Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Geico 500 – Talladega Superspeedway
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Ford Finishing Results:
4th – Ryan Blaney
6th – Sam Hornish
10th – Josh Wise
13th – Cole Whitt
15th – Aric Almirola
20th – David Gilliland
22nd – Brad Keselowski
24th – Chris Buescher
26th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27th – Bobby Labonte
33rd – Joey Logano
37th – Greg Biffle
41st – Trevor Bayne
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “I haven’t seen it yet, but it felt like the 27 was really tight on our door and sucked us around. Our car was a little loose, but we had a fast race car today. I hate that a lot of cars got torn up, but especially our AdvoCare Ford. I felt like we worked our way in the top five a couple times there, and had a good shot at running well in this thing. The air is so sensitive here. Anything, when you get too close to somebody it can just pull you right around and it’s as much as hitting somebody physically when you get down on their door that tight and it’s just gonna happen.” SO THERE WASN’T ANYTHING YOU COULD DO IN THAT SITUATION KNOWING HE WAS COMING ON YOUR OUTSIDE? “There’s nothing you can do, really. You can lift and try to hang onto it, but there’s nothing you can do.” YOU WERE UP FRONT EARLY TOO. “I thought we had a really fast car compared to Daytona and I thought we were gonna have a shot to run top five here today. We made our way to the front a couple times and then the 27 just pulled down really tight on our door. When you have that much momentum going by on the outside you’ve got to have a pocket in between your cars or it’s going to suck you around. I hate that everybody got torn up, but especially our AdvoCare Ford.” IS IT TYPICAL TALLADEGA? “It’s typical Talladega anytime you come out of the infield care center it seems like. It’s easy to get torn up here if you’re doing everything right or if you do something wrong. I didn’t feel like we had much in our control there today. Maybe I could have got down a little bit before the 27 came by, but it all happened so fast. We just got really loose and that’s gonna happen here. I think handling is becoming an issue here at Talladega, so the cars are moving around a lot more. I did think it was a little early to have Talladega crashes already. I thought we were all fine to ride around the top and then the bottom lane came and you’ve got to get in where you fit in and try to make moves when everybody else is, but we were minding our own business there and I hate that we got torn up.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “It was a good day. We had a fast car and a good starting spot. We went back a couple times and came back up through there. It was tough at the end because they were all single file for a long time. It was hard to get a run. I saw the 11 coming and I just didn’t react fast enough, and that really would only have worked if we got by the 88 and the 48. I don’t think we could have got by them. They would have just pulled down and blocked us, so it was a good day. At least we finished one after having a couple blown motors. It’s good to get a good finish with these guys and we’re really excited to go to Charlotte.” WERE YOU GOING TO MAKE A MOVE AT SOME POINT TO TRY AND PASS FOR THE WIN? “I knew the 11 was going to and I kept looking at him to see if he was laying back and starting to get a run because the 48 wasn’t really laying back at all to try and get a on the 88, so I just kept watching the 11. I didn’t think he laid back enough to get a big run. The 4 must have pushed him like crazy to get by me, but it was a good day. I was trying to do what the 11 did, but it just didn’t really work out.” YOU WERE UP FRONT ALL DAY. HOW STRONG WAS THE CAR? “We had a good car. We were pretty loose early and Jeremy Bullins did a great job of tightening us up a good bit. That really allowed us to race hard through there, but you’ve got to go through that rookie deal in the beginning, even the middle of the race nobody wants to go with you. Luckily, about three-quarters of the way through the race we made a couple strong moves and guys went with us, and I think that helped put us in position later in the race for guys sticking with us. The yellow stripes back there don’t help out at all, but hopefully this helps us out for the next Daytona.”
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 9 Medallion Bank Ford Fusion – “It was a really good day. I felt like we were gonna have more of an opportunity to try to at least get a top five out of it or maybe to win, but some of the other guys made their move a little bit quicker than what I thought that they were going to and that really kind of stuck us on the outside. I thought the outside lane would have stayed together a little bit more when we lost a couple of those guys going to the bottom, but, all in all, our Medallion Bank Ford handled really well and I’m just really proud of everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports. They gave us a fast race car and just tried to be real smart with it and understand what we needed to do today and get some points. I don’t know what would have happened if we would have had another couple laps or anything like that, but I know that it was exciting. There was so much three-wide, side-by-side racing and then all of a sudden everybody just moved to the top and got right where they wanted to be. It was like, ‘OK, what’s gonna happen?’ And then coming to the white flag everybody started moving around again and started to make some pretty big moves. I wish I would have been a little more heads-up on being a little bit more proactive with that, but this is only my second restrictor plate race back in the Cup Series in almost five years, so I feel like it was a good thing for us to try to be smart and follow people a little bit more than trying to be the leader. As time goes by you get a little bit more respect and a little bit more help.” WERE YOU SURPRISED IT GOT SINGLE FILE LIKE THAT LATE? “You think it’s just a matter of getting the right car up there leading and the right car pushing him and when the 35 chose to be on the outside and put us two together on that last restart, put those guys together, maybe that was the first time that they were really together I that order. We’re strong enough that it was gonna make it very hard for anybody to try to make anything happen on the bottom. You kept waiting for it to happen all day where everybody was just gonna jump up to the top and have a good run. At the end of the day, you know it should happen at some point in time, I was just surprised that it took that long for it to actually come about.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – “We had to come back in for gas and gave up about 10 spots under green. We had a fueling malfunction in the back of our car from the start of the race, so we couldn’t get it full of gas, so we gave up some spots there. At the end track position is just so important that we weren’t able to do what we wanted to do at the end. But 20th isn’t terrible. It’s not a bad points day. We’ll take it.”
COLE WHITT – No. 35 Speed Stick Ford Fusion – “My car ran against the wall really well. It didn’t really run the bottom or the middle very good, so my plan was I know that’s where I needed to be. I was gonna be right up against the fence and whoever was in my way I was going to push them forward. The 17 seemed to be committed to that as well, so I was hoping just to push Ricky as far as I could and then all of that stuff started happening and I was looking for holes to get through. I snaked through there and it all worked out. I’m glad Josh (Wise) had a good run, a couple of underdog Fords get up there and get some good finishes. That’s what Talladega is for, so I’m just happy we could get a good run and hopefully we can get some momentum built for the year because I think we can get back on those top 25s. I know we can run, we just have to start proving it.”
RYAN BLANEY PRESS CONFERENCE – TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN. “We had a good car all day. We had speed in qualifying and we had a run up front a little bit during the day and we got shuffled to the back a few times and were able to work our way back up through there. I learned a little bit throughout the race to kind of know what to do to get back to the front. We really were kind of lucky to be in that position towards the end of the race and I think we made a couple good moves about three-quarters of the way through and guys started to go with us a little bit more and luckily the moves that we were making worked out to where guys trust you a little bit more. I think that helped us get in the right spot for the end of the race. I knew Denny was gonna make a move. I thought he was gonna do it later than what he did, but I didn’t think he had a big enough run to get to us and pull out and pass us, but luckily Sam Hornish picked me up there on the frontstretch and we were able to get back up through there. Not a bad day after blowing up at Daytona and Texas. It’s nice to get a good finish for these guys.”
WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD RIDING SINGLE FILE? WERE YOU MORE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON BEHIND YOU OR WERE YOU FORMULATING A PLAN TO TRY AND PASS THE GUYS IN FRONT OF YOU? “I was really more focused on Denny. I knew he was gonna make a move eventually and I was just trying to see if he was laying back to try and get a run. I just didn’t know when that was gonna happen. I figured it was gonna be with one or two to go and that’s all I was really concerned about is trying to look in the mirror and make sure you don’t get left out, which we did unfortunately, but it’s really all I was thinking about was trying to stay in front of the guy when he makes that move because if I make it by myself, no one is gonna go with me. They’d just fill the hole, so I was kind of at Denny’s mercy right there, but we were just a little bit too late pulling out in front of him.”
DID YOU HAVE ANYBODY IN MIND THAT MIGHT HAVE GONE WITH YOU IF YOU DROPPED DOWN TO TRY AND PASS? “It’s kind of what Jimmie was saying with the previous question – you’re kind of just protecting your running position. If you go too soon, no one is really gonna go with you. There was maybe a 10 percent chance Denny would have gone with me, and that might have dragged more guys, but it was gonna be tough to do that and get a big enough run to get by Jimmie, one, and Dale is a whole other story because he can just block your lane. I didn’t really think anybody was gonna go with me and, like I said, I was kind of at the mercy of whatever Denny did there.”
CARL EDWARDS WAS UPSET THAT NOBODY SLOWED DOWN WHEN HE WRECKED AT THE END AND EVEN THOUGH THE CAUTION DIDN’T FLY, IS THERE A PROTOCOL INVOLVED WITH THAT? “The only thing I can say about that is half of it is the guys want to get past the wreck as quick as possible, and I think that’s half the reason why you see them wide-open is because they’re afraid of him coming back down the race track or coming up the race track. They don’t want to get collected in it. I didn’t see how he spun, if he was right in the middle of the track or what, but I think that’s really most of the reason is guys just want to get by it and they don’t want to get caught up in it.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE FAN REACTION AFTER THE RACE? “I looked up through the tri-oval coming to the checkered and I think everybody was on their feet. It’s cool to see the atmosphere. It’s cool when you talk about the history of this place and how good Dale is here and then how good Senior was, so it’s really cool to see and it was cool to see all the fans out there today. I think we had a sold out crowd, so that’s really cool to see and hopefully they saw a good show and a good finish.”
