Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Date: Sunday, March 5, 2017
Event: Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (Post Race Quotes)
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st Brad Keselowski
6th Joey Logano
7th Kurt Busch
9th Kevin Harvick
11th Clint Bowyer
12th Trevor Bayne
13th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th Danica Patrick
18th Ryan Blaney
22nd Landon Cassill
23rd David Ragan
27th Aric Almirola
28th Matt DiBenedetto
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Autotrader Ford Fusion – RACE WINNER) WITH EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAD TO OVERCOME TODAY, DID YOU THINK THAT YOU HAD A CHANCE TO CATCH KEVIN (HARVICK)? “You never know. That’s how these races are. We had a lot of adversity today there’s not doubt about that. These races aren’t easy. They’re 500 miles and a lot can happen and when you think you’ve got it they slip away. I know how it goes. This one kind of fell in our lap at the end and my team put it all together when it counted. They gave me a great Autotrader Ford Fusion and we were able to get by Kyle (Larson) there at the end. I knew that he wasn’t going to be easy to pass. His car was great and I was able to make the right moves to get by him.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN AT ATLANTA? “It means that I have to go find Marcus Smith and Ed Clark and beg them not to repave it (laughs). I don’t think that I’ll win that battle. Atlanta has always been one of those old school race tracks, look at victory lane…we’re out here on the frontstretch… it feels old school. A great place to win. A track that I haven’t won at before. Gosh darn it, it feels good.”
EVERYBODY STAYED FOCUS WHEN YOU HAD TO MAKE UNSCHEDULED PIT STOPS: “Everybody stayed focused and nobody had to say anything. We know the deal. We know that this isn’t going to be easy. you have to keep your head down and keep fighting at all times and that’s what we did.”
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) — Finished 9th
A SPEEDING PENALTY LATE IN THE RACE WAS YOUR UNDOING: “Ya, this place, for whatever reason, I just feel like I’m snake bitten. It’s my own doing today. I really didn’t think I was even close on pit lane. It gets to bouncing around, I thought I was being conservative, apparently I wasn’t. I want to thank everyone on our Jimmy Johns Ford for everything they did this weekend. I was just pushing it too hard.”
“I just made a mistake that I preach all the time that you don’t need to make and beat yourself and then you go out and make it yourself instead of following all the things you preach. That part is hard for me to swallow. The good part about it is our Ford has been really fast. We didn’t know what we were going to have when we got here and we had a great weekend the whole time. Man, I just, one way or another I have figured out how to lose races here at Atlanta after being so dominant. We will pick ‘em up and start again next week.”
JOEY LOGANO (No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion) — Finished 6th
“We had some loose wheel issues and once the first one got loose it messes up the threads and then that is the end of that. We just kept battling and had a pit road speeding penalty, a loose wheel again and another loose wheel. Man, we were two down and before you know it we were back on the lead lap and had a shot there at the end, 13th to 6th the last 10 laps or so. Man, as fast as that thing was at the end, I wish we were toward the front. That is awesome for Brad and Autotraders first win with Team Penske so that is cool to see as well. The Fords had a lot of speed out there again today.”
KURT BUSCH (No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion) — Finished 7th
“It seemed like the stages really caught other teams off guard. We did a middle of the road approach. I liked it because we didn’t quite have the speed in the car to attack for those points but didn’t want to sacrifice tires and be caught at the end with fresh tires. We managed the stages, were just missing the handle. The 4 car was insane how good they were. We were really loose in, really tight in the center and loose off. We just had a lack of grip. The pit crew got us toward the top-five and we hung on to seventh. Nothing spectacular today, just need to fix what we have going wrong.”
LANDON CASSILL (No. 34 CSX Play it Safe Ford Fusion) – Finished 22nd
“It was okay. I thought the car was alright, a little better than I thought based on Saturday. The caution at the end kind of killed us but I am pretty happy with the day overall.”
DAVID RAGAN (No. 38 Camping World/Good Sam Ford Fusion) – Finished 23rd
“I am really proud of the team. We made great adjustments to start the race. We weren’t expecting it to cool off and finish under the lights and I think I got a few adjustments behind. The first half of the race we were a top-20 car and just got off a little bit. That is a great race for our first downforce track back in the 34. We will learn some because the track changed a lot. I feel like our car was pretty good throughout the day but not as good as I needed it to be at the end.”
