Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Geico 500 Qualifying – Talladega Superspeedway
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Ford Qualifying Results:
3rd – Ryan Blaney
12th – Sam Hornish Jr.
15th – Brad Keselowski
20th – Greg Biffle
21st – Joey Logano
26th – Trevor Bayne
28th – Aric Almirola
29th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
38th – Chris Buescher
39th – David Gilliland
41st – Cole Whitt
44th – Michael McDowell
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Fresh From Florida Ford Fusion – “I thought in the draft in practice our car was really good. I was really happy with the way it drove and drafted and it got good runs. It did all of the things I was really looking for, so I’m happy with that. Qualifying is what it is, so we’ll get ready to go race.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Farm Rich Ford Fusion – “I think it’s gonna be a great race, it always is. I love racing out there at Talladega and I’m excited to have Farm Rich on our car. I’ve never been to Victory Lane, but that particular paint scheme has with my teammate David Ragan a couple of years ago. I’m excited. I think the car drafted really well. When it comes to single-car speed our cars never have really had a ton of speed by themselves, but they drive really well, draft good, suck up good, all the important stuff it takes. We worked on that a lot yesterday and I can’t wait to get going.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion – HOW MUCH BETTER IS THIS THAN WHAT YOU WENT THROUGH IN OCTOBER? “It’s better. It’s definitely, for me, obviously I like it a lot better. We’re still not near as fast as we want to be, so you’ll always be disappointed and find ways to be disappointed. All in all, I’m definitely glad they made the change to go back to this format. I love getting up to speed and just one lap. That helps it go by a little bit quicker for the fans and I think that was really one of the big processes is it took so long to do three full laps around here for us and qualifying took forever, so I definitely like it. I definitely feel a lot better about it and we’ll go race tomorrow. I feel pretty good about our Fifth Third Ford. It drafted really well yesterday and it doesn’t really matter where you start.” CONSIDERING WHERE YOU ARE IN POINTS IS IT CHECKERS OR WRECKERS? “It’s all-out. We talk about it every week in our meetings and this being one of them is we’re gonna be as aggressive as we can be. Obviously, you have to be around at the end to do that. Brad was 16th with nine laps to go and you can make your way to the front. Talladega is a lot more forgiving than Daytona as far as being a little bit wider. You’re able to make some more moves and get up through the field, so like I said earlier if we end up on our roof, we end up on our roof, but as long as we have a shot at the win, we’re gonna give it all we’ve got. This is our best chance to get in the Chase. This is a lot of people’s best chance to get in the Chase and if we can do that, we’re gonna take advantage of it.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “I don’t know if frustrating is the word, but it’s just one part of the weekend and it’s a long weekend. The most important part of it will be the last lap on Sunday, so it’s good at least with this format to know you’re not gonna tear up your car and hopefully we can carry that forward to the race when it ends.” EXPECTATIONS FOR TOMORROW? “We expect to run up front and be a contender and with Talladega from there it’s just where the cards fall.” HOW AGGRESSIVE WILL IT BE AT THE END OF THE RACE? “I think we’re very fortunate to be in the position where if we wreck it doesn’t really hurt us. Talladega, it seems like you have to take those chances to win for sure. You’re not just gonna fall into this race without taking chances, so that’s part of the fun of this track and part of the excitement of watching it and we’re certainly ready for that challenge.” WHAT’S YOUR PLAN OF ATTACK TOMORROW? “Copy, past last fall. That’s my plan of attack.” BUT YOU DON’T WANT TO BE 16TH WITH NINE LAPS TO GO. “No, not really. That part wasn’t great, but we made it through. I wouldn’t change the result. If you could do it perfectly, you’d lead every lap. That’s a perfect driver rating and that’s what you’ll attain for, but at the end it’s more important to lead the last lap than lead the 187 before it.” DO YOU LIKE THIS FORM OF RACING? SO MUCH SEEMS TO BE OUT OF YOUR CONTROL? “I just like racing in general. There’s always gonna be things that aren’t in your control. That’s what makes racing what it is, and certainly with restrictor plates there is less in your control in the sense of the field and some of the moves that you rely upon them to make. But there’s also a little bit more in your control in the sense of the equalization of the draft rate, so I think you can look at it in both a positive fashion and a negative fashion.”
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 34 CSX Ford Fusion – “This CSX guys did a good job. We were pretty good in drafting practice yesterday, so we’re looking forward to getting in the race and getting back in that draft and see what we’ve got.” HOW DIFFERENT ARE THE TWO CARS? “Hardly at all. Honestly, you just feel a little bit more power and that’s it. Other than that, they drive just about the same. It’s honestly, a little bit boring going around there in single-car qualifying, but it’s a whole lot less stressful than the way it used to be.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “As we all know it doesn’t really matter where you start here at Talladega. Daytona obviously has a little bit more importance to qualifying being it’s a more narrow race track, but here you can run four-wide late in the race. I would have liked to see more single-car speed out of our AdvoCare Fusion. I think that does relate to race-ability and single-car speed makes for speed in the pack. I would have liked to see a little bit more out of it, but I know we’re gonna figure it out and get our speedway cars a little quicker here. We’ll work our way to the front and that definitely won’t keep us from having a chance to win this race this weekend.”
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 9 Medallion Bank Ford Fusion – “You get greedy. You always want to be a little bit better. We started this and were just looking to hopefully be in the top 12, so at the end of the day we accomplished our goal for today, but to be ninth at the end of the single-car stuff I wish we’d have just been done there. The guys at RPM put some good time and effort into this car and tried to make sure we had a fast race car to come here and qualify with hand I felt like it was pretty decent all-in-all. I’m just excited to get in the race tomorrow and see if we can get our Medallion Bank Ford up there and have a good run.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “We’ve got good speed. That’s cool. We’ve got pretty good speed in our Ford and it’s just nice to be back with this Wood Brothers team. To have Motorcraft and Quick Lane back on the race track is really cool, so I’ve definitely been itching to get back to the track and it’s cool to finally be back here and have a good car, too. We’ve got a good starting spot and hopefully we’ll be able to run all the laps tomorrow and not have any issues and stay out of trouble. This team really needs a good finish. After having a good car at Texas and blowing up early that really kind of brought us down, so we’ll try to run all the laps tomorrow and see if we can pick this team up a little bit before Charlotte.” YOU’RE STARTING UP FRONT. WHAT’S THE SECRET TO STAYING THERE TOMORROW? “You know you’re gonna get shuffled to the back at least once or twice during the race and you’ve just got to find a way to work your way back up through there. It definitely doesn’t hurt to start up front and get a good pit stall and everything like that. It’s not bad, but we’re just gonna focus on running all the laps.” PRESS CONFERENCE – “I’m pretty happy with the speed compared to our teammates. We had a lot more speed than they did. Everyone at the Wood Brothers team did a great job today and it’s nice to be back at the race track, especially after a bad weekend at Texas, blowing up on like lap 18. It’s nice to be back and know we have some good speed. You can’t really carry much of that over into the race, but at least you get a good starting spot, good pit stall and you’ve got stuff to look forward to. We’ll try to stay out of trouble. I think that’s gonna be the big thing for us is trying to run all the laps because we’ve blown up in two or three races this year and it’s gonna be big for this team just to finish a race and run everything. I think we’ve got a good car and we’ll see where it brings us tomorrow.” DO YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE SINCE TREVOR WENT OUT AND WON THE 500? “No, there’s no pressure. I’m just happy to get the opportunities that I have. I’ve been really fortunate and lucky to be with a great organization like the Wood Brothers and bring them over to Team Penske and be able to share their resources and their information. There’s no pressure. We’re just out here having a good time and we’re just glad to be here and glad to be racing. It’s great weather, too. You usually come here and it sometimes rains and I was so happy when it was good weather. To answer your question, there’s no pressure. We’re just out here to have a good time and hopefully it will bring us luck in the race.”
