Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 – Texas Motor Speedway
Friday, April 10, 2015
Ford Finishing Results
2nd – Brad Keselowski
6th – Darrell Wallace Jr.
9th – Chris Buescher
11th – Elliott Sadler
14th – Sam Hornish Jr.
15th – Ryan Reed
16th – Dakoda Armstrong
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – PIT ROAD INTERVIEW – HOW ABOUT THE LAST RESTART? “Erik had a great car and did a great job. We ran wide-open side-by-side for about two laps in a row and eventually he cleared me, so that was good racing. The Discount Tire Ford was really fast, just not quite enough.” IT WAS A CRAZY NIGHT. “Yeah, it was up and down, not quite where we wanted to be at the end. We wanted to win the race and had a great car to do so, but just came up one spot short. I’m very proud of the effort.” DID YOU THINK YOU HAD SOMETHING ON THAT FINAL RESTART? “I did and we ran wide-open there for the last two or three laps side-by-side and eventually he had a little more speed and cleared us.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang – “That was good. It was a bummer because I knew we were a little bit faster than that, we just didn’t have lateral grip pretty much the whole race. It was back and forth. It was tight in the center and a little free off and that’s the worse combination you can have, but Chad and the guys gave a hell of an effort this weekend. Huge thanks to AdvoCare for jumping on board our Ford Mustang and making this an exciting weekend. I definitely had a lot of fun and Texas never disappoints. It was a good rebound from the fall truck race I had here, so it wasn’t a win but we’ll take a sixth and build off this. It’s our best finish of the year for us in the XFINITY Series, so I’m just thankful for all of it.” WHAT ABOUT THE BATTLE WITH CHRIS AT THE END? “I’ve raced against Chris a while now in Legends cars and stuff, and it’s cool to be teammates with him. He’s an all-around great guy and I enjoy racing around him. He’ll be one of the ones battling for the championship. We were pretty close in speed and it showed there battling at the end. I had to use some lap traffic to get around him, so I felt pretty proud of myself on that one.”
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 Safety-Kleen Ford Mustang – YOU HIT THE WALL AT THE START BUT REBOUNDED FOR A TOP 10 FINISH. “That was dumb. That was my fault. I should know better and I messed up, so I apologize to these guys. They worked really hard on this Safety-Kleen Ford Mustang to get it back rolling and they did a great job. We’re sitting here talking and thinking, ‘Man, it’s probably a blessing to come home 10th,’ so that was a fun XFINITY race. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ve got a lot to learn and learned a lot tonight that we can apply to that one, so it was a chaotic night. I think we’re still second in points, so we didn’t lose anything. I’m happy they can’t blame me for too much there, but it’s my bad and I can’t do that again.” WHAT WAS IT LIKE RACING BUBBA DOWN THE STRETCH AND A COUPLE OTHER GUYS? “It came down there to the end and we got tight. That was kind of the trend for us and it probably had a lot to do with the fact I got in the wall early. We didn’t have a very good aero package after that and I take the blame for that. That was on me, but the guys did a good job getting that Safety-Kleen Mustang back in good shape and we were able to race our way back up into the top five at one point. Coming down to the closing laps we lost a little bit and went to a little tighter side. That was kind of the trend for the night, but we had a good recovery.” WHAT HAPPENED AT THE START? “On the start our row really got checked up because somebody spun the tires and went down into one and everybody was checked up and went to the outside and coming off the corner I just lost the air on the nose and it was my fault. I knew better than to be racing that hard that early.” WHAT ABOUT THIS STRETCH OF RACING? “I’m looking forward to it. Those two off weeks were nice, but we’re ready to get back racing. We gained a little bit on the points lead again today, so we’re ready to get back to it.” HOW WAS IT RACING AGAINST BUBBA – A TEAMMATE BUT POINTS TITLE CONTENDER AS WELL? “Yeah, I think it’s like that for everybody. We’re all running for this championship, so you race everybody as hard as you can and as clean as you can and when it comes down to the last couple of laps it’s kind of anybody’s game.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI AND DARRELL WALLACE JR. PRESS CONFERENCE
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “That wasn’t really a pass because he started in front of me, but it was good side-by-side racing there with the double-file restart. We ran wide-open there and that’s always cool when you’re running wide-open in one of these things side-by-side and it was just a matter of who was gonna lift first and neither of us lifted and he just cleared me and drove by me. It’s just part of the deal. He had a great car and Erik did a really fantastic job today, but we just came up a bit short today. I thought we were pretty strong at times and maybe had something for him. We got a little bit of damage on that last pit stop cycle, which I think probably hurt us a little bit, but who knows? All in all it was a good race, kind of up and down and recovering from some different track position battles with the start of the race and then someone got off in the grass in front of me on one of the cycles there and had to pit and clear that off. It was up and down and just barely missed it there at the end.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang – “Texas has been a good place to me. I take that back, the fall race I’m still holding a grudge because we blew up in the truck, but it was a good bounceback off our little spring break there and from the California race. It’s a good sixth-place finish and I think it’s the best one for me in the XFINITY Series, so I’m glad to be able to do that with Roush Fenway and also having AdvoCare on board. So that was an exciting night for us having those guys here and being able to put on a great show for them. I helped Brad out on one of those restarts and pushed him out there, but we just got shuffled back there on the late runs and couldn’t get back up there.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT BOUNCING BACK AND WHAT’S UP WITH THE LIMP? “I’m getting old (laughter). I do that after every race. It’s just from sitting there so long, so it’s nothing new. I could not go on the bottom. I hated the bottom. I told Freddie Kraft, the spotter, ‘Get me up as clear as you can.’ Him and I have worked well together the last three or four years and he knows we work well on the top, so he cleared me as soon as possible, we were able to get a couple guys there and make some hay, but everytime I got on the bottom I said I wasted like eight years down there, so I couldn’t get off the corner like the other guys could. I was losing a little bit of lateral (grip) all night long and it never helps when you’re trapped on the bottom.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – DID IT CROSS YOUR MIND ERIK IS 18? “No. We’re all racing and racing is a very selfish sport, so you don’t spend a lot of time worrying about others. I’ve watched him race in the Truck Series and he does a great job. He’s certainly right there with what that youth movement kind of demands to be successful, so this is certainly a huge notch in his belt so I’m happy for him.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR. CONTINUED – CAN YOU ASSESS WHERE YOUR TEAM IS NOW? “We’re growing and that’s the biggest thing. We’re showing progression each and every week and that’s all I can ask for. They keep bringing me fast Ford Mustangs to the race track and our time will come soon. I’m excited for the next coming races, Bristol and Richmond. Those are good tracks to me. I’ve got to finish one spot better than Bristol last year to this guy, so I’ve got a little motivation going into there, so it will be fun.”
Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 – Texas Motor Speedway
Friday, April 10, 2015
Page 6
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – IS PART OF THE FEAR OF GETTING OUT OF A CAR THE FEAR SOMEONE LIKE ERIK JONES MIGHT GET IN? “Yeah. It’s not a good time to sit out of a car, I can tell you that. I think you see that in this sport through periods of time where you go through spells where it seems like there’s no one new coming up and then you go through spells where it seems everybody coming up seems new. Probably the last five or 10 years before this it didn’t seem like there was anybody really new coming up probably all the way back to ’06 or ’07. I think I saw a stat from Nate Ryan that the top 10 in Cup points was the same from 2003 as it was in ’13, but in that sense it seems to be changing very rapidly here in this last year or so, and I would definitely not disagree with what you said – it’s a bad time to get hurt because there’s plenty of youth right now in this sport.”
BUT IT SEEMS GUYS ARE MORE RESISTANT TO GETTING OUT OF THE SEAT FOR FEAR OF THE GUY AROUND THE CORNER COULD BE BETTER. “That’s always existed to the point where you don’t want to get out of the seat because you’re worried about getting replaced, but that’s part of it. I know a lot of it is I just don’t want to get out of the seat because I love racing and I don’t know how to make money doing anything else. I think everyone has their own motivation. It’s not something I sit and worry about, but maybe some others do.”
IS THERE SOMETHING ABOUT THIS TRACK THAT LENDS ITSELF TO YOUNG GUYS RUNNING WELL? CHASE ELLIOTT WON LAST YEAR AND ERIK THIS YEAR. “No, I don’t really see that. I don’t think there’s anything special to that. I just think they’re good drivers and have put forth great efforts and they have a lot to be proud of. I used to think Kentucky was that way, but usually the stand-alone races you could maybe make a case for that but not the companion events.”
