Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Duck Commander 500 – Texas Motor Speedway
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Ford Finishing Results:
4th – Joey Logano
5th – Brad Keselowski
15th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – Greg Biffle
18th – Trevor Bayne
19th – Aric Almirola
26th – Sam Hornish Jr.
28th – David Gilliland
30th – Chris Buescher
31st – Michael McDowell
35th – Cole Whitt
42nd – Ryan Blaney
JEREMY BULLINS, Crew Chief – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “The bright side is I feel like we had a really good car. We made a couple changes there to make it a better long run car and after a couple of laps it looked like it really had speed and he was starting to move back up through the field. It just didn’t go our way. Obviously, something happened with the engine. I’m not sure exactly what because it’s hard to tell what happened first, so we just got to the point where we couldn’t keep going. It’s unfortunate. We’ve got a lot of power, so we won’t complain and we’ll go on and get ready for the next one.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “It’s hard racing. It’s understandable. We’re racing to the end of the race and I expect to get raced the way I race people and I would do the same thing, so it’s not a surprise there. I felt like I had to guard that position. I felt like if he got by me there I wouldn’t have the opportunity to get back by him and I felt like I would have lost the race that way. We’re all just racing for wins. We’ve got nothing to lose, so I felt like I made that move thinking, ‘Hey, I’ve got to win this race and do what I’ve got to do to win it.’” HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE NIGHT? “We recovered decent and I felt like at the beginning of the race and to the middle of the race we starting falling off, but we made some good adjustments and started getting some speed back in the car. We were all the way back to 11th at one point and got back to almost a winning car. We just needed a little bit more speed, but it’s fun. We were racing hard and doing everything we could do.” IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE OK WITH WHAT HARVICK DID. “It’s the end of the race. I blocked him and he got into me. I get it. Early in the race that’s not acceptable. End of the race we’re racing for the win. I’d do the same thing.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “We had a really strong car. It’s just that the 4, the 48 and at times the 88 was just a little bit stronger than both Joey and I. We did everything we could. We threw everything we could at them and just weren’t close enough speed-wise to get what we wanted out of it, but it was still a great day for the Miller Lite Ford and a lot to be proud of.” HOW DID YOUR NIGHT GO? “It was an up-and-down night. We led some laps early, faded in the middle and then found a little bit at the end and charged hard to get back up to fifth. I think we were a second or third-place car there at the end. It’s hard to say, but it was up and down. We just have to keep working and find a little more speed.” WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE COMMITMENT CONE VIOLATION? “I was trying to make my mind up and chose poorly.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion – “I definitely thought we had a better car than what we ran all night. Obviously, I sped on pit road there and cost us a lap, and then we were just fighting back from way behind. The cautions fell our way and we got some good breaks towards the end and made some better adjustments, and was able to salvage a 15th, so that was good.” THOUGHTS ON THIS NEW CAR? “I think we’ve got some more speed in it. We still have a lot of work to do. I think it definitely showed that we still need to work on it, but I do think we had a little bit more speed. We’ve got to get the handling a little bit better. I think we missed it there, but there’s still more speed we need to bring in these race cars, but I think we’ve got a step in the right direction.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “I think our whole weekend was an improvement. Other than not getting to practice the second practice, I think if we had that we had a top-15 opportunity this weekend. The whole race we managed to basically stay on the lead lap. We got the lucky dog twice fortunately, but we never had to take the wavearound or do anything like that. I felt like it was one of our better mile-and-a-half races we’ve had in a while. We finished 18th, but we were a couple adjustments away from being a top-15 car. To have the 17, the 16 and myself all in the top 18 I think the scoreboard shows it was an improvement in itself. Our qualifying effort was better this weekend. Obviously, we’re not gonna jump to the top of that pole in one weekend, so it’s gonna be small things. Honestly, I didn’t expect to see this big of a gain out of it, so I think it’s good.” SO YOU FEEL YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK? “Yeah, you have to get that little momentum every now and then. Momentum isn’t gonna make faster race cars, but it just gives the guys that have been working their butts off for the last two years a little bit of hope. We need that, so it’s really good for us. AdvoCare was here this weekend, so they got to hang out with us and we had a decent run, so we’ll take it and work with it. Obviously, 18th isn’t where we want to be at this point in the season, but for where we’ve been it’s an improvement and we’ll keep getting better.”
