Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
NSCS: Sprint Unlimited (Post Race Notes & Quotes)
Saturday, February 13, 2016
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
2nd Joey Logano
6th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
9th Brad Keselowski
10th Greg Biffle
18th Aric Almirola
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – “It was crazy like normal right? What a great race. I had a great Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion and we kept working our way up from the back and it was hard for us to get that lead. We had a decent start and the 20 was pushing me well and we were trying to get the right push. Larson and I worked really well together all day. I got him there at the end right behind me and I don’t know what started that crash there at the end. We were so close, right next to the 11 when they started crashing there. It is a good start for the weekend and I am proud of what we did. I want to get out there for the 500 now and try to get another big trophy.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 SKF Ford Fusion (Finished 9th) – WE ALL THOUGHT THE FORDS WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO COLLECT DEBRIS WITH THIS NEW GRILLE. WAS IT THE GRILLE? “No, I think my spotter said it best when he said it looked like there was a lot of construction debris out there. I don’t know. There were really big sheets of plastic. I don’t think it would have mattered what manufacturer it was. It is just one of those days.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE A SURVIVOR CONTESTANT? “Yeah, the Unlimited is always that way. You hope if you run up front you can avoid most of it. I didn’t get tore up until I feel back to fifth or sixth. I needed to stay in the top two or three but couldn’t pull it off. It is a very high aggression level race and I think that is a good thing.” WERE YOU EXPECTING ALL THIS DAMAGE GOING IN? “It seems like this race can go either way. It can be complete chaos or kind of a snoozer and today was complete chaos.” DID YOU FEEL GOOD WITH FOUR OR FIVE TO GO? “I felt like I had a shot at it most of the race but with four or five to go we were towards the back.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 KFC Nashville Hot Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) – “It was pretty good. Our car was pretty fast. These things are getting harder and harder to pass. They are all the same speed. We are two and three wide and you can’t really do anything. The car drove good though. I was pretty happy with it. We kind of got in the wrong lane and I don’t know what happened to the 31 car. I guess he thought he had a flat. We wrecked getting in down there and that took our chances away.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion (Finished 18th) – “The car was spinning and the next thing I know I am in the grass and that absolutely destroys these cars. I didn’t hit anything else after I got clipped, I just went through the grass and it completely destroyed this car. It sucks but it is alright. Our Smithfield Ford Fusion was driving really good tonight and I was happy about that. We can take some notes from tonight and get ready for the Daytona 500. HOW AGGRESSIVE WAS IT OUT THERE? “It was really aggressive. Everyone expects that. You go to this race and it is just about a trophy and money. It was really aggressive.” WHAT DID YOU LEARN FOR THE DUELS? “I feel like we sorted out some issues that we had and went over some stuff with our digital dash and things like that which will be important to get all those bugs worked out before the Daytona 500. It was a good night for us even though we ended up in the garage.”
JOEY LOGANO POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE (2nd Place Finisher)
JOEY LOGANO, No, 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – TALK ABOUT THE LAST FEW LAPS OUT THERE. “It was close. It was a lot of fun out there. We had a really good Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion even though we started last. We worked our way up toward the front fairly quick and kept putting four tires on which kind of set us back toward the middle and then we would work back up and I made a mistake and lost some spots. We started getting back up there at the end. I am proud of the speed we had. We were close to almost winning it. If that caution hadn’t come out and I was able to get that push from Larson before he got really loose may have gave me enough to push out in front of the 11 or at least stay next to him for another lap and be door to door across the line. Overall the speed we are racing sometimes it is hard to pass for the lead for sure. I thought the restart would be a good opportunity to start next to the leader and jump out in front of him but it just didn’t line up perfectly tonight. That is okay. We are picking up where we left off from last year so I am looking forward to the 500.”
WITH THE WAY PEOPLE ARE SO AGGRESSIVE OUT THERE IS THERE REALLY ANYTHING YOU CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THIS RACE FOR THE 500? “Oh yeah, there is a lot. I don’t know if you watched the 500 last year but it was pretty aggressive at the end when we were three wide and all bumping each other. It was awesome. I don’t expect anything less when it comes to next Sunday. There is a lot to learn. It is nice just to knock the rust off and let the guys make a pit stop or two and let my spotter and myself get used to running in the draft again and make sure you remember everything. It was good because you forget some things. I definitely learned a lot but it is also all about the trophy tonight and we came up short. I guess the good news is that only like one guy ever has won the Unlimited and then won the 500. It hasn’t happened since I was three years old. I feel pretty good about that then. That is the silver lining on this whole thing.”
IT HAPPENED IN 2000. “2000? Shoot? You guys looked that up just now didn’t you? Man, I thought I saw that stat earlier.”
WHAT IS YOUR VERDICT OF THE FIRST OVERTIME RESTART? “Nothing different because we took the white flag under green so if it was last year’s green-white-checkered policy it would have been the same. It never came into play. The only way it would have is if the caution came out before we got to the white flag so the rule didn’t come into play to be any different this time.”
IT SEEMED LIKE YOU WERE WORKING WITH SOME GUYS YOU HAVEN’T REALLY WORKED WITH BEFORE, DID THAT CROSS YOUR MIND? ALSO, BRAD HAD ISSUES WITH DEBRIS AND OVERHEATING, DID YOU AND IF SO, IS THAT A CONCERN? “I think it is a huge concern. It looked like a landfill on the front straightaway. My dad was in a garbage company so I know all about it. It looked just like that. It is tough when you are the leader you will be the first one to pick it up and there is no way to get it off unless you give up the lead. The same thing happened to Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) last year in this race and he had to pit early. The back stretch is clean so it is all coming from the grandstands. It is tough. It is definitely not much you can do about it because it is just floating around and gets stuck on your nose but it plays into the first part of your question about who we work with. If you have the option you always go with someone you know because you know how they will play it out and know who you think is faster or a manufacturer that is the same as yours or a teammate. All of that goes through your mind when you make decisions for sure but sometimes you don’t really have an option. Sometimes you just have to do this. This is a good race to learn about your competitors. I will re-watch the race and see what moves people were making and stuff like that. It was funny to watch how the race kind of changed as guys learned of what was going on out there. In the beginning of the race I felt like it was more three-wide racing and then toward the middle end of the race it was like two-wide and everyone protecting the top. It was funny how everyone kind of learned from the first half and changed what they were doing. It was interesting to me.”
WITH HOW CRAZY AND CHAOTIC IT WAS ON THE TRACK TONIGHT, DO YOU EXPECT A RELATIVELY CALM DUEL ON THURSDAY NIGHT WITH THE CHARTER SYSTEM IN PLACE? “Oh, I don’t know. There is a trophy to win there, too, right? I want that one. I don’t know, man, I’ve got one speed, so I can tell you what the 22 car is doing and I can’t control everybody else. My pedal is going to be to the metal, I know that much.”
IS THERE A WAY TO HAVE A RACE LIKE THIS TO WHERE IT DOESN’T TURN OUT TO BE CARNAGE LIKE IT IS, OR IS THAT JUST THE NATURE OF WHERE IT’S A NON‑POINTS RACE, YOU THROW EVERYTHING AT IT THAT YOU CAN? “I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s a non‑points race that plays into it, or it’s just Superspeedway racing and it’s just guys on the gas. We’ve seen crashes really early in the Daytona 500. That’s a 500‑mile race, so we’ve seen it go both ways in this thing. But typically, yes, the Unlimited is a ‑‑ there’s a lot of crashes in it to say the least. Tonight there was a few for sure. It didn’t seem like there was ‑‑ I have to watch it, but I didn’t think there was any huge pile‑ups, but I don’t know. I don’t see a whole bunch from where I’m at sometimes.”
ARE THERE MORE CRASHES IN THIS RACE THAN THE ALL‑STAR RACE IN YOUR OPINION? “Yeah, because typically at Charlotte maybe two cars will get into each other and crash, but here when two cars get into each other then it takes out five or six cars with them, so it’s just the nature of the beast.”
WAS THIS THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENT RACE THAN FROM WHAT YOU’VE SEEN AND EXPERIENCED IN YEARS PAST, OR WHAT KIND OF STOOD OUT THAT MADE IT FEEL A LITTLE BIT MORE DIFFERENT? “I don’t think it really was much different than last year to be honest with you, but just kind of the way different drivers ‑‑ they changed the way they were driving their cars throughout the race it seemed to be. But there was nothing that stood out, like wow, that was way different or something played out different than what I thought was going to happen. Watching from last year to this year, I thought it was fairly similar the way the race played out, the way cautions fell. It all seemed to be fairly similar.”
THE OVERTIME PROCEDURE, WHAT WAS IT LIKE GOING THROUGH THAT, AND WHAT DO YOU PICK UP FROM THAT MAYBE MOVING FORWARD SINCE THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME? “I was saying earlier, no problem, I know you got in late, but it didn’t really come into play because we took the white flag under green, which would be the end of the race in the old format and the new format. It didn’t come into play this time. No change.”
YOU MENTIONED EARLIER ABOUT THIS IS A GOOD RACE TO CHECK OUT YOUR COMPETITORS, AND IT SEEMED LIKE TONIGHT IT WAS A LOT OF PENSKE VERSUS GIBBS. AT PRACTICE EARLIER TODAY BOTH ORGANIZATIONS WERE FAST. COULD THIS BE THE THEME OF THE WEEK, THE PENSKE‑VERSUS‑GIBBS BATTLE? “Seems like it’s shaping up that way. But you know, I thought in practice today there was a lot of Hendrick cars, in particular the 24 and 88 cars seemed really fast and single‑car runs, and we’re at Daytona so you never count out Junior or Jimmie or any of those guys. We’ve seen here that anyone can win and anything can happen for sure, so you’ve definitely got to look at everyone as a threat for sure. But if you look at who led a lot of laps tonight and kind of the guys that were able to make the moves for the lead were guys with very good cars, yes, but also very experienced speedway racers that know what they have to do to make things happen. I think it definitely takes both when you come to a racetrack like this, and it’s not like you can have a 30th place car and win here. It used to be like that when we had the tandem drafts and stuff, but now that it’s a big pack, a fast car still helps.”
HOW WAS THE FIRST RACE WITH THE DIGITAL DASH AT DAYTONA? “It was okay. You know, it’s definitely different because you’ve got to get used to it for sure. You know, pit road is where it comes into play the most, right, and that’s where you’re trying to maximize your pit road speed without speeding. You know, it’s tough because the dash is a little delayed to what’s actually happening, so sometimes you’re going faster than your dash tells you and then it catches up and you’re slowing down in your lights and your tach is all off ‑‑ it’s just off a little bit just because it’s delayed getting to the screen for some reason. There’s not much we can do about that. Obviously it’s given to us that way. There’s definitely room for improvement I would say from that standpoint, but you know, it’s interesting. It’s different. It looks cool in there. Hey, we look cool.”
