Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Coke Zero 400 – Daytona International Speedway
Saturday, July 2, 2016
KESELOWSKI EARNS FIRST DAYTONA WIN; CLAIMS COKE ZERO 400 CHECKERS
· Brad Keselowski’s win today is his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season and 21st of his career.
· In addition, it’s Keselowski’s first career win in any NASCAR Series at Daytona International Speedway.
· The win is Fusion’s 75th NSCS triumph since becoming Ford’s flagship vehicle in 2006.
· Ford now has 643 all-time NSCS victories.
· The victory marks the 51st win all-time for Team Penske with Ford and the 11th victory for Keselowski with Ford.
· Of Team Penske’s 51 NSCS wins with Ford, 24 have come over the past three years.
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion – Qualified 5th / Finished – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – HOW DID YOU HOLD OFF THE BUSCH BROTHERS AND YOUR TEAMMATE? “Those guys were doing a heck of a job. Kyle and Kurt worked together really well, and my teammate Joey Logano was a huge part of this today. We had two great cars here with Team Penske and worked together really well. Joey has won here and he’s really a pro, especially on that restart. He gave me that push I need to get to the front and here we are at Daytona in Victory Lane. I don’t care if it’s not the 500. It’s Daytona. This is huge. I love this place and here we are in Victory Lane with the Detroit Ford.”
WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE TO NOT WIN HERE FOR SO LONG? “It’s been a kick in the you-know-what. I got down on myself here. We came down here for the 500 and quite honestly we ran like dog crap, but my team worked on it. I didn’t give up on them. I believe in my team and my team believes in me and we went to work and we put together a better car, and it really showed today with a great effort from the whole team. I’m really proud of everybody.”
WHAT HELPED YOU MAKE THE DECISION ON WHICH LINE TO GET IN FOR THE FINAL RESTART? “My teammate, Joey Logano. I knew he’d work with me. I knew he was really good with this and having a great teammate is an awesome thing.”
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st Brad Keselowski
3rd Trevor Bayne
4th Joey Logano
5th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
8th Greg Biffle
14th Ryan Blaney
15th Aric Almirola
19th David Gilliland
24th Bobby Labonte
31st Landon Cassill
37th Brian Scott
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – Qualified 13th / Finished 3rd
“I owe the guys behind me that were pushing me. I had a lot of help. The race was really crazy today. Just watching some of the guys working the middle you knew there would be trouble at some point. My spotter has a better perspective than I do told me to go to the back and ride and we did and got through some wrecks. It was a tough night. It was really hot out there so thanks to AdvoCare for getting me through that one. I am really proud of this Roush Fenway team. We had a pole this weekend, three cars in the top-10, two in the top-five. That last run, starting 12th and being on the top and getting a run in that lane and having a lot of help from the 3 we were able to work the top and get a P3.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion – Qualified 4th / Finished 5th
“It was wild out there. Clint (Bowyer) was pushing me the whole last lap. I wasn’t sure that we would be able to be pushed all the way through the corners but we were able to hold it in a straight line as best we could and get a top-five out of it. The Roush Fenway guys worked really hard and Jack has put a lot of confidence in everyone to get our cars better each week. We have really improved on the speedways. The Fifth Third Ford was really good and fun to drive. We lost our track position early but got it back. I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July. Thanks to all the fans for coming out.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Qualified 11th / Finished 4th
“It was hard fought for sure. Anytime you have an opportunity to win and you are in the top four or five or six on the last restart you know you have a shot at it. I was able to get Brad a good push to clear and get a Penske car to victory lane which is really cool. Todd Gordon made a great call to put four tires on which allowed us to be aggressive at the end. I hate that I got into Kurt (Busch) there at the end racing to the line. I had a run to turn up underneath him and when you do that the cars get free and then I was there and he tried to catch it and I was there again. It is a product of this racing but I hate that it happened. The last thing I want to do is hit someone like that. Unfortunately, it happened. Overall a solid day for us. The 2 was the fastest car and he deserved to win the race. We need to find a little more speed in our race car.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 Ford EcoBoost Fusion – Qualified 1st / Finished 8th
“It was a rough night after we got in that wreck. We got shuffled out of line and that will happen with speedway racing. We were working our way back up and running with the 4 car and a few of those guys and somebody got turned right in the middle. I don’t know who. We got pretty severe damage and were able to come back and finish eighth. We had a pretty fast car and the 2 car was unbelievably fast. We have some work to do still but I am so proud of my guys. This Ford EcoBoost Fusion ran really well.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – Qualified 12th / Finished 14th
“It was a long night, that’s for sure. We had a really fast car, I’ll say that. All of the Fords were really fast. It’s cool to see Brad win it. That’s awesome. We were really fast in the beginning. We had a little incident on pit road. We were still really good after that. We were in a good spot and the 14 wrecked, turned in front of us and hurt the right front pretty bad. There just weren’t enough laps to go after that to go anywhere. Unfortunately we couldn’t get out with a finish we deserve. I thought we were a top five. But not bad.
14TH IS PRETTY GOOD FOR THE POINTS. “We’ve got nine more races to go to figure that out. We just try to go out and do the best we can in those races and the points will shake out how they do”.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT SECOND PIT STOP? “I slid the fronts and got too close to the wall. That was my fault but we fought back. We ran up front a lot.”
YOU MISSED THAT FIRST BIG WRECK. “We barely missed that one but we just didn’t quite miss the other one”.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – Accident Quotes
WHAT DID YOU SEE OUT THERE? “It all happened in front of us. I tried to get on the brakes and just slid right in to it. There was nowhere to go. I tried to go up the middle. There seemed to be fewer cars there at the time but by the time we got there the hole filled up and we ended up in it. It was a really tough day. We really wanted to have a good weekend. We had the Special Forces Charitable Trust on the car with Love’s this weekend and wanted to have a great Fourth of July weekend and it didn’t turn out that good. I want to wish everyone back home a happy 4th.”
WHAT WAS THE RACING LIKE? “I was surprised we had an issue there. I felt like everyone was settling in and logging laps. I feel like everyone was being pretty patient. I don’t know what happened. I have not seen the replay. The spotter told me that it just happened toward the front. There is no safe place here.”
IS THERE A SOLUTION TO THIS HERE? “Not that I know of. I am still pretty new to this. I am sure one of these guys that have been doing it a lot longer than I have can give you a better answer. I don’t know what the fix is but I sure would like to see one.”
BRIAN SCOTT, No. 44 Albersons/Shore Lodge Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “I didn’t see a lot. I was on the outside and our lane seemed to get a good run entering turn 1 and I saw guys check-up and hands out the windows so I started checking up. Then the check-up kept going and it became an accordion effect. We were in the wall and jacked up and I guess the 4 came up under me and drove underneath my car and then I was up in the air. It was a pinball effect. It is an unfortunate end. You always seem to get those big ones here in the Fourth of July race. Sometimes there is nothing you can do. There was no chance to ever miss that for our 44 Ford.”
HOW DID YOU GET SEPERATED FROM HARVICK? “No clue but I am glad I did. I didn’t want to climb out of my car and off another one. I watched the replay and it didn’t look as severe as it felt to me. When I realized I was on top of a car and opened my eyes to me it was like I was looking straight down and felt like iw as in the process of flipping onto the room. Then we were stopped in the grass and I knew the car was killed. I started working on unbuckling and making sure everyone was alright.”
IS THERE A FIX FOR THIS? “Take restrictor plates off I guess but then we would be going too fast. It is just a product of this type of racing. When you are in the pack and there is one wreck – it looked like it started this time with the 1 and 48, there is no way for people to escape.”
