Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Pennsylvania 400 – Pocono Raceway
Monday, August 1, 2016
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “That’s pretty awesome. Wild circumstances here at Pocono. This is gonna change our whole year right here, so this puts us in a good situation where we had a good day. It was a lot of fun. The guys really toughed it out. We got a flat tire, but we’re headed in the right direction now, so that will help in points. We got a win here, so we’ll take it any way we can get it.”
DO YOU SENSE PERFORMANCE MOMENTUM? “Yes, we’ve been definitely headed in the right direction. The last six or seven weeks have been really good for us. Kentucky was gonna be excellent for us, but is just didn’t play out. It’s pretty awesome to be here right now. I don’t know what to do right now. We don’t have any of the team here right now. The car is out on pit road. This is a little different way to celebrate.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “It was good for a while. The team did a great job. The Shell Pennzoil Ford was fast and really good on restarts. We were able to drive up to the lead a few times. Only if it had rained a little earlier we would have had a lot different outcome. We had a new rear carrier today and he came out of the gate swinging which is awesome. I am super proud of that. There were a lot of positives today. We just ended on a negative note racing hard and trying to get back up there after that caution. We all had to pit because we tried to win the race when it rained and we lost our track position and then the 24 got loose under me. It is just part of racing. It stinks to be on this end of it. It is just part of it.”
YOU TOOK IT THREE WIDE ONE TIME AROUND THE 42 AND 3 FOR THE LEAD THERE. HOW ABOUT THAT BATTLE? “That was very entertaining for me. Those guys were racing the heck out of each other and racing for their first win and there was rain in the forecast so that was for the win, in my opinion, and I think they had the same thing on their mind. It was a gift for me. I would trade that back to not have the wreck happen. Things happen. We have a lot of positives and we want to focus on those.”
ON RESTARTS, THAT IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO RIGHT? “Yeah, that is my job. I think my team does a really good job on the restarts. We are ultra-aggressive and a lot of times you come out ahead for that and sometimes you don’t. We have a win, so we are going to race hard. In all honesty, finishing second doesn’t do anything for us. It is all about the win so we were going to get ourselves back up there because we felt we had a winning race car. Things just happen when you get side by side with cars and they get loose.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “I didn’t think we were too bad. I thought we actually had a really good race car, but it didn’t really play out in our favor of getting track position. We got it and took a gamble on rain and it didn’t, and then we lost all of it and had to drive back up through the field. We should have cycled out about ninth right there and the fog rolled in.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 EcoBoost Ford Fusion – “At one point in the race we had good strategy, and we had a good car, but it’s unfortunate how it ended. It’s just unfortunate. We have about a Top-10 car and mine was pretty good out front. It was nice to lead some laps and while we still have some work to do, we’re making gains. We’re doing all we can and trying our best every week.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “It was a long weekend. We got up to sixth at one point and we didn’t need that caution because then we had to start on the top and we weren’t good enough to really be there. We got there on strategy to ninth and then got a good restart up to sixth. It would have been tough for them to pass me under green and had a caution there. I got moved out of the way by some guys and ended up sliding back, and then pitted. There were a lot of guys that short-pitted that were probably gonna run out of gas, but the strategy didn’t play out for us.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Alliance Truck Ford Fusion – POST-RACE INTERVIEW – “Probably five more laps and I think we would have been in great shape, but that’s the way it goes. We had really good speed on the green flag pit stop cycle, which got us in a position to take over the lead and hopefully control the race, but there’s nothing you can do about the fog rolling in. That’s just part of it and either way I’m really kind of pumped up for Chris. That’s big to win a race and get in the Chase. It’s been an interesting weekend here in Pocono. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m really proud of everybody on this Alliance Truck Parts Fusion team.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI PRESS CONFERENCE
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Alliance Truck Ford Fusion – WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR CHRIS BUESCHER? “I think the irony is when we started this weekend on Friday I came in here and somebody asked about how do guys trying to break in get anywhere, and I said the key is to make the most of your opportunities and Chris is a master of that. He makes the most out of each and every opportunity and that’s gonna take him a long ways in his career and he and his team did that today. So they get a lot of credit for that.”
WHAT WERE YOU TALKING TO CHRIS ABOUT AFTER YOU GOT OUT OF THE CAR? “I just told him that if I couldn’t win it was cool to see him win. I told him, ‘I can only imagine what’s going through your head right now.’ Just those kind of things. I think he was excited, but he’s kind of the humble, quiet, excited type of guy.”
