Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
Federated Auto Parts 400 – Richmond International Raceway
Friday, September 9, 2016
BUESCHER JOINS TOP-SEED KESELOWSKI & LOGANO IN 2016 CHASE FIELD
– Chris Buescher clinched a spot in the 2016 Chase via his 24th place finish tonight in Richmond
– Buescher joins Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano to give Ford three of the 16
– Keselowski is the top-seed heading into the opener next Sunday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway
– Team Penske has 8 Chase wins in the last 3 years (5 for Logano, 3 for Keselowski)
– Front Row Motorsports is making its Chase debut
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
4th Brad Keselowski
10th Joey Logano
14th Trevor Bayne
17th Aric Almirola
18th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
23rd Greg Biffle
24th Chris Buescher
27th Jeffrey Earnhardt
35th Brian Scott
36th Landon Cassill
39th Ryan Blaney
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – Finished 4th (CHASE TOP SEED)
WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT RESTART WITH KENSETH? “I just missed a shift and ruined Matt’s day. I didn’t hear what he had to say but I am sure it deserved to be said. I made a mistake and it is crappy for everyone. Hopefully he will accept the apology. I don’t want to miss a shift for myself, let along him. I got in the corner and just missed the corner. I was trying to get it in gear and just missed it and got him. It looks like it cut his tire, so apologies to him and his team. It isn’t anything anyone wants to see. As far as the rest of the day is concerned. I thought it was just hard fought Richmond night race with a lot of yellows at the end and hard to keep up with. The 11 and 78 ran a great race, so did Larson at the end. We finished right behind him. I wish I could have cleaned up a few mistakes. We just needed a little more.”
WHERE DO YOU SEE THE STATE OF YOUR TEAM HEADING INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “I have stopped worrying about all that stuff. We came into thist thing with the most wins in 2014 and a lot of momentum and had ups and downs. We came in last year with one win. It all comes down to the same thing. This is a dynamic environment. What you have done in the past is not representative of the future. You have to keep working and keep your eyes in the windshield, not the mirror. Momentum is great. It makes you feel good but isn’t something to get caught up in.”
DO YOU ANTICIPATE ANYTHING DOWN THE ROAD WITH THE 20? “It is racing. Anything is possible. All I can say is I got into him and it was my fault.”
WERE YOU BEST IN CLASS TONIGHT? “I don’t know. Larson had a lot of short run speed. He got that short run at the end and really nailed it. That was impressive. I thought on the long runs, yeah, probably. On long runs we were probably just behind the 11 and 78.”
THERE ARE FOUR NEW GUYS IN THE CHASE GOING AGAINST A FIELD OF GUYS WITH EXPERIENCE IN THIS FORMAT. ARE THAT AT A DISADVANTAGE? “I don’t know. It is only thie third year of this style of Chase. Anything is possible and I wouldn’t write anyone off.”
AS FAR AS DEALING WITH THE PRESSURE, ARE YOU USED TO IT NOW, DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH IT? “I don’t think you ever get used to it. You get a little more tolerant to it. It is a pressure cooker and an environment you don’t have a lot of control over but you somewhat accept that.”
KYLE SAID THERE IS NO CLEAN SLATE BETWEEN YOU GUYS. HOW WILL THAT CARRY OVER INTO THE CHASE OR ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THAT? “I can only speak for myself and say I don’t feel that way and I wish everyone the best.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Finished 10th (CHASE QULIFIER)
“It was a long night, just like everybody else. We had a good long run car and not a good short run car. It took us 10-15 laps to start clicking them off and then we were really fast but it was just too late. Those cautions were coming out like every 15 laps. Every time we got going a caution would come out. Overall we were a lot better than what we were in the spring, at least on the long run. The way the race played out with tires and short runs it just didn’t play in our favor.”
NOW THE FOCUS SWITCHES TO THE 10 RACE CHASE. ASSES YOUR TEAM GOING INTO THIS THING. “Our team is in great shape. I think the batteries are charged. We will show up relaxed and enjoy it. I think that is when our team is at its best, when we are having fun and obviously there will be plenty of pressure and plenty of people cracking. We have to do our deal and change up what we do.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU PAST CHASE EXPERIENCES HELP YOU FOR THIS YEAR? “I think every year you have experience in the Chase you learn a lot about yoru self personally, how to compete under those conditions, which is an important thing and you learn a lot about your team. You team figures out what works for them and what doesn’t. I think we took a lot out of last year and we know how to attack it.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 34 CSX Play it Safe Ford Fusion – Finished 24th (CHASE QUALIFIER)
“It’s obviously a big night for Front Row Motorsports and Bob Jenkins for a small team like we are to be able to pull it off and get that win at Pocono and find ourselves in the Chase right now. It’s pretty special. It was a crazy race. I can’t believe how many cautions we had. We got involved in one of the accidents, had a tire go down, just a very eventful day. Just so proud to be here. It’s a home race for CSX. I had a Bryan Park shop visit right down the road early this weekend when we got out here. It’s cool to have them out here. All the help we’ve got from Love’s Travel Stops this year and Roush Yates Engines and Ford and everybody that’s working so hard to get us here. It’s been a wild ride. We’ve had some great support from Roush Fenway at the same time. Everything worked out the way we needed it to to pull this night off the way we needed to. It’s hard going that slow. When we were finally making progress and getting the car balanced better. We were to the point where we felt like we could start driving forward, and they said, we don’t need to. There was just no risk at this point.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW THAT YOU’RE IN THE PLAYOFFS? “Now we talk a different strategy. We get a lot of things changing now. Just really cool to be a part of it at this point. We look at this first round, and we want to make it past that round. We want to move through the Chase, and then we can reevaluate from there. If we can keep going farther and improve our program each and every weekend, that’s always going to be what we’re aiming to do. That’s the plan. We’ve got to do and try and progress through the Chase and see what we can pull off. “This is awesome. All the cheers we got after we got out of the car. We have all the sponsors and employees from CSX here tonight. It is the home track for them so to be able to do this tonight with them here is awesome. They were cheering like we won a race or something. It wasn’t anything like winning a race but it is just as big in a difference sense.”
YOU DIDN’T GET TO CELEBRATE IMMEDIATELY WHEN YOU GOT YOUR WIN, HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE MAKING THE CHASE? “Well, we get a Sunday off. I don’t know what exactly we will do quite yet. I will take it easy tonight and get back home after we wrap up with all the events here. This is a great thing to have going on. I will probably just take the four wheelers out tomorrow.”
DID YOU THINK THIS WOULD HAPPEN? “I knew we could get here. I knew we had a good shot at it. For as much as we had going on, I know David (Ragan) is bummed to get caught up in a wreck and that isn’t how we wanted to clinch it but it made it easier in that sense. The second part was trying to get to the top-30 in owners points and that wasn’t easy either.”
HOW FAR CAN YOU GO IN THE CHASE? “I want to make it through the first round and then we will reevaluate from there. That needs to be our goal, to progress through the Chase through that first round and see where we can find ourselves after that.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – Finished 14th
“We tried. You have to go for it every way you can. The cool box went out on like lap 20 so that was a long night of melting down inside the car. We had a fast race car but it didn’t play out strategy wise like we needed it to. I am really proud of my guys and the car they brought this weekend. It was a car that if it was put in the right situation could have won the race. We had a really good long run car tonight but it didn’t matter tonight because there were so many short runs it just killed us.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 SKF Ford Fusion – (Involved in Lap 12 accident)
“I don’t really know what happened to be honest with you. I thought I was clear. It looked like we were clear and could get down. The 6 got us in the left rear pretty good and it eventually cut our rear tire down. I don’t know. I have to see it but I thought I was clear and he didn’t think the same way. It is an unfortunate race deal. It stinks we are behind the wall so early in the race. I think we could maybe take more than that. I want to thank SKF for being on board. It stinks. I wish we could have worked on our car and and got it better throughout the night. We will just have to fix it and get back out there. I definitely thought we were clear. They were telling me we were clear. Apparently the 6 just came up and got us in the rear. It was probably a stubborn headed thing by both of us. I should know better than that. It is unfortunate that we didn’t get to run to see where our car was going to go. That is the most unfortunate part about this. We didn’t even give ourselves a shot at it. That is something I will have regret about. All we can do is go on to Chicago and try to do better there.”
TALK ABOUT THE DISAPOINTMENT OF NOT MAKING THE CHASE. “Yeah, the goal was just like every week, to win the race. That would have gotten us in. We had some bad stuff happen really early and that made for a long night for sure. There could have been some more give on my side and the other party’s side but it didn’t happen like that and unfortunately it ended with us cutting our tire. It is one of those things that you hope doesn’t happen but sometimes they do. I think the best thing we can do now is focus on Chicago and the next 10 weeks and go win Chicago and go mess things up for the Chase folks.”
CAN YOU BE THAT TEAM WHO ISN’T IN THE CHASE BUT CAN MAKE SOME NOISE IN THOSE RACES? “I think the past three or four weeks we have been very strong. Bristol, Michigan and Darlington we have been very, very fast. We don’t know about tonight but those race tracks we unloaded really fast at. That is always encouraging when you do that. I think our team has built good momentum. This doesn’t help it but we tested at Chicago a month or so ago and we are really fast so I am excited to get back there and see what we’ve got. I hope we can be that guy to not be in the Chase but be up there contending for wins.”
