Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Date: Friday, March 3, 2017
Event: Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st Kevin Harvick
4th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5th Brad Keselowski
6th Joey Logano
13th Kurt Busch
14th Ryan Blaney
15th Trevor Bayne
24th Danica Patrick
25th Clint Bowyer
27th Landon Cassill
30th Aric Almirola
34th David Ragan
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) – Qualified 1st
“We have had two different styles of body on this chassis so I think that says a lot about our team. Rodney (Childers) and everybody on this No. 4 Jimmy John’s Busch Ford do a good job. We didn’t spend very much time at all on qualifying today. We really concentrated on trying to get our race stuff right. I think as we had a couple hours to work on it there we were able to dial the setup in and made it better in every round. I was able to see the last round going into turn one. The first two rounds that sun was so bright. I am really excited to get our first pole with Ford. Everybody has done a great job. We have spent a lot of time getting the cars transformed into where they are today. To be at the race track and already have a win for the 41 and a pole for us and everybody running good says a lot about the effort that has gone into this transition.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. (No. 17 SunnyD Ford Fusion) – Qualified 4th
“Last year Trevor and I had really good races here, both qualified in the top-10 and we felt like in practice we had a good SunnyD Ford and it was all about hoping the Goodyears would stay on it. This track is so abrasive and every run you make on tires just kills it. We didn’t make a whole lot of qualifying runs in practice just because we knew it was going to cool off and the track wouldn’t be exactly the same and we wanted to save some sets for tomorrow. In qualifying, our first run was decent and the second run was not as good, kind of like Trevor said. I used too much brake on entry of one and couldn’t see the wall. I kind of backpedaled and lost two-tenths down there to Newman. The last round we made some really good adjustments. Brian did an awesome job with the adjustments we made and it drove the best in the last round, which is all you can ask for. We ran our fastest lap that we had run in the whole qualifying session. I am really happy with qualifying. Now we have to make sure we have a good long run car.”
JOEY LOGANO (No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion) – Qualified 6th
“It was eventful getting out there for qualifying with our Shell-Pennzoil Ford. We constantly got faster which is hard to do here at Atlanta. Even though the sun is going down, tire wear is so big that that it’s hard to keep going faster. We made some good adjustments to our car. I just could not get through (Turns) 3 and 4. That was my problem. I would get down there and cringe before I would get to the corner. I was just hoping that it would rotate through there. That was weird because that’s where I thought where we were good in practice. We have a decent starting spot. I think we were 26th here last year, so we’ve made up 20 spots already.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Autotrader Ford Fusion) – Qualified 5th
“You never know what’s going to be a factor here at Atlanta. It’s a fun track. I think this is one of my favorite tracks to come to because when you unload and your drive down into the corner you feel like a race car driver more then anywhere else. The cars are just out of control, they’re slipping and sliding. This is one of the few tracks that everyone thinks it’s an oval, but you turn right as much as you turn left. It’s an amazing, fun place. I hope that they don’t repave it. I know they’re thinking about it, but don’t do it!”
KURT BUSCH (No. 41 Monster Energy Ford Fusion) – Qualified 13th
“Even if we got her tightened up a little bit we probably would have ended up 12th if we made the final round. Our little Ford, she’s loose. Bad loose. It is a different aero balance with where we were at here last year. We were tight in race trim, loose in Q trim. I hope we found the two bookends and can zero in on where we need to be. I was going to let her hang out and try to keep her sideways but it was too much of a risk and still we were going to end up not in the top-10 because of how loose we were. We just missed it a little bit the first day out on the school ground with a Ford.”
TREVOR BAYNE (No. 6 Liberty National Life Insurance Ford Fusion) – Qualified 15th
“My first run was really good. I was pumped. We were way faster than practice and it was good. Ricky has been putting it on me so far this weekend by about two-tenths but then he came back the next round and was rolling. I kind of messed up. I feel my car had more potential than what I got out of it. In that second round the sun was so bad and I jumped on the brakes and that cost us a couple tenths. I am sure everybody did that. We have a really fast Fusion and I hope we can take advantage of it for the whole weekend.”
DAVID RAGAN (No. 38 Camping World Ford Fusion) – Qualified 34th
“That was avoidable for sure. Our Good Sam Camping World Ford had decent speed right off the truck. The track got a lot tighter as we ran and we made some pretty big swings for qualifying. Our speed was really good coming up to the line and drove off into turn one and it didn’t have the side bite on exit. I was throttled up and ran out of race track. Even though it seems like a minor incident there is nothing minor about touching the wall at 190 mph. Our Front Row Motorsports team, I have put them behind the eight ball a little bit but we have all day tomorrow to work on it and will get ready for Sunday.”
