Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
AAA Texas 500 – Texas Motor Speedway
Friday, November 4, 2016
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
2nd Joey Logano
4th Brad Keselowski
8th Ryan Blaney
20th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
21st Aric Almirola
25th Greg Biffle
26th Trevor Bayne
29th Brian Scott
30th Chris Buescher
34th Landon Cassill
39th Joey Gase
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Ford Fusion – QUALIFIED 2nd
“That is really frustrating. Last week we missed it by eight thousandths and this week by six thousandths. Second stings the most. That is okay. Our team is tough and we showed speed in qualifying the last couple weeks. I think this AAA Fusion has a lot of speed in race trim too. I am excited. It is a fun track to race and is really racey as well. We are starting toward the front and this is a 500-mile race so I am looking forward to it.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion – QUALIFIED 4th
“Everybody was really close there at the end. Three-hundredths for the top-four. That is a close field. We weren’t where we wanted to be at the start but we kept on it and kept getting better. That is a testament to Paul Wolfe and the 2 crew here and I am very proud of that effort.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Borg Warner Ford Fusion – QUALIFIED 8th
“That wasn’t bad. We got better every run, which is good. That is really all you can ask for. We thought we were going to be a lot looser than we were and we kind of fought tight the entire time. We needed to turn better. We were really loose in practice and kept tightening it up and got to qualifying and were a little too snug. We could never get that out of it. It was a good effort for us and we have a whole new day tomorrow to try to get our car good in race trim and see what we can do.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion – QUALIFIED 20th
“That was not as good as what we wanted. In the spring we were really fast and qualified fifth. It is a disappointment we weren’t able to do that again today. All in all from where we ended practice to now we are a lot better. I have to be happy that we made some changes to get our Fastenal Ford better but we definitely wanted more than what we got there.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare/SEAL Legacy Foundation Ford Fusion – QUALIFIED 26th
After practice we had a top-10 car with the balance the way it was but after all the other series were on the race track it tightened up a lot and we just missed it the first run. We came in and freed it up a lot and picked up some and missed it again the second time out there. That is disappointing when you know you have a fast race car but it looks good with the SEAL Legacy Foundation on there with AdvoCare this weekend. We thank them for their support and love supporting them in what they do. We wanted to qualify good but if we can get it driving like we did earlier today it will be a good race.
JOEY LOGANO POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Ford Fusion – THIS IS THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE RACE HERE YOU WILL START SECOND AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY. TALK ABOUT QUALIFYING AND LOOKING AHEAD TO SUNDAY’S RACE. “Man, I honestly didn’t think it would be close to the pole. I didn’t have a very good one and two at all and got really tight. I kind of missed the bottom. Then realizing how close you were to the pole afterwards is the most frustrating part of it. Especially after last weekend when we missed it by eight-thousandths and now six this weekend. We are getting closer. It is crazy to think about how close that is when you are going 200 miles per hour. I don’t know how close that is in feet or probably inches. That is the name of the game though. That is how close the competition is. We are mad about second and that is when you know your team is in a good spot. I feel like we had a good car in race trim earlier today and the car is capable of a lot of speed and we saw a lot of potential getting the balance right. We are starting close to the front. That is just too many seconds. Second always stings and we were second here in the spring and here we are again and last week as well. The poles are so close and that is the only thing that really matters on Fridays.”
HOW MUCH OF TODAY WILL HELP YOU SUNDAY? “We got some laps in in race trim. The track was really green. It was funny to watch qualifying at night being actually slower than practice because of all the XFINITY rubber up there since we practiced. It is amazing how much this track changes. This track is a lot like Atlanta lately. It is a lot of fun how much you slow down in each run and how quick the tires fall off in race trim. This place is awesome. It is a lot of fun and super-fast. You can move around and do so many different things. It is a great place to race. The track is always going to keep changing, even after our practice tomorrow. Happy hour will probably be the closest thing we’ve got with the number of cars on track. It is constantly going to change and we need to be on top of that and be ready for what will happen in the race.”
I TAKE IT YOU WOULD NOT WANT THIS PLACE REPAVED? “No, please no. never repave this place. I would not be an advocate of that at all. It is really coming to a cool race track that has bumps, swells, wears tires, is fast and has some banking. It is unique. It has a lot of character and it puts on good races. I think it is fun. I was re-watching some races here on the airplane and it is kind of cool to see how much everyone was short pitting because the tires were falling off and you fight for the bottom for a few laps and start moving around and passing up top. Those are all signs of a good race track.”
ONLY THREE RACES LEFT FOR TONY STEWART. YOU HAVE HAD SOME ENTANGLEMENTS WITH HIM OVER THE YEARS. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES OF COMPETING AGAINST HIM?“There are a few. I am trying to think of one off the top of my head. California keeps coming to my mind but that is probably not the best memory. At least we can laugh about it now though. Tony is a fierce competitor. He has a lot of passion. You have to respect someone that has a lot of passion about what they do. That is honestly probably if you were to say one thing that makes Tony Stewart great it is the passion that he brings to the game. When you have someone that has a lot of passion you are going to also have a lot of emotions with that a lot of times. I am the same way. That is probably why we butt heads a couple times. Tony is one of those drivers that really understands the flow of a race. He knows when to not beat up his car and when to not make other drivers mad and when to just log some laps. He also know when it is game time and he becomes one of the most fierce competitors out there. It is a cool trait and I have learned a lot from watching him. Naturally I am 100-percent every lap and that my hurt me every now and again. I have learned to realize when to go and when not to by watching Tony a lot of times.”
ANY PARTICULAR RACE SITUATION THAT STANDS OUT OTHER THAN CALIFORNIA? “We race each other a lot and I am sure I will think of one tonight. I will text you.”
JOEY LOGANO POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE CONTINUED …
WHAT IS IT LIKE FOR SOMEONE LIKE YOU TO HAVE TO RACE AGAINST THE GIBBS CARS WHEN THEY ARE STICKING TOGETHER. WHAT ABOUT FOR YOU? WHAT IS IT LIKE KNOWING THEY ARE ALL TOGETHER IN THIS THING AND HAVE TO RACE AGAINST THAT? “After re-watching the races lately I don’t really see them sticking together. It obviously brings momentum to their team to have them all still in the Chase but it also brings a lot of opportunity for controversy because they all want to win. There is only one winner when it comes down to it. Eventually you will see teams go from an “us” to “I” and it will be interesting to see when that transition is for a lot of teams. It happens in the Chase every year. Especially at Homestead and it is your shot to win the championship. It will be interesting to see how that works out and how teams are. It doesn’t really affect me though, in all honestly. Brad is fast and up there racing with me, whether he is still in the rounds or not and Blaney as well. They are both fast and all three of us made it to the last round tonight. As long as they are up there racing with you, you can all work together which is good. Even though they aren’t in the next round of the Chase they are still out there racing and can work with us back and forth.”
WILL THE TRACK CHANGE AGAIN FOR SUNDAY? “Yeah, it will change quite a bit. It will change for sure. It will go through another swing for sure after this Truck race tonight and then practice again and the XFINITY race and it will probably be full rubber by that point. Our Happy Hour tomorrow will be the most realistic practice to learn as much as we can for Sunday’s race.”
WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING ON THE EDGE, IS IT DIFFERENT HERE BECAUSE OF THE BUMPS AND HIGH SPEEDS? “Yeah, it is different because like I said earlier you have a lot of speed and bumps and a lack of grip on old tires. So you may think you are okay and the next thing you know you hit the tunnel bump in one and two or the bumps in three and four or the ripple bumps and the next thing you know your car is shaking out of control and you miss the bottom or go up the race track. It is a challenging place to get around for that reason. You are in the corners for a long period of time. You exit turn two with no banking at all. For some reason in turn four the car lifts up off the track and kind of shoots you up into the fence. You see a lot of mistakes being made here, myself included, and it just happens. It reminds me a lot of Atlanta lately because Atlanta is the same way. You watch in car cameras and they are swatting flies in there. Everyone I back and forth on the wheel and you have to. The cars are on the ragged edge. If you compare that to a repave like Michigan or Kansas your hands are pretty straight, almost like you are driving an Indy Car. Here, you have that thing hung out. You are driving a stock car. It makes it really fun.”
HOW OFTEN DO YOU COME TO A TRACK LIKE A SECOND TIME IN THE YEAR AND THERE IS A SLIGHT DEVIATION IN THE TRACK THAT WAS NOT THERE THE FIRST TIME AROUND? “You just adjust to it. It doesn’t seem to change a whole bunch here. The bumps that are there, if they are growing is gradual and I don’t notice it. You go to places with rough winters like Pocono and every time you go there it is like, ‘oh, where did that come from’? I think the winters have something to do with it. I don’t know. I am not a construction guy to understand how all this stuff works but definitely the tracks up north seem to have bigger change than somewhere down here probably.”
