Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Cheez-It 355 at The Glen – Watkins Glen International
Sunday, August 9, 2015
LOGANO AND FORD COMPLETE WATKINS GLEN WEEKEND SWEEP
• Joey Logano’s win today is his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season and 10th of his career.
• This marks the first NXS/NSCS weekend sweep for Ford since the opening weekend of the season when Ryan Reed (NXS) and Joey Logano (NSCS) did it at Daytona.
• It’s also the first time one Ford driver has swept both events on the same weekend since Brad Keselowski did it last year at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 12-13).
• The win is Fusion’s 67th NSCS triumph since becoming Ford’s flagship vehicle in 2006.
• Ford now has 635 all-time NSCS victories.
• Team Penske has now registered 43 NSCS wins with Ford, including 16 over the past three years.
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – TALK US THROUGH THAT LAST LAP? “I’m still just trying to catch my breath. I was really excited after that one. I was running down Harvick there for a little bit and once I got close to him he started to pick up his pace a little bit, which was good because I needed him to run out of gas. I started to catch him a little bit and I drove into one too hard and started to wheel hop. I just about lost it and at that point you just hope he runs out of gas, which he did in the last corner. It makes up for last week. We lost the race last week the same way, so it makes up for it to get it this week.”
WHEN DID YOU REALIZE HE WAS RUNNING OUT OF GAS AND TELL US ABOUT THE PASS? “I thought he was running out of gas out of the carousel there. You could tell his car was slowing down a little bit and then it really slowed down. I was like, ‘Alright, I’ve got something here. Don’t screw this up.’ I was able to get by him into 11 and then he gave me a good shot in the center of 11 and then we were able to get back off the corner. It’s pretty cool to get a road course win. It means so much to me and sweeping the weekend, I’ve never swept a weekend before so this is a really, really special weekend.”
WHAT ABOUT THE STRATEGY ON LAP 47? “There really wasn’t any discussion. I just do what he tells me to do. That’s why he gets paid the big bucks. That’s why I drive the car. We know our roles and that’s what I talk about all the time is I don’t try to crew chief this thing because I know I’ve got someone smarter than me on the box. I just drive the race car and do what he tells me to do. He gives me the piece I need to do my job and everyone does a great job on pit road. Pit road was awesome today. We gained spots every time we came down pit road and I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
IS THIS THE FIRST TIME YOU’VE HAD A LAST CORNER PASS FOR A WIN IN SPRINT CUP? “Yeah. That would be the first, but hopefully not the last.”
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 9 Medallion Bank Ford Fusion – “It was pretty good. Our car was good. Bono had a good strategy. A couple of yellows fell the wrong way to make it work the way we needed, but the car was good. We were good in areas that some other cars weren’t and that helped us pass people when we could get to them, but a lot of times we had issues trying to get the pass done because we just weren’t fast enough up through the esses. We’ll work on the car so next time we’ll be a little passing going into the bus stop.”
WHAT DOES THIS RESULT MEAN? “It’s great for all the guys. I want more than that when we come to these races. I felt like our car was definitely better than where we finished there, but you take what you can get on the days you have it and I’m just proud of everybody that works on this Medallion Bank Ford Fusion and the guys at RPM. A ninth is probably disappointing for them compared to what they’ve had the last few times coming up here, but the package is a little bit different. I wish we could have had a little more practice time, but anytime you come home in the top-10 you can’t be too disappointed about it.”
