Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 – Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Ford Finishing Order:
4th – Joey Logano
9th – Brad Keselowski
11th – Aric Almirola
19th – Trevor Bayne
21st – Sam Hornish Jr.
22nd – David Gilliland
25th – Greg Biffle
27th – Michael McDowell
33rd – Joe Nemechek
36th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
37th – Cole Whitt
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “We had a decent Shell/Pennzoil Ford and my guys on pit road were amazing. Every time I came on pit road they had some fast stops. I’m glad to see they brought their A-game. We raced hard and raced up toward the front all day. Those Hendrick cars are fast, and obviously the 4 car, but the other guys would just take off and leave me. I did everything I could to maintain on restarts and be aggressive and that’s where we ended up. Overall, we kept the momentum rolling. We’re having a good start to the season, so we’ll keep her going.” WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR THE 4, 88 and 48? “I had nothing for them. They were so fast. I was sitting there watching them in front of me and trying to keep up and doing everything I could, but it’s hard because you want to run hard, but also save your stuff for the long run. At the end of the race we were all running hard and I couldn’t keep up with them. They were fast.” THE INTENSITY AT THE END WAS STRONG. “That’s what happens on a late-race restart. The intensity goes up a lot.” WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE START OF THE RACE WHEN YOU WERE STRONG AND THE END? “Everyone got better and our car drove good the whole time. I was like, ‘I don’t know. My car drives good. There’s nothing really to fix.’ It’s kind of frustrating when your car drives good and they’re still faster. We’ve still got a little bit of work to do to figure out this package, but I think we’re close.” THOUGHTS ON THE NEW RULES PACKAGE AND TRACK BAR KNOB? “Yeah, we used the heck out of it today and I’m sure everybody did. I was able to fix most of it, not all of it, but most of it I could fix in the car and the rest of it is up to Todd and he got me a decent balance by the end.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion – “We were just kind of up and down and floating all day long. At one point, I thought we were gonna have a 15th-place day and towards the end I thought we were gonna have a fifth-place day. We cycled out to a ninth-place finish, which wasn’t our best and wasn’t our worst today. It just was what it was.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Fresh From Florida Ford Fusion – “I was happy with how our weekend went. We were the best we were right there in the race all weekend. I’m really proud of Trent Owens and all the guys on the team. They brought me a really good Fresh From Florida Ford Fusion and we just really worked on it all race. We fired off the race and I was really happy with the car and then as the track changed we just tried to keep up with the track. We got a little bit behind right before halfway and then we got it back, so I’m proud of this run and proud to start this season off with two top-15 finishes. That’s kind of been our goal going into the season is to not start in such a big hole like we did last year. Last year I think going into the third or fourth race we were outside the top 30 in points, so so far, so good. I’m proud of the guys and we’ll get ready for Vegas.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion – “I think the 16 and 34 got together, something up front there. I was committed to the top and got in the brakes and got in the back of the 15, which was down on power I guess. And then a lot of smoke and somebody was in front of me as I was still on the brake and went ahead and ended our day. Our Fifth Third Bank Ford wasn’t near as good as what we wanted. We were running in the back and had gotten a little bit better throughout the day, just not near as good as what we wanted.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “The beginning of the race we were decent. It was just track position and all the cautions, and that was the biggest thing was track position at the beginning of the race, and in the middle of the race we freed up the car a lot and then about that time we had a long green flag run and the track took rubber and it loosened up even more, so we were just way too loose for the middle 100 laps – and then we got it tightened back up at the end and we could start making ground. It just put us behind on that long green flag run, being the one run we were bad we went a couple laps down and could never get it back. We raced with the 55 there and some of those guys pretty hard the first half of the race and they finished eighth, so we’ve got to put together a whole race. Overall, I thought we executed pretty well for this being our first time working together at a real race track.” DO YOU SEE THE PIECES BEING PUT INTO PLACE AT ROUSH FENWAY FOR FUTURE SUCCESS? “I see a lot of people trying to work together and that’s where it starts. We obviously haven’t seen any results as far as speed is concerned. We showed up and we were not where we want to be on the speed charts all weekend with our whole group and during the race the 16, 17 and myself were battling it out two laps down. That’s not where we want our group to be. If there was just one car back there and the other guys were up front we could make some adjustments and get that car up there, but when they’re all in the middle of the pack we need to go to work. Everybody understands that and we’ve just got to work together.” WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK BAR? “It makes some difference, but not for what I needed today.”
COLE WHITT – No. 35 Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters Ford Fusion – “At least I thought we were running pretty decent for this being our first run with this team. It probably exceeded my expectations in the race a little bit. It was nice to run with some of those fast cars and get up there and mix it up with the Roush cars and some of the other good cars. I thought we were good on the long run and our car only got better. Even when it started laying down, we still were running the same speed as a lot of the cars we were racing around. Unfortunately, it finally let go completely but at least we were fast.”
