Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
Powershares QQQ 300 – Daytona International Speedway
Saturday, February 20, 2016
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
2nd Joey Logano
6th Bubba Wallace
11th Aric Almirola
16th Ryan Reed
25th Jeb Burton
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – WALK US THROUGH THE LAST LAP THERE. “The plan was to make the move off of four and going to the top he blocked the first move and wiggled to the bottom and back to the top. At that point it is a little late and then we touched each other and that is the killer. Once we had that touch it killed our momentum and I couldn’t pull him back enough to get in front of him. It is three races and three seconds and I guess it is nothing to hold your head down about but gosh, when you see the lead that many times and are that close to winning and don’t pull it off it iis frustrating. It was a fast Mustang and we showed that plenty of times. We were able to make moves with this thing that other people couldn’t. I am proud of the gains we made.”
THERE WAS THE NO PUSH RULE BUT I ASSUME ON THE LAST LAP IT IS OFF? “I don’t think anyone understands the no push rule.”
HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO GET THE OUTSIDE LANE MOVING ON THOSE FINAL LAPS? “Yeah, I got shuffled out. I thought the 1 was going to go with me when I went out there and then he went to the bottom and hung me out. I knew I was kind of in trouble but I had Kasey and the Dillion brothers behind me and they were committed to going to the front and we started picking them off one at a time. We had a good run there on the last lap, catching Chase, but I had Kasey behind me and that was his teammate and I kept thinking, ‘Is he going to push me by his teammate?’ So I decided to hook to Chase and start pushing on the back stretch and Chase did a great job. He blocked the first part and when I went for the move again I got to the outside of him but when we touched it just killed my momentum and I didn’t have enough speed to get back.”
DID YOU CUT HIM A BREAK THERE AT THE END? “I don’t cut anyone a break.”
COULD YOU HAVE DUMPED HIM THOUGH? “I am not going to dump someone. He didn’t do anything to me the whole race. We worked well together. Chase is a great race car driver and it is cool to watch him pull into victory lane right now. That was all I had. I didn’t have anything else in the tank. If you are asking me if I could have done anything else, no, I couldn’t. If I could have, I would have.”
BUBBA WALLACE – No. 6 Selfeo Ford Mustang – WITH HOW THE WEEKEND STARTED, YOU HAVE TO BE HAPPY WITH HOW IT ENDED? “Yeah, absolutely. Man, I’m getting a little bit emotional just to finish one of these deals. It feels like I won, so it’s cool. I can’t thank Selfeo enough for making this deal happen. We’re continuing to fight for sponsorship and to start the season off with this sponsorship on the car is outstanding. It’s only a one-race deal and I think it’s back to Ford for Atlanta, but I came on the radio and I said, ‘I want to see purple on our car next week.’ It was a great effort by my guys from the practice deal. We just rebounded. We never gave up. We continued to work hard on this car. We didn’t have the speed we wanted right away, but it came to us here in the long end. My spotter, Freddy, did an amazing job. I don’t give him enough credit, but, hell yeah, it’s a good day. This is awesome.”
YOU NEVER SEEMED TO PANIC AFTER THE ACCIDENT. YOU WERE CONFIDENT IT WOULD WORK OUT AND THAT WAS REWARDED TODAY. “It truly was. I don’t know what to say. There’s been so much going on in this off-season. I’m trying to mature. I’m trying to learn more about this racing deal and I’m just a little young punk kid that happens to be lucky enough to drive a race car and trying to make the most of it. When you surround yourself with the right people – Seth, making the great calls all day. It’s fun to come to the race track and have a good day, so this is a win for us for sure. I don’t care if Chase won, we won.”
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS AT THE END KNOWING A WIN WOULD GET YOU IN THE CHASE? “Right before that last restart I told Freddy, ‘Keep my emotions in check, please.’ My whole goal here was to get a top-3. Ryan was top-3 last year when he won the race. Joey is so good here. He’ll fake you out so quick, so it makes it hard to trust him, but I got to third and I was good. ‘I’m riding. I’m not moving.’ I put that in my head. Although I wanted to move up with him, there was that chance of him dumping me so I didn’t want to do it, but it was a good day for us.”
GUYS WERE COMPLAINING ABOUT NASCAR NOT MAKING CALLS FOR GUYS LOCKING BUMPERS. IS IT NECESSARY FOR THIS SERIES OR SHOULD THEY JUST LET YOU GUYS RACE? “I’ve wrecked plenty of times, so, yes, it’s necessary. I’m glad we did not wreck and we’re back here in one piece. We’re all going for it. We’re all competitive, so you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. They might need some bigger glasses.”
HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN ALL OF THIS? “I just have to keep it all in check. This is big. We had a lot of good races in 2014 in the Truck, but we always had to bring ourselves back down to go be successful again that next weekend. I’m trying to build off of 2014 and 2015, and pile it all in. This is going to be a good season for us.”
JEB BURTON – No. 43 J. Streicher Ford Mustang – WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT INCIDENT THAT SENT YOU SPINNING THROUGH THE GRASS? “I was behind Chase. I wanted to stay with Chase because I felt like we were working together good throughout the race. I was on his bumper and he checked up and I hit him and got him loose, and he hit the guy in front of him. They started wrecking and I checked up and the 33 just drilled me and put me in the infield. It’s frustrating.”
YOUR FIRST RACE WITH THIS TEAM WASN’T WHAT YOU WERE HOPING FOR, BUT IT’S A LONG SEASON. “It could have been worse. We could have finished thirtysomething, so at least we got some points and we can go on to Atlanta and start getting better and better every week. I know this team is capable of a lot better than 25th, so we just have to keep digging and go to Atlanta.”
THE NEW FORMAT ALSO MEANS A WIN GETS YOU IN THE CHASE AND A TOUGH DAY LIKE TODAY ISN’T THE END OF THE WORLD. “That’s right. We just have to buckle down and gain as many points as we can, so we can lock ourselves into that Chase and then everything will get back to even and we can go and try to win a championship.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 98 Fresh From Florida Ford Mustang – WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AFTER GETTING THE LUCKY DOG AND BEING BACK ON THE LEAD LAP FOR THAT FINAL RESTART? “I was thinking we were gonna go up there and mix it up and, really, the way it fanned out everybody just kind of committed to the bottom two lanes and the top lane just kept getting shuffled out. It was really hard to do anything and make any moves, but, all in all, it was an OK day for us. I made a big mistake early in the race thinking that they were gonna wreck and I decided to ride at the back of the pack and I lost the draft, so then I had to race incredibly aggressive to try and get back on the lead lap, which we were able to do. But I’m disappointed. These guys work really hard and we come down here and just strictly racing for fun, and I would have loved to have gotten them a better finish. The high note for the day was I pushed Logano back to the lead when it looked like he was in big trouble.”
JOEY LOGANO POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
TALK ABOUT THOSE FRANTIC FINAL FEW LAPS TODAY. “Second again. Second is not bad but it kind of sucks at the same time. We were so close once again. That is three races and we have been so close to winning them. We really want to make it happen. I thought we were moving up through the field and the restart started having a good push and went past Chase and then the 1 kind of hung me out and then I had Kasey back there and the Dillion brothers and all of them, they wanted to win. They have the same attitude as me and that is the type of racer you need behind you and I started pushing. We started slowing making it work and towards the end there, the last lap I had a good run on the 88 and Chase did a good job blocking at the top off of two and at that point I wasn’t sure if Kasey was going to keep pushing me because that was his teammate. I knew Kasey wasn’t going with me anymore at that point and felt I was kind of on my own so I started pushing Chase out a little bit and was going to make that late pass off of four but I went to the top and he was watching the mirror. I thought we were going to hit the wall and by the time I got back out there we made some contact and that killed my forward momentum. I had to be able to pass him by the line and I just couldn’t do it in time. Unfortunately we finish second again but I am still proud of what we have done with the Discount Tire Ford. I wanted to give Brian Wilson a win in his first race, which would have been really cool, we just came up a little short again.”
IT SEEMED LIKE YOU WERE ALMOST BREAKING THE NO PUSH RULE ON THE LAST LAP. “Nobody understands the push rule. It is like the cloud, no one understands the cloud either.”
IF YOU DO UNDERSTAND THE RULE, DOES IT KIND OF GO OUT THE WINDOW THE LAST LAP? “It is a tough question for sure. I think the way it is explained to me is basically everyone on the last lap is pushing. Are they going to black flag the whole field? You know what I mean? I think that is where it becomes very challenging. Anytime you have cars that are capable of doing something pretty amazing as being able to push in tandem and you tell the drivers not to, that makes that rule tough. Most of the time for the drivers it is kind of do what you want, just stay above the yellow line. Tomorrow, that is what will happen, the only difference is the cars can’t get as close as the XFINITY cars can. The tandem can’t even happen in the Cup series because of the way the aero package is. With these cars you can hook up just like we used to and push for laps, for a whole run if we wanted to. But by the rules we can’t so it is such a fine line and if you can stay close to them and come off and inch and then go back on, that is basically what you want to do. If you could actually attach and go it would be so much better. It is a fine line of what is too much. If we didn’t push, all you would have is a single file line on the bottom and no one would be making the top work and quite frankly it would be a boring race. I like the tandem if you want my opinion, I think it is cool. I think it was a cool race back in the day like that. I think they way they have it now they let us push just enough to make the second lane move but never enough to get it all the way up there.”
ANYTHING YOU CAN TRANSFER OVER TO DEFEND YOUR 500 CHAMPIONSHIP? “This race is just so different and the aero package is so different that you learn nothing by running the XFINITY race here. What I do gain is more time with my spotter and communication and talking and getting the lingo going and all that. Fortunately enough we have been able to race a lot through this whole speedweeks which has been a lot of fun. I feel like we are doing a really good job. I watch these races back over and we have lost them in a different way every time. These last two have probably been the closest. I feel like we are getting closer. This time I actually got to the outside of the 88. Different driver, same number. Hopefully tomorrow I can actually get in front by the finish line. That would be really cool. Like I said, second is nothing to hold your head down about. We’ve had a great speedweeks. If you give people three second place finishes through all of speedweeks most people would take it in a heartbeat. I just really want to win. They don’t give trophies for second place. I would much rather have the trophies.”
DO YOU THINK THE CONTACT AT THE END WAS CLEAN? “I had no problem with it. That is what I expect. I am a racer. I expect him to move to make sure I don’t win. That is what he should do. He did exactly what he is supposed to do and the same thing I would do and I wouldn’t expect anything other than that. That is racing. That is what our fans crave and come to see. That is what they come to this beautiful facility to watch – great racing. That is what we saw today. I don’t have any problems with the way we raced at the end. I think he did everything right. We made some contact and I wish we didn’t because that gave up my momentum. That contact just stopped my car and I had no momentum after that.”
HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE CONTACT COMING DOWN THE STRETCH? “Typical for the last lap coming to a checkered flag. The contact, I was behind pushing him so there was contact there and then obviously if you watch his hands I am sure he was trying to keep me behind him as well. Some of those moves are to keep me behind him so he is working his car back and forth to keep me behind him. When I got next to him he tried to go for the block as well and that is when we touched. It is totally acceptable. Is that enough to crash someone, no. If I was on the inside of him it would have hooked him but the fact we were turning left everything was fine.”
HOW DIFFERENT IS STRATEGY WHEN IT COMES INTO PLAY ON A PLATE TRACK? “When a caution comes out seven laps into a run and then one a few laps later it is going to mix it up. I tell you what, I ddn’t feel very comfortable when I was back there. I wanted to get to the top. I couldn’t find a hole. We just took that run as a loss and eventually it cycled through and once you get single file you try to leapfrog a couple and then get back in the hole.”
