Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Good Sam 500 – Phoenix International Raceway
Friday, March 11, 2016
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion, hits the track at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend and met with media members Friday after the opening practice session to discuss his prospects and the season to date.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “Any time you have a good run the previous week it builds a lot of momentum for the next week. Luckily for us we had a good run at Vegas after a bad run at Atlanta. That showed we can rebound well and hopefully we can ride this momentum wave over this weekend at Phoenix. It is my first time here in a Cup car. My first practice. I am trying to get myself used to the race track with these cars. We ran a little bit in race trim and then swapped out the last two runs for qualifying trim. We were fairly happy with it. We are going to make some adjustments for qualifying but that wasn’t a bad practice for us. We will see how qualifying goes.”
WHAT DO YOU CREDIT FOR YOUR FAST START? “We have been fast all year. All three races this year we have had a good race car. The finishes haven’t really showed that. We got into a last lap wreck in Atlanta which was unfortunate but I think we showed our strength last week at Vegas running up front all day. That is hard work from the Wood Brothers and Penske side of it giving us information and working well together. We have a really great relationship with the 2 and 22 and they have been really helpful with us and Brad and Joey have been really helpful to me too. That has really helped our success. I think it will get better and better with this team working together. We brought in some new personnel at the beginning of the year with this 21 team and I think that just gets better with time. As we get some races under our belt I think we will just get better and better.”
HOW MUCH OF THE SUCCESS IS THE PENSKE RELATIONSHIP AND HOW MUCH OF IT IS YOUR GUYS WORKING ON THE CARS ON THE WEEKENDS? “I want to say it is around 50/50 to be honest with you. We get a lot of information from the Penske side but really at the end of the day it is the 21 team that finalizes the race cars and sets them up and works on them. Jeremy Bullins and all our engineers and road guys do all of it. It is half and half really. I think that is just a great product of good communication between the two teams and I think that is a big product of Jeremy Bullins working at Penske for three or four years before going to the Wood Brothers side of it. He and Paul Wolfe and Todd Gordon know each other very well and their offices are next to each other and they are open with each other. It is half and half for sure.”
YOU ARE SUCH A YOUNGSTER BUT WHEN YOU HIT THE TRACK TODAY, DID YOU FEEL ANYTHING IN THIS TRACK SOMETHING FROM YOUR PAST THAT YOU LOVE? “This track was a lot different with these cars than I have ever been in, whether the K&N or truck or XFINITY cars. With the added horsepower these Cup cars coming off of 4 is pretty tricky. I caught myself being really greedy like you could be in a truck or any other vehicle. You have to be a lot more patient over there in that corner. It is a really long, flat, slippery corner. In a truck or K&N car you can get away with it because they are under horsepower and have a lot of grip. That took me a few laps to get used to and pull the reigns back a little bit. There are some other things you can apply to other vehicles that are similar to the Cup cars here. I definitely had to catch myself a little bit.”
IS A WIN REALISTIC FOR YOU THIS YEAR AND HOW DO YOU BALANCE THAT WITH MAYBE TRYING TO MAKE THE CHASE ON POINTS? “The main goal is to win. We are not really here to points race. I want to win races. That is every team’s goal and we are so early in the season I don’t even look at points. I don’t care about that. I care about running like we did at Las Vegas. That run last week, there was a point in the race where I felt if we worked a little harder and things went out way that we might have a shot to win a race if we keep having runs like that. I think if you consistently run top-10 then I feel like you are very close to trying to get a win. I don’t want to say it is out of the question. It is never out of the question for any team, especially with restrictor plate stuff. I didn’t come into this year expecting to win, of course you want to but you don’t say you will definitely win a race. I think we have a strong team though and it is definitely not out of the question.”
YOU ARE GUARANTEED A SPOT IN THE FIELD THIS WEEK WITH ONLY THREE OPEN TEAMS. HOW MUCH PRESSURE DOES THAT TAKE OFF OF YOU? “That is good. You obviously wish to have more cars but it is a strong field, that’s for sure – a very strong field. In our position, having to qualify in, you never know what can happen in qualifying. We could go out and I could wreck going to the green and if there were 41 cars we would be going home. There is really not an issue in my mind of hoping that we can qualify in on speed. Even if there was, I know that we have great race cars. I guess it just doesn’t really bother me because I know we have great race cars.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO CHASE ELLIOTT AND THE ROOKIE BATTLE DURING A RACE? “He had a great run. The last two weeks he has had great runs. It was unfortunate to see what happened to him at Las Vegas. He had a really good car and we were right next to each other all race really. I don’t ever want to see my buddies get in wrecks, even if you are competing with them. I want the best for everybody, especially if they are your friends. I am sure they will be just fine. I don’t look at the rookie points stuff really at all, just like I don’t look at the Chase stuff right now. I am sure later on in the season I might pay attention to that but right now we are focused on having runs like we did last week.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE HAVING A GARAGE STALL RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE WITH ALL THE STOUT TEAMS THIS WEEKEND? “It is nice. All of last year we were like one of the very last garage stalls and obviously you want to be up in the garage order. Even the first three races this year they went by last year’s points so we were one of the last garage stalls. It is kind of cool to be on the other side of the garage for once. We are on one side of the garage, the opposite side of our trailer all the way at the other end. We have to have a small marathon to get to our trailer but it is nice. It makes you feel good when you are on the other side of the garage I guess. Hopefully we can keep moving up and get closer to the 2 and 22 guys. It would be nice to get next to them.”
