Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Daytona 500 – Daytona
International Speedway
Sunday, February 26,2017
RYAN BLANEY, POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE (RUNNER-UP)
RYAN, PLEASE WALK US THROUGH THE FINAL LAPS FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE. “Yeah, I thought we had a good car all day to start off. We showed that definitely in the first half of the race. Then we got some damage there in one of those big wrecks about middle of the race. Kind of hurt our car a little bit. AJ (Allmendinger) and I are just talking. Looks like everyone ran a race at Martinsville. Everyone’s stuff was tore up. Only a handful of cars left at the end. We all got single file with 15 to go, something like that. I tried to make a move with 10 to go to see what would happen. No one really went with me. The 22 tried to. It really wasn’t happening. I was kind of worried it was just going to end that way. Luckily I got Joey behind me there down the frontstretch, and we were able to lay back to him and get a huge run into one. At that same moment, the 41 went to go past the 42, and it kept my run going, all the way up to second. Down the back, I look in my mirror, I see the 47 car. I’ll just lay back to him, we’ll get a big run. I started kind of running out the gas there into three. We started sputtering pretty bad. Luckily made it back to the line. It was a good showing for us. It was a good way to start off the year. Stinks to be so close. But I think that’s good momentum for our team, to be good at the beginning of the day, get some damage and be able to rally for a good finish.”
WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF ALL THE WRECKS? HALF THE FIELD DIDN’T FINISH. WAS IT THE FIVE‑MINUTE CLOCK, TOO MUCH AGGRESSION, THE STAGES? WHAT HAPPENED TODAY? “Once we get three‑wide and you’re 20th, you can’t go anywhere. There is no room to make any ground. With the leader blocking every lane it kind of stalls everybody out. So really what AJ said. Everyone tries to get their track position with a hundred to go, something like that, just so they can stay up front for the end.”
RYAN, I REMEMBER 2015, TALLADEGA, YOU HAD A VERY STRONG CAR BUT COULDN’T GET ANYBODY TO WORK WITH YOU AT THE END. HAS THAT CHANGED FOR YOU? WHEN YOU PULLED OUT OF LINE TODAY WAS IT DÉJÀ VU? “I think it’s helped a little bit. The yellow things on the back bumper helped. Not being there any more, that seems to help out a little bit. Really, you can talk all about people not going with young drivers or whoever. Really at the end of these things you’re kind of forced to go with whoever wants to go. Today luckily we had a teammate with Joey behind us who would go with us. It’s kind of circumstance and timing, when you choose to go. If the person behind you thinks they can go with you”
IT SEEMED TO ME THAT THE MANUFACTURERS, SOME OF THE TEAMS HAD A STRATEGY OF RUNNING AS A SQUADRON. IT BIT THE TOYOTAS EARLY ON. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM RUNNING TOGETHER IN PLATE RACES LIKE THIS? I thought the Fords had it made early. We had six or seven of us kind of lined up there. We were really fast. It seemed everything kind of was going our way. Then I know a handful of them got taken out. Then all of a sudden it kind of seems like we’re the underdogs. There were only two or three of us left with the 41, 22 and myself. The 43 was in there. Really not a lot of us left in there. Mostly Chevrolets. You see the plans in the middle of the race kind of working well. At the end it never really seems to work that way. I definitely think manufacturers are really working together a lot more in the past couple years, just because you can get so many of them to work together. At Ford, we were lucky to get four more cars we could work with, which really allowed us to try to do that today, be strong with all those cars.”
I KNOW IT’S HARD TO PROJECT THE ‘WHAT IFS’ AND EVERYTHING, BUT WHAT IF CHASE DOESN’T RUN OUT OF GAS? “He ran out of gas, so… There’s really no ‘what ifs.’ If wishes were fishes, the world would be an ocean.”
CHASE ELLIOTT WAS VISIBLY UPSET AFTER THE RACE, LEAVING WITH HIS DAD WITHOUT REALLY TALKING TO ANYONE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT MINDSET? “I mean, that’s the way he is. He wants to do so well. He does do a great job and everything. You see him, he should have won two or three races last year. Things didn’t work out. Nothing of his fault. You get down on yourself. Like AJ said, he’s going to win tons of races in his career. He’s going to win a lot this year. He had a great shot to win that race. He was the best car that could control both lanes. You saw that in the Duels. You saw that today. He could really keep both lanes at bay. Not many other cars could do that today. No matter who was out front, the top would get a run. His or something like that, but his car was really, really good. I can understand his disappointment, for sure. You’re leading the race. Looks like you’re going to win the Daytona 500. You know how he is, he’s very hard on himself. But it wasn’t his fault today at all. You can’t help you run out of gas. I can understand his frustration. Like I said, he’s going to win a lot this year and throughout his career. It’s easy to get frustrated right now. He’s going to be okay.”
NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD A CHANCE TO DO IT FOR REAL AS OPPOSED TO TALKING ABOUT IT, HOW DID DRIVING STAGES AFFECT YOUR TEAM, WORKING WITH YOUR CREW CHIEF? DID IT CHANGE ANYTHING AT ALL? WAS IT MORE LIKE A COMPETITION CAUTION? “I don’t really see it as a competition caution mainly because you’re benefited for running in the top 10 at the end of the stage. So you saw some teams and cars group pit early just to try to maybe short pit and get out front before the end of the stage and get some points, if there was a caution that fell maybe 10 laps before or earlier. I thought the communication, the strategy side from the drivers to the crew chiefs, were very important today. Honestly, I think it’s going to be more important on other racetracks, not the speedways. I enjoyed it. I thought it was good. It made for good racing before the stages were over, just to try to get some points to help you towards the Playoffs. It was definitely good strategy. I know my team, they did a great job of making sure we pitted when the time was right with our group to try to set us up to be up front at the time the stages were over.”
RYAN, YOU HAD QUITE A SHOWING THIS WEEK IN YOUR DUEL RACE, THEN HERE TODAY, MOVING THROUGH THE FIELD, MAKING AGGRESSIVE MOVES, CONTENDING FOR THE LEAD. WAS THAT COMFORT IN THE STRENGTH OF THE CAR OR DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE GETTING MORE COMFORTABLE AT PLATE RACING, KNOWING WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT DO? “I think a little bit of both. I thought our car in the Duel race was spectacular. It’s a shame it got tore up. Our backup car was honestly, I felt, like just as good. We came from the back really early and were able to drive up through the middle, and our car handled correctly where we could be up the middle and be aggressive when the time was right. We were able to stay up there. I think our car had enough time to stay up there, too. We could never grab the lead at the time being the one car up front trying to block lanes. We could never get the right push at the right time. Probably something I was doing wrong not to get the right run. It was definitely a little bit of both with the car and myself, and myself and Josh Williams up top, my spotter, getting a little bit more comfortable with each other and communicating really well. He’s done a great job. He hasn’t been spotting very long. He spotted for AJ a couple years ago. He only started a couple years before that. He has a lot to learn, but he’s done a great job. He’s been a big part of it, as well.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IS GOING TO SET YOU UP FOR A STRONG RUN TOWARDS THE PLAYOFFS? “Really same as AJ. Any time you get a good finish anywhere, no matter what track, it always propels you into the next week. Maybe it feels a little better it’s the Daytona 500. Like he says, it doesn’t mean your car is going to be great when you go to Atlanta, doesn’t mean your car is going to be great when you go out west. Until you get 9 or 10 in, then you can kind of get a good judge of how your cars are and where your team stacks up. No matter where it is, if you get a good finish, it definitely helps your team confidence‑wise for the next week and maybe a couple weeks after that.”
