Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at The Brickyard Qualifying – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Ford Qualifying Results:
2nd – Joey Logano
18th – Sam Hornish Jr.
20th – Greg Biffle
22nd – Aric Almirola
29th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
30th – Ryan Blaney
31st – Brad Keselowski
32nd – Michael McDowell
33rd – Trevor Bayne
37th – David Gilliland
39th – Brett Moffitt
41st – Cole Whitt
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 9 Medallion Bank Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT AND POSITION FORTOMORROW? “I feel a lot better about it than what I did yesterday. We struggled a lot through the first two sessions in trying to find speed in the car. It’s definitely a lot different package than what we’ve ever had on the car, so I think we’re all pretty frustrated. All in all, the guys threw a lot at it yesterday and worked hard trying to figure out what to do to make the car faster. I think that they’re gonna continue to think about that, but they made good adjustments overnight and we had a good, solid run there for qualifying. Eighteenth is never what we want, but compared to where we were yesterday we’ll take it.”
THAT’S BETTER THAN WHERE YOU WERE YESTERDAY IN PRACTICE. “It’s tough. It’s a new package and we felt like the low downforce package really helped us out at Kentucky and brought us where we wanted to be or closer to it, and when you go from a higher downforce more drag package, you go lower and it helps you out you can only expect that when you go the opposite way that it’s gonna hurt you a little bit. It’s gonna be a tough daytomorrow for everybody on this car. We’re gonna have to be at the top of our game and make good changes. Our pit stops will have to be good and I’ll have to get good restarts. Hopefully, we’ll make good changes and we’ll be where we need to be. The tough thing was that not a lot of people ran in packs yesterday or ran close together, so you just don’t know. Some of the times being thrown up there guys might have had a full straightaway clearing in front of them.”
YOU HAVE SOME UNKNOWN FACTORS AS A DRIVER TOMORROW, RIGHT? “There’s a huge unknown for everybody tomorrow and with 43 of us going out there we’re gonna find out the answer, but as I continue to say in pretty much interview that I do I think it’s a really exciting time for NASCAR and the fans of NASCAR to be around for this because in the past any of the changes that NASCAR has made to the rules packages you don’t really see how that affects. Right now, we’re getting a live, up-to-date look that shows ‘this is exactly what it does.’ This is a low downforce package, this is high drag, this is what we started the year with and I think with the way social media is now NASCAR has taken a lot of cues from that and hearing the voice of the people. I think it gives you as much of a vote as it ever has been about what are you gonna do? The bottom line thing is that they’re trying to do what they can do to put on the best possible races for their fans and I think that everybody who is a fan of NASCAR or a part of it should be happy about that because there aren’t a lot of sports that do that.”
DO YOU EVER GO AROUND THIS TRACK IN THE STOCK CAR AND VISUALIZE HOW DIFFERENT IT IS THAN AN INDY CAR? “It’s been so long ago. I know all the same parts of it and I think about some of the things that happened with Indy Car, but it’s all about trying to get as much speed out of my Ford Fusion now. I finally felt like I got it understood on how to be fast here in a stock car and then the rules package changes for this year. That’s the great thing about racing and life in general is that everything continues to change. If you’re not up on it and not willing to try and figure out what you need to do to be better, then you’re gonna fall behind. We just keep working hard on how we can keep making this 9 better, whether we’re here at Indianapolis or Pocono next weekend or moving on to Michigan and Watkins Glen. I’m just super-excited. We have these really nice glimpses of what we can do. We just need to keep working on putting our best effort out there and keep some of the things that have held us back from happening.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd) – “There is only one spot better than that. Overall from where we have been this weekend to what we picked up today I am proud of what my Shell Pennzoil team has done. We have a good piece. I look forward to the race tomorrow. Clean air is king. If we can get a good start and settle in and click some laps off and run our strategy we can be there in the end.”
ANY FEEL FOR THE CHANGES YOU NEED TO MAKE TONIGHT TO BE READY FOR TOMORROW? “We have all day to talk about that. You take one thing at a time with this car. Now that this is over we will start to focus in on the race.”
JOEY LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE — TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING OUT THERE TODAY. “We got a good start. David (Ragan) and I were just laughing up here that these are the same three race cars that started up front at Loudon. A completely different race track, different package and the same cars are fast. It is good for us. We are close. Second always hurts but it is nice to be up toward the front, especially here. It will be a tough race for sure. We always want to get that win for Roger here and he has been trying for years to get that NASCAR win here and we are going to try to do what we can to give him his best shot at it. I feel we have a good Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion. We had a rough start yesterday trying to figure out this new package and then we hit on some stuff in the third practice and that has kind of carried over here. I am looking forward to tomorrow now.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW FRUSTRATING IT CAN BE WHEN NASCAR ASKS FOR YOUR INPUT ON AN AERO PACKAGE AND THEN THEY GO THE OTHER WAY? “I think we need to obviously be open to trying anything. It is no secret that the drivers wanted a lesser down force package and we tried that at Kentucky with great success. It was a great race we saw at Kentucky and the track widened out a lot and there was side-by-side racing and the cars were ill handling which promotes better racing. You have to try the other way to make sure and that is what we are doing this weekend. We will see what happens. There are a lot of unknowns. We will have to wait and see how it all works out. You have to be patient and see how the packages work out and fine tune them or pick one that we feel all of us can agree is best and we will move on.”
CHEVY HAS DOMINATED A NUMBER OF YEARS HERE BUT THE TOP THREE CARS ARE NOT CHEVY TODAY. DOES THAT GIVE YOU ANY MORE CONFIDENCE HEADING INTO TOMORROW? “Hopefully we took a little wind out of their sails today. It is no secret they have been fast here in the past. I think their package – and they have great motors – when you come to a race track like this they have great aero and motors and that stands out here. It is good to be able to top them today in qualifying but when you put great teams and great drivers together like they have over there, and a lot of them, they are going to be racing up there for the win. There are a lot of good teams that are driving those cars. I like our chances. I like what Penske has done with Ford and I think we have a great shot. We have extra incentive with Roger here this weekend and he showed us how bad he wants this win when we come here to Indy.”
HOW MUCH SPEED DIFFERENCE WILL WE SEE TOMORROW? “i think it will be about 10 miles per hour faster on the straightaway with a lot less grip in the corners. It will be interesting. When two cars are side by side like David was saying earlier, the third place car is going to be in great shape. As drivers I think we have a lot to learn to see how that will go. We have a race to watch here to get an idea of what that will be like. My thought is that if cars line up we are going to be booking down the straightaway really damn fast and then get to the corner and it will be ‘uh oh’.
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO RESTARTS WITH THIS PACKAGE? “I like restarts, they are fun. Most of the time it is fun if you are on the good end of it. I think it will be the name of the game tomorrow. Restarts will be payoffs to say the least. It is going to be a challenge for sure.I think if you can get out front it is going to be a big deal to do that on restarts and I think the moves you will see for guys to take the lead are going to be very aggressive. Hopefully we are the ones making the move and not the ones getting the moves made on us.”
HOW WILL YOU RELAX DURING THE RACE OTHER THAN THE CAUTIONS? “Hopefully tomorrow we are holding our breath the whole time. That means we are putting on a heck of a race. That is when that happens. I think being in traffic a little bit in practice you have to be ready for those moments that come out of nowhere. If you catch a pocket of air wrong or a car in the wrong spot or a gust of wind, then all of a sudden the car just takes off. I think you will see that it is hard to get comfortable. Throughout a run cars will fall off and spread out and that is going to happen, that is part of racing but I think we will stay closer than we have been and we will have to be ready for the unexpected.”
IS IT NICE TO SEE TONY STEWART COMPETITIVE? “It is cool to see Tony running well. He has had a tough season and you just know he will turn things around because he is a champion race car driver. I really hope he finishes second tomorrow.”
