Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Date: Friday, April 7, 2017
Event: O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (NMECS Qualifying)
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st Kevin Harvick
2nd Ryan Blaney
3rd Clint Bowyer
4th Joey Logano
5th Brad Keselowski
10th Kurt Busch
11th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12th Trevor Bayne
15th Landon Cassill
18th Aric Almirola
19th Danica Patrick
21st David Ragan
26th Matt DiBenedetto
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) – Qualified 1st
“I just didn’t feel like I got through turns 1 and 2 like I needed to. The front took off and I didn’t want to do what everyone was doing in practice and get out of the groove and drive it into the wall. I’m just really proud of everyone on our Jimmy Johns/Busch Ford. I have to thank everyone at Mobil 1, Outback, Hunt Brothers, Morton Off Road for sticking behind us with this Ford. It’s been a stressful day. Coming in and breaking in a new race track and going out there running as fast as we had to run for qualifying. I have to say thank you to the Xfinity guys for letting me run that car this weekend because I really think the reps allowed us learn some things that I was able to apply here.”
CLINT BOWYER (No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Fusion) – Qualified 3rd
“We are just steady-Eddie right now. It is fun to be with this group. It seems like every time you give Bugga and the guys a chance to work on it they make it better for me. It is fun to be in this situation and have these teammates that are fast and running up front. You go into a weekend like this with a lot of unknowns and it is the teamwork that pulls you through and makes you strong. Really nice day for us and the 14 team and also for Ford. Sweeping the top-five is big.”
RYAN BLANEY (No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion) – Qualified 2nd
“Yeah, three and four we got a little tight out there. I should have raised the track bar down the back. We got better each round which is always encouraging, always what you want. You never want to get worse or make the wrong adjustments. I feel this year we’ve gotten better going round by round. Man, I heard that they give you a shotgun when you win the pole here. I saw my lap and thought that might do it but Kevin (Harvick) just snuck by us. I think I have a really fast Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion. It was even good in race trim today. The track has come a long way in a few hours and hopefully it will widen out even more for the Xfinity race tomorrow and for our practices. Not a bad start to the weekend.”
JOEY LOGANO (No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion) – Qualified 4th
“How awesome is that to have Ford sweep the top-five? Wow. That was a good recovery by us. We were 17th that first round and were able to recover. I thought we had a shot at the pole the last lap. We ran a 30 there, which is what Kevin ran the lap before but they picked up a little more again. Overall I am proud of our recovery. We aren’t first but to see the top-five as Fords is just awesome. I bet it has been a long time for that. It is neat to see. Usually if you see a manufacturer sweep the top-three it is an accomplishment. Top-five is a hell of an accomplishment”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion) – Qualified 5th
“It was decent. I made a little mistake out there and I am regretting that but I guess if you can make a little mistake and still qualify fifth you can feel pretty good about that. It was a good day for my teammates and a good day for Ford though. It is a good feeling to see all those blue ovals up there at the front. This track takes a lot of RPM and our engines run good with that.”
LANDON CASSILL (No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion) – Qualified 15th
“I’m really proud of that lap. We made a smart move with the balance of the car by not messing with it from the first round to the second round. This is a great venue. Great to have Love’s Travel Stops group to come out on Sunday. I’m going to Love’s over in Rome (Texas) tomorrow afternoon. I’m just happy to have some speed here and happy for all our hard work.”
RYAN BLANEY POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
RYAN BLANEY (No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion) – “I thought we got better and better each round which was nice. You always want to get better and we did that. I think we have done that very well this year compared to last year. I think I have gotten a lot better at that and it was something we wanted to improve on. I feel like last year we were really good in the first round and not make the right adjustments or not go enough to keep progressing up positions through the sessions. I feel we have done a really good job of that this year. That is something to be proud of. It was a good lap. I got a little tight in 3 and 4 and that probably gave it away. I hear you get a shotgun here when you get the pole so I was mad I missed that but it is something to look forward to.”
WHAT IS THE TRACK LIKE AND WHAT WERE THE SPEEDS LIKE? “The track has come a long way since we got on it for the first time this morning. The first hour was very sketchy getting into turn 1. Turn 1 has been slick all day. Three and four has actually had a lot of grip. It is surprising how much throttle we can carry over there. It has definitely come a long way but you can always do stuff better. If we had freed up a little more the last run we might have been able to get it but the 4 car was really fast. It is something you put in your notes for the fall race.”
KEVIN HARVICK POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) – TAKE US THROUGH YOUR QUALIFYING LAP AND WINNING YOUR FIRST SHOTGUN HERE. “It has been an eventful day. Really just a lot of unknowns. The race track has rubbered in nice. We just have such a short amount of time to go out and figure out where you need your car and what you need to do. My guys did a good job of having a good car when we got here. It was about me getting in a rhythm. The car was a lot faster than me and I didn’t want to make a mistake and tear it up. They did a great job. I think running the Xfinity car was a benefit today because of the track and entrances and exits to the corners changed and widened out. I think that will be the story of the weekend, the progression of the track and the cars and where all that goes. I am looking forward to practice and racing tomorrow and hopefully having a good day Sunday. There is a lot of track position to be played. That first pit stall is a big advantage and for us that will be good to have. I am really proud of everybody on our Jimmy John’s Ford for the fast Fusion.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE POLE POSITION CAN LEAD TO YOUR FIRST WIN HERE? “Yeah, this is one of three or four tracks that I haven’t won at on the whole circuit. It has been a race track that has been really good for me. I think I have won six or seven Xfinity races and Truck races and that side of it has been good. We have run well since I have been at Stewart-Haas. It wasn’t our strength at RCR but I think since we have been here we have qualified well and raced well and I think like I told Eddie (Gossage) last night, he finally got rid of that crappy asphalt so maybe I have a chance now.”
THERE WERE NINE CARS THAT DIDN’T GET THROUGH TECH INSPECTION. IS THAT A BIG DEAL? “I don’t promote races, I just drive my car. I think that would be a better question for Eddie. I think NASCAR has been pretty clear on where the progression of the inspection process was going to go. Last week was the beginning of harsher inspection and you had to have everything straight by last week and this is the second week. It is a process. I think everybody in the garage supports the process to be consistent and thorough and not a moving target. I think it has taken us a long time to get to this point of reigning everything in. I know for us, we are on our third generation of car and we are just seven weeks into the season. I think that is just understanding the process. As long as it is consistent and the process is the same all year, I don’t think anybody will have a problem with it. I think if the process changes and guys start to get by with things, as long as that doesn’t happen and the consistency stays, this will become less and less of a story.”
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE DIFFICULTY OF THE SURFACE OUT THERE. “I think the new reconfigured turns are the most difficult part of the race track. I think that is what everybody was looking for, something that was challenging. It is very hard when you get into turn 1 because you are so used to where the corner used to be. It is hard to pick up your reference points because the bottom is so far down there and you are so far out. you have to drive straight down the race track. It is hard to get situated in a couple hours. Hopefully that gets better as the weekend goes. The treacherous part right now is getting out of the groove. If we had the tire dragging tractor still hooked up I would suggest to hook it up and put it down in the groove and follow that groove we have put down. It was a huge help. The part they have prepared was very good but the inside and outside of that groove is very dirty and you can’t get everything off the race track or out of the pores of the race track until the cars come and suck them all out going 200 mph. Having some more rubber drug along the race track would be a huge help for a second groove is there is nothing going on tonight. I am sure they will be shooting fireworks and having a big party out there. You never know.”
YOU WERE SO FAST THE FIRST THREE RACES THEN HAD THAT WRECK AT VEGAS. YOU LOOKED LIKE AN EARLY CONTENDER AND THEN THE LAST COUPLE RACES THE SPEED JUST DIDN’T SEEM TO BE THERE. CAN YOU ADDRESS THE HIGH AND LOW YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED? “Speed hasn’t been our problem. Martinsville we were off. California I crashed the first lap. Had the nose knocked in, came back from two laps down to finish 13th. The speed was there at California. Martinsville was really the only place we were off. That was really more of a structural thing than anything. It was a bit of an unorganized mess all weekend. The speed of the race cars has been where it needs to be. I think it is just circumstances where we had stuff torn up, smashed the nose on the car on lap zero, coming to the green. Blew the tire at Vegas, crashed at Daytona. Pit road speeding at Atlanta. It is about chugging away at those things, not letting them drag you down, keeping everyone focused. I think everyone has done a good job. The cars still have speed and everyone is coming to the race track forgetting everything and eventually you will get the flow and start knocking those finishes off. The only place I would say we needed to get better was Martinsville but everywhere else we have been plenty good to contend in the top-five with the speed in our car.”
CLINT MENTIONED EARLIER TODAY THAT EVERYTHING HE HAS LEARNED IN NASCAR HE HAS LEARNED FROM YOU. ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW QUICKLY HE HAS ADAPTED AT SHR? “No. I think that was the best thing, the most exciting thing, the fact that I knew Clint. I knew he could drive the car and we could work together as teammates and we would communicate and our teams had worked together form the fact that Mike was an engineer on our car. Our cars were put together in the shop and managed by the same people. There was a lot of learning curve there that he didn’t have to learn and I know how motivated Clint is. I watched him drive his first stock car at RCR and from that point on he progressively learned and listened and brought a lot to the table as a driver and communicated and it has always been really good. And we are good friends which is something you can’t really buy. You either get along with somebody or you don’t. You communicate and drive like them or you don’t. Those are things we don’t worry about, we just talk about our cars. He gets back in and drive his, I drive mine and we talk about it some more. It has been refreshing and fun to have him there and progress.”
