Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
GEICO 500 – Talladega Superspeedway
Sunday, May 1, 2016
KESELOWSKI CLAIMS SECOND WIN OF 2016, TAKES TALLADEGA CHECKERS
- Brad Keselowski’s win today is his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season (Las Vegas)
- The win is Keselowski’s 19th of his career.
- The win is Fusion’s 73rd NSCS triumph since becoming Ford’s flagship vehicle in 2006.
- Ford now has 639 all-time NSCS victories.
- Team Penske has now registered 49 NSCS wins with Ford, including 22 over the past three years.
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – HOW WAS THE RACE FROM YOUR SEAT? “I didn’t have a great frame to see what happened to everyone else. The guys at Team Penske gave me a great Miller Lite Ford and this Fusion was hauling it. One of the best tickets to stay out of the wrecks at Talladega is if you can stay up front, and you’ve got a great shot of not getting wrecked. But this No. 2. Daytona didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. We thought we were gonna be better than that, but we just didn’t show the speed in the 500 and the guys went to work and they brought me a really strong care here for Talladega. I’m so proud of everybody at Team Penske. To be back in Victory Lane with two wins this year, and we feel like we can get a lot more. We’re growing as s team. We made a lot of changes at Team Penske and this feels really good, really good.”
YOU STARTED ON THE OUTSIDE ON THE FINAL RESTART. WHAT DID YOU KNOW WAS GOING TO WORK FOR YOU ON THE OUTSIDE? “I didn’t. The last three or four restarts before that the high lane had went and as the leader a lot of it is out of your control. You need the cars behind you to push and a couple of them they did and a couple they didn’t. That’s just part of racing and there was nobody at fault with that. We actually lost the lead and got a better run. Jamie McMurray behind me gave me a great push and then Kyle Busch gave me a push that was big to clear the 41 and without those two I couldn’t have made it to the front, so thank you to them. It’s Talladega. This is my fourth win here. I never thought I’d win at Talladega four times and I’m super-pumped. This is awesome.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Finished 9th)
“It was a good day. We felt like earlier in the race I couldn’t pick a lane that was worth a dang. We kept going backwards. Hopefully this turns around for us. There was one run before we got in that wreck where we got up through there into the top-10. I think we got to fifth actually again and then lost spots on the last pit stop. We got in that wreck too. They did a good job fixing it. It ran fine after that. I didn’t want to see that last caution. I thought we were set up good to go to the end there and I wanted to keep digging. Everyone bailed to the top and I didn’t have a lot of help on the bottom. That was unfortunate but overall a decent day for us.
DID IT FEEL CRAZIER THAN NORMAL OUT THERE. “Yeah, a lot of hard racing and people being aggressive. I don’t know what caused that. A little of it might have been the weather threat. I think early in the race for sure. With 40 or 50 to go they said there might be some more weather so that might have played a role in it.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion (Finished 10th)
“We were on the bottom on that last restart and when they all went to the top I might as well just be driving out of the rear view mirror trying not to get run over. We pushed the 41 to a really good start. I think he might have cleared the 2 and I had help from the 21 but I think the damage on the 21 deterred some help. They all went to the top and we ended up 10th. I thought we had a great race car. I am proud of what my guys brought to the track this weekend but we finished 10th.
YOU GUYS SEEM TO HAVE TURNED THINGS AROUND. “It is so refreshing to come to the race track and have a change. I feel really good about the pieces they are giving me. It is all about the race cars. You can’t drive any harder, they just are giving me better race cars. I am proud of my guys. We had a pretty event free day other than the pit road penalty but we recovered from that for the most part.
DID IT SEEM MORE INSANE THAN NORMAL? “Very, very insane. You get butterflies in your stomach even thinking about coming here because you don’t know what will happen. You can have a great day and win. Even in the overtime I was sitting third and could have won or ended up on a wrecker with the roof torn off. It is hard to race here without being nervous or anxious.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Finished 25TH)
WHAT HAPPENED TO CAUSE THAT ACCIDENT? “I haven’t seen a replay yet. We crashed. That is part of Talladega. 75-percent of us crashed I think. Congratulations to my teammate. That is great for them. It is a bummer for us though. We were in position decent toward the end. I don’t know. Something happened up top and cars came down across my nose. It is what it is.”
MATT KENSETH HAD SOME THINGS TO SAY TO YOU. WHAT DID HE SAY? “Not much. It’s unfortunate. We had a pretty decent car. I wouldn’t say it was the fastest car out there. It took us all day to get towards the front, but we positioned ourselves well at the end there with around 20 to go up there in the front row and in the lead. I was proud of what our Shell/Pennzoil team did. We worked hard all day, but unfortunately didn’t end up as well as we’d like to two days in a row. A couple big hits, so I can’t wait to get out of this place.”
SOUNDED LIKE HE WAS PRETTY UPSET WITH YOU. “Okay. He can get in line with the rest of them.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion (Finished 27th)
WHAT HAPPENED TO CAUSE THAT ACCIDENT? “I was on the outside lane and I thought I was going to be good. I saw the 10 get squirelly and I thought someone got in the back of her. She went left. I thought that would be good for me. She came back right and hooked me in the left rear and we all went wrecking. I am not really sure what caused that.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops/CSX Play It Safe Ford Fusion (ACCIDENT QUOTES)
“I just saw the replay. It was so quick I never had any time to react. We got clipped in the right rear and as soon as it turned it went up on its lid. I thought we were clear of the wreck. I saw it happening in front of us and checked up and the next thing I knew I was upside down. I am pretty sick and tired of speedway racing at this point. It has been a rough year for that. We felt we were decent this race. We were holding our own and waiting but here we are. It is unfortunate. I really hate it for the guys.”
DID YOU FEEL THE TENSION BUILDING OUT THERE? “No, not really. We knew we were getting ready for pit stops and everyone was shuffling around a little bit. We were in a good spot. We were on the bottom and going to be able to hit pit road easily. It just happened out of nowhere.”
