Ford Performance NXS Notes & Quotes:
NXS O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge – Texas Motor Speedway
Saturday November 7, 2015
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st Brad Keselowski
10th Elliott Sadler
11th Chris Buescher
15th Ryan Reed
18th Dakoda Armstrong
19th Darrell Wallace Jr.
20th Ryan Truex
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 60 AdvoCare Ford Mustang (Finished 11th)
“We were trying to get something that was consistent going with our AdvoCare Mustang. The guys did a good job though and worked really hard to put a good piece on the race track. It wasn’t a bad day but not the day we were hoping for. All in all we just couldn’t get that one thing that was going to really turn our day around. There at the end we got a little too tight and I was just trying to keep adjusting on it to get it closer and probably over stepped. The guys did a nice job on pit road and they were consistent today. As far as points are concerned, that is a good points day but for a home race we were hoping to come out a little better.”
24 POINTS AHEAD OF CHASE ELLIOTT WITH TWO TO GO. “It isn’t comfortable yet. It is a cushion that we have and I guess you average that out to 12 spots per race so if we go out and finish top-10 the last two we should be in good shape. That would be cutting it too close for comfort but we need to just have some solid runs the next two weeks.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang (VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW)
“First off, Austin Dillon was really good and he was one of the toughest guys to beat. He ran a heck of a race. Harvick looked really good, Kyle Busch looked really good and Kyle Larson I thought was going to run away with the race until he had that flat. There was a lot of competition out there today and that makes this win very special for the whole Discount Tire Ford team.” HOW ABOUT THAT RUN WHEN YOU WENT THREE WIDE AND GOT THE LEAD. DID YOU REALIZE YOUR CAR WOULD BE THAT STRONG? “I didn’t know what to expect but I didn’t give up. That is a big part of it.” HOW DOES THIS WIN CATAPULT YOU TOMORROW? “Winning never hurts to build confidence and a large part of this sport is confidence. I am really proud for the whole Discount Tire Ford team.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, GREG ERWIN, MIKE NELSON POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 22 Discount Tire Ford – YOU WIN THE RACE TODAY, YOU CLINCH THE OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR ROGER PENSKE AND YOU START ON THE POLE TOMORROW. “Yeah, we have a good little run going so far. We have to keep it going. It doesn’t really matter when they drop the green flag tomorrow what we have done today. We have to look forward and keep pushing. For today, I am really proud of the effort not just today but all season long to get my team owner Roger Penske his fourth XFINITY Series owners’ championship. That is a big step. I was thinking about it when I came to Team Penske in 2010 we didn’t have any and now we have four XFINITY championships in five years. That is a huge accomplishment and a lot to be proud of. The race today, breaking that down it was one of those races that seemed like it could really fall any way. The 42 was really fast and the 88 was really fast. I am sure had the 54 not had trouble would have been tough to beat. And of course Austin Dillon ran away with it at points and got the least in the last sequence and I knew he was going to be tough to beat. It wasn’t a gimme race by any stretch of the imagination. We had to earn it and we did just that with a strong, consistent day.”
GREG ERWIN, crew chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – THE 42 SEEMED TO BE DOMINANT BUT YOU GUYS GOT A BREAK THERE AT THE END. “Yeah, the way you look at it, a lot of these races, especially these XFINITY races, are determined with the way the cautions fall and the adjustments and track position. Everyone was very concerned with tire wear on the green flag stops and the way the race kind of unfolded and Brad did a good job of keeping the tires on the car and we just kind of know that we had a little in the tank there at the end. I am just blessed to be a part of this thing and have guys with his kind of talent behind the wheel because that is really what makes it roll. When we told him it was time to go and there were only about 15 or 16 laps to go, you could really see it. The thing lit up. It was a good day. I am very, very happy.”
MIKE NELSON, Vice President of Operations, Team Penske – TALK ABOUT CLINCHING THE OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR ROGER PENSKE “Yeah, we are glad to be a part of that. Like Brad said, it is our fourth and third in a row. We are really excited to be here today doing that. We weren’t sure at the end there, it took us a couple minutes to figure it out but it is a tribute to everyone at Team Penske and we really appreciate Brad, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Alex Tagliani for sitting in the seat and getting the job done. We are happy we have a little less pressure going into the last couple of races.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – WITH PRACTICE SCHEDULED TODAY ON THE CUP SIDE, DO YOU HAVE AN ADVANTAGE HAVING RACED TODAY? “Yeah, situations like today are certainly ideal situations for justifying running both series and there are other races for sure where it is the opposite. You kind of have to take the good with the bad on that. Today was a good day to get the extra experience of running the XFINITY Series and with the rules changes this season more closely mimicking the XFINITY cars the repetitions are a lot closer as well. It is certainly not a disadvantage and today was probably the most extreme advantage of running both series’.
WHAT WILL BE THE CHALLENGES TOMORROW WITHOUT HAVING CUP PRACTICE AND WOULD YOU HAVE PREFERRED A PRACTICETONIGHT? “I don’t know what the challenges are. I never ran any laps in race trim. It is a good thing we have all these really smart engineers and computers to figure it out. I don’t know. They have an idea and I am just going to get in the car and go run it and hope it is the best it can be. You have to have a lot of trust and confidence in your team. We were so fast in qualifying that you hope a lot of that carries over but it is never a guarantee. Furthermore, I would have liked to have seen a Cup practice tonight but there isn’t, so there is nothing really to say further beyond that.”
TALK ABOUT THE PRESSURE FROM THE 33 AND 88 IN THE CLOSING LAPS THERE TONIGHT. “Yeah, I thought it was a great battle. I don’t know what it looked like on TV or in here but I thought it was a great battle. I was able to barely get beside the 33 car in one and two and ran side by side for what felt like forever. I am sure it was only two laps but in the driver’s seat that feels like an hour. I saw the 88 coming and he knew he had the opportunity to win the race and I was just barely able to clear the 33 before the 88 got there. That was the difference maker. I thought Austin Dillon did a great job but we were able to get a little more turn on him and get underneath him. It was a really good battle.”
GREG ERWIN CONTINUED – HOW CLOSE WAS THE CUP SIDE OF THE ORGANIZATION OVERLOOKING EVERYTHING THAT OCCURRED TODAY AND HOW MUCH TIME WILL YOU HAVE TO SPEND TONIGHT TALKING ABOUT THOSE TIRES AND HOW THEY MIGHT AFFECTTOMORROW? “It is pretty common for all of the Cup crew chiefs especially, tire guys and engineers to be very involved in what we do the day ahead of time. I have been lucky enough to be on the other side of that and had teams run the day before and be very successful. There are limited things you take from that but it is still an advantage and I saw those guys down there today certainly after our first couple of stops paying attention to what our tires and pressures looked like. The cars being different and the front ends and geometry suspension makes it really hard to make that transition from what we do on the Mustang to what they do on the Fusion but we have developed some off-sets, maybe that is a good word to use, and some knowledge that we kind of share back and forth on what seems to work on our Discount Tire Mustang and what might work on the Miller Lite or Shell Pennzoil Fusions. There is certainly a connection and a lot of interested but with the cars being as different as they are right now it is probably not quite as strong as it used to be.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – YOU HAVE AN AVERAGE FINISH OF SECOND IN THE LAST SIX XFINITY RACES THIS SEASON. DO YOU PLAN TO GET BACK IN THE CAR BEFORE SEASONS END? “I think right now the plan is for me to run next week at Phoenix and that is really all I know at the moment, so I should at least have one more race.”
YOU WERE OUT CHECKING THE TRACK AND THE WEEPERS BEFORE THE RACE. WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND AT THAT TIME? “I was just trying to get some kind of idea of what the track was fighting and maybe have some kind of opinion to give to Bruton and Eddie and those guys on the SMI team as they face the challenge going forward. An educated opinion at least.”
