Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Daytona 500 – Daytona International Speedway
Saturday, February 22, 2015
FORD SWEEPS DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS WITH DAYTONA 500 VICTORY
• Today’s win in the Daytona 500 was the 14th overall for Ford in “The Great American Race.”
• Today’s Daytona 500 win is the first for Joey Logano.
• This marks the first time Ford has swept all of NASCAR’s top three touring divisions in the same weekend since last August at Bristol Motor Speedway.
• Ford remains undefeated at Daytona International Speedway in 2015, running its streak to four with today’s win. In addition to winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck and NASCAR XFINITY Series races this weekend, Ford also won the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona last month.
• In addition, this is the first time Ford has swept the NASCAR Camping World Truck, NASCAR XFINITY and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races during Speedweeks.
Ford Daytona 500 Race Winners (Owner):
1963 – Tiny Lund (Wood Brothers)
1965 – Fred Lorenzen (Holman-Moody)
1967 – Mario Andretti (Holman-Moody)
1969 – LeeRoy Yarbrough (Junior Johnson)
1978 – Bobby Allison (Bud Moore)
1985 – Bill Elliott (Harry Melling)
1987 – Bill Elliott (Harry Melling)
1992 – Davey Allison (Robert Yates)
1996 – Dale Jarrett (Robert Yates)
2000 – Dale Jarrett (Robert Yates)
2009 – Matt Kenseth (Jack Roush)
2011 – Trevor Bayne (Wood Brothers)
2012 – Matt Kenseth (Jack Roush)
2015 – Joey Logano (Roger Penske)
Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Daytona 500 – Daytona International Speedway
Saturday, February 22, 2015
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Ford Finishing Order:
1st – Joey Logano
10th – Greg Biffle
11th – David Gilliland
12th – Sam Hornish Jr.
15th – Aric Almirola
17th – David Ragan
22nd – Cole Whitt
26th – Bobby Labonte
29th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
30th – Trevor Bayne
31st – Michael McDowell
39th – Ryan Blaney
41st – Brad Keselowski
JOEY LOGANO – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW
“What an amazing moment. Wow. To win this race is just amazing. I have the best team on pit road for sure. These guys are awesome. My spotter did a great job giving me the information I need to get our front and stay out front before that last caution and be able to have a good restart there at the end. I knew I had the 15 behind me and Clint Bowyer was the best pusher I could find out there and was able to push me to the lead and I knew I wanted the outside to make sure he was behind me to work up there again.”
WHAT ABOUT THE PASS FOR THE LEAD BEFORE THE LAST CAUTION AND THEN THE AGONY OF THE RED FLAG? “The agony is that you just – I keep looking at this trophy behind you and it is amazing. What a beauty. Now I lost my train of thought. I am sorry. I am so distracted right now. We got the push that got us out front and that was just Clint pushing hard. He wasn’t lifting before he got to my bumper, he was slamming into the back bumper and that is what we needed to get this Ford out front and here in victory lane.”
COMING TO THE WHITE FLAG BEFORE THE CAUTION, YOU LOOK IN YOUR MIRROR, WHAT DO YOU SEE AND WHAT WAS THE PLAN TO STAY OUT FRONT? “You see cars, a lot of cars and I saw that we were single file the first three cars and I knew that was a good thing because it would be harder for them to form a run. Then I saw them crash in the mirror but I had a distance to go and I thought that was good because it was still going to be harder for them to catch up without as many cars in the pack. Then the caution came out anyway. That feeling of winning the Daytona 500, I can’t explain how cool this is. I said in an interview that this was our worst race track last year and we worked really hard to figure out how we could get better at it and all the hard work got us the win today.”
AS A KID WHO DREAMED OF DOING THIS, HOW DOES THE REALITY FEEL? “It feels just like the way you dream it. This is better than Disney World in here!”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – ANY INDICATION YOU WERE HAVING A PROBLEM? “No. It just broke, but when it broke I knew it broke because it broke pretty big, which is a shame for the Miller Lite Ford. It is what it is. We had a good car. We were in position in the top five, top 10 and was just kind of counting down some laps and getting ready for a crazy finish, and just wanted to be there for it, but, unfortunately, that’s not gonna happen.”
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE WHEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS? “It scares the crap out of you to be honest. It’s a big explosion and you’re sitting right next to it, so it’s not fun. Once you get recovered from that, then all you can think about is you had a shot to win the race and that’s pretty cool.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion — ANY HINT THE ENGINE WAS GOING TO GO? “Sometimes they’ll vibrate bad or lose a bunch of power a couple of laps before they go, but this one just went.”
THOUGHTS WHEN YOU HAD THE INCIDENT WITH THE WALL EARLY IN THE RACE. “I thought we were going to be OK. I couldn’t see how bad it was hurt. They said it was OK. It was a little tight, effecting the tow and aero and stuff. After they worked on it, it got better. I thought we were going to race good up there and we were until the engine blew up. They did a good job fixing it up after the 14 got into us. It’s just an unfortunate deal. I thought we were close enough to the front where that wouldn’t happen. He changed lanes and it got tight. It was tight in (turn) 4 all day. We weren’t running bad, especially after that incident with Tony. We just wanted to get to the last 25 laps and be in a good spot.”
DID YOU CONSIDER THIS WAS POSSIBLE AFTER BRAD LOST HIS ENGINE? “For a second, I said to myself I hope no one else had a problem. And I hope no one else does after this.” OVERALL THOUGHTS ON FIRST DAYTONA 500 “We had a good showing. We started off great. Got some damage, worked our way back forward. It didn’t end like we wanted it to but we’ve got Vegas in a couple of weeks where I think we can really show what we can do.”
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 9 Twisted Tea Ford Fusion – DID YOU THINK IT WAS GOING TO BE A LONG DAY WHEN YOU HAD A/C PROBLEMS EARLY? “Yeah, I did. I thought it was gonna be a long day regardless, but our Twisted Tea Ford Fusion was really good if we could just be in the right lane. We were able to work our way up there at the midway point or three-quarter point of the race and we had a restart with about 50 to go where I had a run and just decided better of it. That kind of hurt us for the whole rest of the race because we could never get to where we needed to be. Hats off to everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports for doing such a good job for me. I’m looking forward to keep going. I thank everybody at Roush Yates and Ford Performance. They gave us a car that had a lot of horsepower.”
HOW ABOUT THE INTENSITY OF THE LAST 10 LAPS? “It was big-time, that’s for sure. I wanted to be up there a little bit further. I kept having to bide my time because even with 10 laps to go it’s really not time to go if you’re not in a position where you could win, so I thought it would be better to try to take care of the car and figured something was gonna happen, and I was really close to most all of it.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Ortho Ford Fusion – “It’s a little disappointing because we want to win the Daytona 500. It just seemed like our car didn’t quite have the speed it needed. I really struggled to try and stay in line and handling was a huge issue. My car was so tight. I absolutely couldn’t stay in the gas around the corner, which I was completely shocked about that.”
WERE YOU BOXED IN DOWN THE STRETCH? DID YOU HAVE ANYWHERE TO GO? “There was nothing I could do at the end because I was totally boxed in. We had a good run, but the 13 and the 15 split each other down there and we were dead.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – “I’m very proud of our effort with our Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion. Working with Donnie Wingo was a lot of fun today. I think we learned a lot throughout the race and he kept working on the car to where I felt like it needed to drive for us at the end of the race and we got it really good and were able to get up there and dice it out. I felt like it was really good. I’m really proud of the Front Row Motorsports team effort today. All three of our cars are in one piece, which I don’t think that’s ever happened. I’m proud of that and proud of our effort today.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE LAST 10 LAPS? “You can’t describe it from the seat. It’s just the most intense thing you’ve ever done or thought of doing times 10. Your teeth are gritted, you’re just hanging on to the wheel and it’s intense, but a lot of fun. I enjoy it and I thought it was great racing, a clean race. There weren’t a lot of accidents and everybody raced really hard, so I hope the fans enjoyed it.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 KFC Ford Fusion – “We had a decent handling car and maybe lacked a little speed at times, but we were conservative at the beginning and just kind of rode around some. Maybe that hurt us a little right through the center part of the race, maybe I could have been a little more aggressive to try and stay in that top 15 or 20 because that’s where you’ve got to be. When everybody was three-by-three-by-three at the end of the race there just wasn’t any room to go, so I’m proud we were able to finish and not tear up anything with our KFC Ford. We had a lot of excitement down here during Speedweeks and unless you can win or run in the top five or six you want a car in one piece, so we’ll tune on it and get ready for Talladega. I’m proud of our Front Row Motorsports team. I had a lot of fun and we’ll just look at our strategy a little different for next time.”
COLE WHITT, No. 35 Speed Stick GEAR Ford — “Our Speed Stick GEAR Ford wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to do what we needed to. Our car just seemed to stall out when we’d get 10th or 13th in line. Sometimes the handling was part of that, but I think we got the handling figured out towards the end. We just tried to be smooth and start the season off with some good points. That was our goal, and I think we came out pretty good for the day.”
