Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Can-Am Duel #1 – Daytona International Speedway
Thursday, February 23, 2017
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
3rd Kevin Harvick
4th Brad Keselowski
6th Trevor Bayne
8th Aric Almirola
9th Joey Logano
10th Cole Whitt
13th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14th Matt DiBenedetto
15th Landon Cassill
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – IT LOOKED LIKE YOU AND KEVIN HARVICK WERE TRYING TO GET A RUN, WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU COULD DO TO GET THE WIN? “It was a solid night for the Miller Lite Ford. We had some good speed and learned some more things about this car. There’s always something to be learned. We had some good speed. We led a lot of laps. Most importantly, we took our best car and brought it home in one piece. We still wanted to win.” TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TONIGHT? “We had a good night. We knew the 24 car was going to be strong. It just didn’t shake out like I hoped it would in some of those pivotal moments, that’s part of it. I could have taken a few more risks. We’re going to work on some things that make that possible.” DID YOU SHOW ALL YOUR MOVES TONIGHT? “No. We still have a few more left and we’ll work on them.”
KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion (Finished 3rd) – “We got there, but we just didn’t clear the 24. Brad and I were talking just about how our cars were handling. We had a very similar issue that we need to work on a little bit. We’ve got a couple things we need to work on before the 500, but, all in all, I’m pretty happy with no practice and still building our notebook on all these Fords. We’ve still got plenty of speed, so that’s a good thing.” AND YOU GOT SOME POINTS TONIGHT. “Yeah, I forgot about that, so we got some points and that’s a good thing.” IT WAS CLOSE QUARTERS RACING AT THE END. ANY CONCERN ABOUT THAT? “That’s just how we race all the time. We want to race for the trophies and for wins and I think everybody knows there are points on the line tonight and you want to get your season started off well, so it went OK. We didn’t get to victory lane like we wanted to, but still OK.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Finished 9th) – “I was just talking with Todd (Gordon) and trying to figure out where our mistakes were tonight. I made a few on the race track. I was up there toward the front and made a move and lost everything I had gained. That one sucked on my part. We also had a loose wheel and need to understand why we had that. We had a couple of mistakes we need to clean up. Besides that, we learned some stuff tonight.” WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE LOOSE WHEEL? “I don’t know. Have to get back and talk to the team.” HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU FOR THE 500 AFTER COMING BACK FROM A LAP DOWN? “I feel okay. We had a pretty good car and to not get a good finish out of it was my fault. But I feel comfortable about the 500. This was a night race, nothing like what the race will be like on Sunday when cars are slipping and sliding a lot more. That is when we will be better.”
WHAT WILL YOU GUYS WORK ON THE MOST BEFORE SUNDAY? “I need to fine tune myself some. Our team did okay. We were up there to third at some point and that is what I am frustrated about. I got all the way back to where we needed to be from being down a lap and then I gave it all back. That is just frustrating. It is a lesson learned and I would rather learn it tonight than Sunday.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) – “I was really hoping that outside line would have got going. The front couple of cars just kept getting held back some. We were just in line and I was hoping with Kevin leading, it seemed like he had a strong car qualifying and stuff, but it just wasn’t as strong as the 24. I thought the 2 was a little bit better leading than the 4 was, but we were just riding in line behind the 43. I thought the 78 was just gonna keep trying to get that line to go and they got checked up and he jumped to the outside, and then we were stuck in the middle. I just kept trying to push the 43, but we we weren’t going anywhere.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion (Finished 6th) – “My car felt really good tonight. It pushed like crazy and it runs the bottom better than any car I’ve ever really had here. It’s funny seeing all the Fords now. There are more out there with the 4 and the Stewart-Haas guys, but they seemed strong tonight. The RPM car, our Roush Fenway cars, Penske cars, Stewart-Haas cars — all the Fords are just fast, so it was fun sticking together and pushing up through there with the 4 and Joey pushing me there at the end. I thought if we could have gotten the bottom lane rolling there at the end we had a shot at a top-three finish or so, but it was a good day and we raced hard, so it was a lot of fun.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion (Finished 8th) – HOW WAS YOUR RACE? “It was a good run for us. I think that our Smithfield Ford Fusion had good speed in it. We mixed it up there a bit. I thought we had better car, I just couldn’t make the moves when I wanted to. We’ll find some more speed in our car. All in all it was a decent race for us. I think we have good momentum heading into the Daytona 500. We have good speed in our car. Our car drove well. We’ll just tune on it and find some more speed.”
LANDON CASSILL – No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – “Not much changed other than the fact we got in the back and couldn’t back up to the front. I tried to get behind the 17 there at the end, but it was blocked up front and we couldn’t go anywhere. It was kind of like gridlock, but I feel like my car is fast and faster than what we had last year, for sure. I’d like to get it handling a little bit better. I wanted to get up front and it did. I felt like it wasn’t handling quite as good at the end of the race as it did at the beginning for sure, but the holes just opening up for me and I was able to get up there. I just wanted to try and hold that track position if I could.” WHAT DID YOU LEARN THE MOST FOR SUNDAY? “Just a little bit about how the car needs to handle because it will be a lot worse on Sunday, so we definitely have some work to do on the handling side.”
