Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Goody’s 500 – Martinsville Speedway
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Ford Finishing Order:
2nd – Brad Keselowski
9th – Joey Logano
13th – Greg Biffle
15th – Aric Almirola
19th – Ryan Blaney
23rd – Trevor Bayne
27th – Chris Buescher
29th – Landon Cassill
33rd – Jeffrey Earnhardt
34th – Brian Scott
40th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion – PRESS CONFERENCE – “It was a good day for us, not the win. I think we had the speed capable to pull it off, but still a really strong day. The car was good. The team executed really well, we just kind of missed out on the racing Gods today. We have a lot to be proud of, a great effort, and showed that we’re still a strong team if not the strongest in the garage and I’m really proud of that.”
COULD YOU HAVE CAUGHT JIMMIE WITH MORE LAPS? “Yes. I know what you’re thinking, I’m thinking it too. You can say it, I can’t. We don’t need to run 100 laps under yellow with the field not trying to figure out where they’re at, and it probably cost us the race.”
ANY DISAPPOINTMENT ABOUT WHAT COULD BE RIGHT NOW? “Absolutely. I think we’re the best team in the garage and if we’re not the best, we’re right there and we don’t have a shot at winning the championship, but I think today showed how strong we are and I’m really proud of that.”
WHAT ABOUT RACING THE GUYS WHO ARE STILL IN THE CHASE? ARE YOU MORE CAREFUL? “Honestly, I’m here to win and I think we had a great shot at doing that here as you can tell today. I don’t care about this format, so I’ll just go out there and try to win. Whatever these guys do it’s still racing at the end of the day and you should be here to win.”
JIMMIE HAS WON THE LAST FOUR AT TEXAS. IF YOU’RE HIM DO YOU TRY TO WIN AGAIN TO MAKE PHOENIX MORE OF A CRAPSHOOT FOR THE OTHER GUYS? “Absolutely. I think he’s got a good shot at it. He’s got a good team and they’re hitting their marks at a really strong level. Yeah, why not? That’s what he should do. I can’t speak for him on what he will do, but I think the strange part about formats like this is you don’t have to and that seems wrong to me.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “Overall, we had a top-5 car, but we didn’t have the race play out the way we needed it to. No one made a mistake or is at fault, but that caution came out that jumbled the field up and we had the wave around to get back on the lead lap. Then when we waved around we were like thirty-something on the race track, so we just maintained. I just needed a caution to get caught up. I was hoping for a quick five-lap run and a caution so we could get caught up with those guys, but our car was better than ninth. We raced in the top five early in the race and that’s probably where we should have finished, but that’s racing sometimes. Sometimes you’re on each end of it. We got an OK day out of it – nothing bad and nothing great – but we got through it.”
WERE YOU FOCUSED ON BRAD TRYING TO CHASE JIMMIE DOWN? “I couldn’t see where that was. We had a decent Shell/Pennzoil Ford – a top-five car. We were a whole bunch better than that, but I felt like we could run in the top five, especially on the long run. But when that caution came out and screwed up the lineup for everyone, and then we had to restart what felt like 30th on the race track. We maintained there and needed a caution to be able to close back up to the lead-lap cars and just never got the caution. It’s just part of racing sometimes. We had an OK day. We need to be better than that to get to Homestead, but we’re not far off at all.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Ford Pass Ford Fusion – “It feels good. We still split the nose apart around lap 30 and that cost us a top-10 finish today. Nothing has changed. We just keep learning every week about what we’ve got to do to our cars to get them better. I’m pretty happy with coming home 13th.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “This is progress and it’s something we need to keep doing. It was a solid day for us. That’s what we need to do. Our team is capable of running Top 15 and that’s what we need to do. It takes executing perfectly and getting everything right and today we did that. We did a good job on pit road. We executed the best we could and the car was decent. I’m proud of everybody on the Smithfield Ford Fusion. We’ll get ready for next week.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Virginia Tech Ford Fusion – “It was kind of an up-and-down day for sure. On some runs we were OK and other runs we kind of struggled a little bit. I didn’t think we were that bad. Our strong point was up to about lap 40 of a run and then we’d kind of fall off, but this is a place I’ve struggled pretty bad as a driver. I need to change some stuff up here, but I thought we were gonna finish better than what we did. I kind of got in some trouble there and lost a bunch of spots, but, overall, it was a decent day. I need to get a lot better here and that’s probably the biggest thing.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “It was the same thing that happened in qualifying. I just got in the brakes and the rear end start hopping. You lose all grip as soon as it happens, so that seems to be a typical thing for us at Martinsville – not finishing these races clean. I hate it for all the Fastenal guys and all of our fans.”
