Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Daytona 500 Qualifying Practice – Daytona International Speedway
Friday, February 17, 2017
Ford Fusions took seven of the top 10 spots in today’s Daytona 500 qualifying practice session, led by Team Penske driver Joey Logano, who claimed the top spot. Aric Almirola was second and Brad Keselowski third. Other Ford Top 10 drivers included Ryan Blaney (5th), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (8th), Trevor Bayne (9th) and Clint Bowyer (10th).
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “So far it’s been a couple good practices for Penske and Ford, and now we’ll see how the races go. Practice is really just practice. There’s really nothing to it there. We’ll just have to keep tuning it in to make sure we’re good in the races.” WERE YOU ABLE TO GET TO EVERYTHING ON YOUR CHECK LIST? “Yeah, we ended early which is the first time ever. I asked Todd if I had a new crew chief and no one told me. That’s not normal.” WHAT CAN YOU TELL ABOUT THE FIELD FOR QUALIFYING? “I don’t know. In all honesty, I’ve never been that fast in qualifying here in Daytona in my whole career. I feel like I’ve never had a shot at it, but now I feel like I’m closer than ever. I feel like I’m kind of in new territory, plus I think some of these other guys sandbag a lot , so tomorrow will be the telltale sign.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “It’s going really smoothly. This is probably the smoothest qualifying practice for the Daytona 500 that I’ve ever had. The car has good speed in it and every little tweak and adjustment that the guys on this Smithfield team do seems to pick us up – like literally every time we go on the race track we seem to get a little bit better. I’m really proud of Drew Blickensderfer and all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports and everybody on this Smithfield team. They’ve got our Ford Fusion running really good.” HOW HAS THIS TEAM DOWNSIZING CHANGED THINGS FOR YOU? “It’s been a little bit different, but I think it’s been good, too. When I go in the shop and you look around and all of the focus, whether it’s the fab shop or the engineering department or just the guys on the shop floor assembling race cars it’s all focused on the 43 car. Every idea that comes through the shop or every ounce of overtime or extra effort is put into one car and I think that’s gonna hopefully pay off for us. I think management at Richard Petty Motorsports has had to make some tough decisions to scale back to one car, but it was all done in an effort to try and be better and try to get the 43 car to where it needs to be and perform at a high level for all of our sponsors and everybody that supports this program. So far, so good. This Smithfield Ford Fusion is fast.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “It was real nice to get back on the race track. Even though it’s only single-car runs and you’re only doing a lap or two at a time it’s nice to get back out there and get smooth and just kind of know your car interior like you used. It’s just nice to get back out there. I think our car has really good speed, which is nice. There are a few things I think we can do before qualifying tomorrow to try to get it a little bit faster to hopefully have a shot at the pole.” IS THIS FINISHING ORDER IN PRACTICE INDICATIVE OF WHAT WE’LL SEE TOMORROW IN QUALIFYING? “I feel like toward the end of this practice everyone kind of puts their best effort into trying to get their car as fast as possible, so I think the end of practice speeds is gonna be pretty relatable to qualifying. I know we’ve got a few things we’re gonna try to get us faster, which is nice, but the good news all three of our cars are really close. I think we’re three of the top five, which is nice, and the Fords look really fast, so that’s really good. It seems like we brought a lot of power and that’s always good to have.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “It was a great day, honestly. I know it’s practice at Daytona, but anytime you can unload fast it feels good. We still have to do that on the mile-and-a-halves, but we’ll take it here today. We feel like we’ve got some speed in it. We want to give them a run for the pole tomorrow. I can confidently say that I feel like we can. I feel really good to be able to say that. A lot of times people can come and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got a good car,’ but I really do think we have a great car. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to see how much everybody is holding back for qualifying because you know there are other people that have a lot in the tank, so we’ll see what happens. I’m really proud of my guys. I’m really proud of Jimmy Fennig and the speedway group, but also everybody at Roush Fenway – Matt Puccia and all the guys on my team – AdvoCare, Liberty National Life Insurance and Performance Plus and Ford. We’ve got some good support and fast cars right now.” DID YOU GET BETTER WITH ADJUSTMENTS OR STAY CONSISTENT MOST OF THE DAY? “We learned. That’s what we wanted to do is learn things. It’s not necessarily in this practice to get every ounce of speed. It’s always about speed, but you want to learn what works and what doesn’t and I feel like we did that.”
