Ford Performance NCWTS Notes and Quotes
Fred’s Pharmacy 250 – Talladega Superspeedway
Friday, October 23, 2015
Ford Finishing Results:
5th — Tyler Reddick
17th — Brian Keselowski
BRIAN KESELOWSKI – No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150 – “I did the one thing I said I shouldn’t do is speed down pit road, so it didn’t start off the way that we needed to. Obviously, starting on the bottom helped because the bottom line was the way to be, so we rode in line and had that first pit stop and had to go back. I was like, ‘OK, let’s see if we can work our way to the front,’ and we worked our way to the front. I worked with the 4 truck, he did a good job. I worked with the 23, the 33 – those guys all did a really good job of pushing when you needed to and not pushing when you shouldn’t. I don’t understand that last deal before the last caution where the 33 and the 54 got together and they were pushing each other. They were supposed to both get a black flag. That’s what we had been told the whole time. I don’t know why, it’s not up to me, but it is the way it is. Either way, if that caution doesn’t come out, we don’t run out of gas. We ran out of gas under caution coming to the green, so that’s just the way luck goes sometimes. We didn’t expect to get the fuel mileage we did when we were out there leading. When we were out there in the pack I could roll off the gas and save gas a lot, and when we got out front we just had terrible fuel mileage. That’s just the way it is in this pack-type racing. Anyone that’s out in front is gonna be on the throttle the whole time and everybody else is part throttle trying to save. We missed it by two laps. If we hadn’t had a green-white-checker, we would have been OK.”
DID YOU REALIZE THE 33 AND 54 WERE LOCKED TOGETHER AS IT WAS HAPPENING? “Yeah, it’s pretty easy to see that when they’re next to you, especially when the 33 is all over the place. The 23 is bumping me and got locked up a few times, but released, which was the right way to do it and they said that was OK, but the 33 and 54 stayed together for a long time. I knew if they stayed together, they’d beat us and that’s what got the 17 out there. I was like, ‘OK, well, the 17 is really good, so it’s gonna be tough to beat that guy,’ but all plans aside running out of gas doesn’t help, but we had a really good truck. I hope I showed somebody I could do it. I’m trying.”
WAS FUEL A CONCERN ALL ALONG? “They said right from the get-go to save fuel and I was, but you can only do so much when you’re leading. You’ve got to go, so I didn’t save any when I was out front. I guess I should have, but that’s a little bit of inexperience in the Truck Series probably showing up. We’ll learn better next time.”
WHEN DID YOU START THINKING ABOUT WINNING AND WHAT THAT MIGHT BE LIKE? “We worked our way through the pack really quick and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s good.’ I had a really, really good pit stop under green. I got to pit road like I wanted to. I thought I was speeding, caught it and slowed it down before the first line got over with, so I think I was good. I got off pit road really well, which we had been getting off of pit road really well, so that helped. All of a sudden we’re out in front of a pack and everybody is starting to pit and we’re weaving our way through traffic and the 4 is with me and I’m like, ‘We might be leading this thing.’ And pretty soon we were, so it was just an awesome feeling. It kind of validated what I always thought – that I could do it, I just never had a chance. I had my chance.”
SO WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO DRIVE FOR BRAD? “Pretty cool, but he didn’t really micromanage it. He let his team do what it’s supposed to do. I saw him only a couple of times. I told him, ‘Hey, give me a little bit of knowledge if people were getting runs what to do,’ and I tried to listen to that when I was in the truck and it worked pretty good.”
WHAT ARE YOUR EMOTIONS? “I’m emotional. I’m really proud of how we ran. I’m disappointed that it was probably my only chance. We’ll see how it works out.”
TYLER REDDICK – No. 19 Stoney Creek Records Ford F-150 – “That wasn’t bad at all. We may have finished fourth. It’s yet to be determined because NASCAR has to go back and look at it, but I’m pretty sure we got fourth-place. The outside lane went that time and everyone worked together and then it just fell apart in a real hurry down the backstretch and it brought the caution out and the end of the race.”
YOU’RE STILL IN THE POINTS RACE. “We survived from that aspect. It’s a shame we couldn’t gain more points than what we did, but we’re still right there to apply pressure on the 4 if he ever does slip up.”
YOU TALKED ABOUT IT YESTERDAY, BUT THE PLAN REMAINS TO WIN A COUPLE RACES IN ORDER TO CLOSE THE GAP. “Yeah, we didn’t gain wholesale positions on first place, so the game plan we had coming into this race hasn’t changed and that’s to win races.”
