Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Citizen Soldier 400 – Dover International Speedway
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Ford Finishing Order:
4th – Brad Keselowski
6th – Joey Logano
11th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16th – Aric Almirola
18th – Greg Biffle
20th – Trevor Bayne
21st – Brian Scott
23rd – Chris Buescher
29th – Landon Cassill
36th – Jeffrey Earnhardt
38th – Ryan Blaney
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “I think we just blew a right-front pretty bad. We were running pretty good before that and I wasn’t really getting tight, I was kind of just riding around, and blew a big hole in it. We’ll have to look at it and see what happened, but it’s a shame. We got our car pretty good that second run and were driving up through the field pretty good. I would have liked to see what we would have had if we had a couple more chances to work on it, but we’ll try to get it fixed and make some laps. It’s a shame we couldn’t run good today but it’s a testament to our team of not starting very good and getting a lot better in one pit stop, so that’s something we can take away.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – PLEASED WITH YOUR RUN? “Yeah, we had a decent day. We wanted to be just a little bit faster, but we’re just kind of gnawing away with these top-fives here these first three races, which is good. Of course, we want to get the wins, but top-fives will carry you a long ways. I’m happy with that with the Miller Lite Ford.”
WILL IT TAKE A LOT MORE IN ROUND 2? “No, it takes top-fives to Homestead, but I still want to win.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL AFTER THE RACE AND ADVANCING? “We’ve just had a solid three races here. Nothing flashy, but nice, strong, consistent top-fives. That’s something to be proud of and we have to keep it going and keep finding the speed and hope to get some wins along the way so we can be ready for Homestead.” HOW BIG IS MOMENTUM FOR YOU GUYS? “Momentum is kind of one of those feel good things that I’m not really sure it means anything, but it sure does feel good.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT YOUR SITUATION RIGHT NOW? “We’re doing all the things we need to do right now. We want to be able to win races, but we’re right there knocking on the door, so that feels good.”
HOW MUCH SLEEP DO YOU LOSE IN THIS KIND OF FORMAT WHERE THINGS CAN CHANGE SO FAST? “I don’t know if losing sleep helps you, but you never take anything for granted in these rounds until it’s over, unless you have that win, because something bad can happen and knock you out. When they waved the white flag, I started feeling a little bit better, but not until I crossed the checkered flag do you feel, ‘OK, we’re on to the next one.’”
YOUR FOCUS FOR CHARLOTTE? “Win the race. Do the best we can.”
HOW DID YOU GET THAT FOURTH-PLACE FINISH TODAY? “We just had a smooth, top-five to maybe seventh or eighth-place day – nothing really flashy. The Miller Lite Ford was really consistent with great pit stops and execution, so kind of a fun day. It wasn’t as fun as if you led every lap and won the race, but fun to get out there and compete and race real hard and be in a spot to move forward to the next round.”
THE ONLY DRIVER WITH TOP-5 FINISHES IN ALL THREE RACES THIS ROUND. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THIS TEAM? “Consistency is just as important as winning in this format and I think sometimes that gets lost. In fact, you might even say consistency is more important, but I think looking forward if we keep up what we’re doing, we’ll find our way to Homestead, so that’s something to be proud of.”
HOW MENTALLY CHALLENGING IS THIS FORMAT? “It’s more mentally challenging the more points you have to score because you know every little spot counts. It was nice coming into this race with a 30-point cushion. I certainly don’t expect to have that luxury at Talladega, so hopefully we can win at Charlotte or Kansas.”
THE POINTS RESET NEXT WEEK, BUT WHAT ABOUT COMPETITIVELY? “Competitively who knows? This is very dynamic how the speed works. Some cars are fast one week and not as much the next week, so I guess we’ll find out when we get on the race track.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “Overall, we did what we had to do. The points are back to zero and we can head to the next round and try to get a win. Every track is different. Dover is obviously a beast of its own. It’s a very cool race track, but everything is so different compared to where we’re gonna go next week to Charlotte and then Kansas and Talladega. They’re all gonna be a lot different for sure, but we’ll take what we learned here for next year and I’m sure there are some things that we can apply to the next race, but most of it is kind of track-specific.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE HAVING THE POINTS RESET NOW. “It’s nice to have the reset. We weren’t bad off in points at all, but to have the reset – we didn’t have the bonus points going into this round, so it’s nice to be at zero with everyone and be able to try to get ourselves a win and get through or have some nice, solid days like we had today to give us some kind of cushion by the time we get to Talladega. We’re ready to go and now we’ll just wait to see what happens.”
HOW GUT-WRENCHING ARE THESE ELMINATIONS? “It is for sure, but we want to put ourselves in position like we did today. Starting the race with a 21-point cushion you can race your race and not have to worry about a lot of things and that’s what we did today. We just kind of ran an average, typical race. We didn’t set the world on fire by any means, we just ran where we were. We started fifth and finished sixth, and that’s kind of where we were all day.”
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 34 CSX/Play It Safe Ford Fusion – “It wasn’t a bad day for our CSX Ford. We made some good adjustments, but had one run that just wasn’t quite there and almost felt like it was a bad set of tires. The way the race played out with long green runs, we didn’t really have a chance to recover from that one.”
HOW DO YOU APPROACH THESE FINAL SEVEN RACES? “Now we go back to racing the same way we did this weekend. Nothing really changes. We’ve got the opportunity to test a little bit more and we still have the opportunity to take chances for the rest of the season, but I’m really proud of the guys for all the work this year. To even be in the Chase was a really big deal for Front Row Motorsports and this 34 team. My hat’s off to everybody who has worked so hard this season. It’s unfortunate this is the end of our Chase, but it was a pretty good deal to make it in our first season.”
YOU HAD SOME CONTACT WITH THE 47 EARLY IN THE RACE. WHAT HAPPENED THERE? “Racing. As far as I know that’s racing.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM EXECUTED DURING THIS THREE-RACE STRETCH? “It was great to be in the Chase. To even be in the running and be participating in it was a really special deal, especially for our first season, so that’s pretty awesome. These three races never really rolled our way. We had long green-flag runs in all three of them and we just haven’t had a chance to really dial it in. This weekend was especially tough without getting hardly any practice. We never made a long run, so we didn’t really know exactly where we were gonna be. It wasn’t bad. The car drove pretty decent, but those leaders set a blistering pace.”
