Can take some pretty hard hits. I’ve taken them before. I’ll be back next week and they’ll have to face it. That’s not in their interest, just like it’s not in mine. If what I did was so wrong to those individuals, then they should race me back that same way. They have that ability and I wouldn’t be mad at them if they did. I didn’t go out there and intentionally wreck anybody or do any of that other hoopla. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s not the biggest concern in the world. Can it happen? Yes, absolutely. If it does happen, I’ll take it in stride and race ’em back the same way. That will be it.”
