Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Food City 500 – Bristol Motor Speedway
Monday, April 24, 2017
Ford Finishing Results:
2nd – Clint Bowyer
3rd – Kevin Harvick
5th – Joey Logano
9th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
11th – Trevor Bayne
19th – Matt DiBenedetto
22nd – Aric Almirola
23rd – David Ragan
25th – Kurt Busch
32nd – Landon Cassill
33rd – Ryan Blaney
34th – Brad Keselowski
36th – Danica Patrick
DANICA PATRICK – No. 10 Mobil 1 Annual Protection Ford Fusion – “I haven’t seen what happened yet. I started off the race and wasn’t really that great and then we had a stop and it was on fire for a little while. I mean, I was doing the old Bristol bump-and-run all the way up to the lucky dog spot, and then I got a little bit tight and some cars caught me, so we started running the high line. Like we all know, it comes in and it was all right, and then all of a sudden it just snapped loose in one and two and hit the wall and got a lot of right-rear damage and lost a lot of sideforce. It was just super-loose after that. It was kind of miserable for the next part until it ended there about 300 in or something like that. What happened with that, I’m not sure. I know that all of a sudden I heard, ‘three-wide’ and I don’t know. There was a wreck and I was the lucky winner.”
HOW WERE TRACK CONDITIONS? “I feel like compared to the last time it’s similar. There are two lanes. There’s the bottom and the top, so I feel like it’s similar. I think it makes for good racing.”
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING RIGHT NOW? “I’m just frustrated it was so miserable after I right-reared it. I thought to myself, ‘I’m catching cars and passing them.’ I was starting to pass lead-lap cars and thought that we were on track to climb our way back up there. With the yellows and the competition cautions and stuff it was maybe going to work out, so I’m mostly just thinking it was kind of just miserable for half the time out there after I right-reared it. But it’s not from a lack of effort and it wasn’t that I wasn’t trying after that all happened, it was just kind of one thing after another, including pitting for a second time before the green came back out. I’m a half-a-lap down and the car is super-loose still, and just kind of a dumb decision with 18 laps to go to come and put tape on it like we did. I know there was a hole in the grille from all the stuff that happened, but it was one thing after another. I had about 30 laps of hope today.”
KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion – YOU GAMBLED AT THE END AND IT ALMOST PAID OFF FOR YOU: “I thought our Jimmy Johns Ford was the fastest car, we just needed track position. I think we showed how fast it was there on no tires and kind of able to hold our own. You just never know where you’re going to come out on those restarts. I felt like we had a couple cautions and we were in control of the race with the 11 on two tires and we might have had a chance. A good weekend and we’ll just keep going.” WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TRACK CONDITIONS? “I think the track evolved really good. It started off a little shaky the first 125 laps or so, but once it got running, I thought it was really racy.”
CLINT BOWYER – No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Days Ford Fusion – LOOK HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME THAT YOU’RE FRUSTRATED WITH A RUNNER-UP FINISH: “Yeah, you have to put it into perspective. We’ve come a long way with this team. These guys have worked so hard; it’s a fun group, everybody at Haas. My teammates are awesome. It’s so much fun to work with this group each and every week. Hell yeah you want to be up there and win it. But the day we had, I got caught speeding on pit road and had to bounce back. The guys kept working on the car. I appreciate the opportunity that Gene Haas and Tony Stewart gave me. Mobil 1, Haas Automation and everyone that’s a part of it.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Autotrader Ford Fusion – A ROLLERCOASTER AND THE FRONT OF THE PACK FOR YOU TODAY. ONE OF THE FRUSTRATIONS FOR YOU WAS THAT THE CAR JUST WOULDN’T FIRE FOR YOU ON THE RESTARTS. WAS THAT WHAT DID YOU IN TODAY? “Yeah, we weren’t a restarter today. Kind of non-typical for the 22. It’s usually a short-run speed car. I started out hitting the splitter, up the race track, I was all over the place. I couldn’t even retain the lead when we had it. That probably cost us the race when we lost the lead to the 48. Good long run car, just didn’t have enough long runs. We have another top five, I think that’s four straight. We got some good stage points which we haven’t done all year. I just want to win when we come to this race track.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – THAT MUST HAVE FELT LIKE THE LONGEST FIRST 100 LAPS WHEN THE POWER-STEERING WENT. “Yeah, I didn’t think that was ever gonna end. We had to come in and fix it, which stinks because when we went back out we were actually really fast, but you’re not racing for anything, which is unfortunate. It’s something to look forward to in the fall race because I felt like that was one of the best cars I’ve had at Bristol. It stinks that it happened. I know it happened to us and the 2, the same problem, so we’ll have to figure out what happened and what was different on the 22 to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Sunny D Ford Fusion – “I just couldn’t keep our track position the way we needed to with some mishaps on pit road, but the car wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. For as bad as we were Saturday, I was really happy with our Sunny D Ford. We got the top working and we actually got the bottom working some, but we just couldn’t keep our track position the way we needed to, and then I got behind some cars that were slower a lot of the restarts and I’d lose some positions. But as long as I had clear track in front of me I could really go and felt like I could pass whoever I wanted to.” HINDSIGHT BEING WHAT IT IS, YOU ALMOST WENT TO A BACKUP CAR ON FRIDAY. ARE YOU GLAD YOU DIDN’T? “Yeah, I’m glad we did. That was definitely a decision that I thought was best for us was to keep that car and fix it even if we didn’t get any practice. I’m really happy with the team effort.” ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW THE CAR REBOUNDED AFTER SATURDAY? YOU WERE STRUGGLING AT FIRST. “We were just really loose and I told them I was probably gonna crash it at some point, but we finally got it worked out and ended up with a good finish today.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “We were able to stay in the top 15 all day long or top 13 and got up to eighth or so at one point. I wanted it to stay green that last 30 laps because we were coming. I think we had a really good long-run car at that point. We had driving up to 10th or so, and I could see seventh there in front of me, so I wanted it to stay green so I could catch him. I’m really happy with our cars and the way we ran here. We ran good here last year, so we were kind of hoping for more gains when we finished fifth in this race. I think we were hoping for another top-5 because we’d been good here, but we’re able to run right around the top-10 every single week right now and that’s a huge improvement. We just have to keep making ground. I was on the edge of being too tight most of the day or too loose off and we were fighting that battle, but, overall, it was a good day for our team.” HOW WERE TRACK CONDITIONS? “It was changing all day. When the bottom was fast, that’s when our car was the best. I felt like my car was really dialed in on the bottom. When it moved up, I got tight and we had to free the car back up to get it going. I just didn’t seem to have the speed up there that I had on the bottom, but you had to run there. At the end, I finally got it figured out some and that’s when the long-run speed was coming to us on that next-to-last run, but the very last run we made some changed and just got it too tight to fire off and I lost a few spots. Overall, though, it was a really solid day.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 38 Jacob Companies Ford Fusion – THOUGHTS ON THE RACE TODAY: “We had a great Jacob Companies Ford today. We were able to pass some cars and stay on the lead lap for a lot of the race. We just got caught up in a little skirmish with our teammate and Danica. I think that Landon (Cassill) had a suspension part break. I was trying to get out of his way and Danica squeezed us a little bit, just one of those racing things. Three wide at Bristol is hard to get through.”
LANDON CASSILL – No. 34 – CSX Play It Safe Ford Fusion – A GOOD RUN ENDED BY A BROKEN WHEEL HUB? “Yeah, we had a loose wheel that led to broken wheel studs. A real bummer. I thought that we had a real good car.”
CLINT BOWYER PRESS CONFERENCE
CLINT BOWYER – No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Days Ford Fusion — “Yeah, what a day. Starting off, I was way too loose and fell way back, just missed it. You know, heck, last car on the lead lap. Mike made some great adjustments all day long. The pit crew was on their game all day long and gained spots almost every time, and then I lost them all back on pit road speeding. Went to the back again, and then drove back up through them and got ourselves some position there. Mike made a good call of putting me in a position of one of the first cars on four tires there. I think the 48 was the other one, and he won the race, so the right strategy was there. The team effort was there. You know, that’s what a weekend is all about. It’s just been this long since I’ve won a race, and here is pretty special. It would have been pretty cool to be over there in Victory Lane.”
WHAT WAS YOUR MINDSET WITH JIMMIE IN FRONT OF YOU AT THE END? “Sucks.”
DOES IT RATCHET UP? GET MORE INTENSE FOR YOU? “”It does, and then you’re watching your lap times and you’re adjusting everything you can possibly adjust, you know, from a track bar adjustment to adjusting your line on the race track, just trying every little thing you can possibly do. You know, it was like if I could gain on him one lap and then he’d gain on me the next, and then it just kind of fell by the wayside, kind of realized that, you know, it was a second‑place day.”
HOW MUCH FUN ARE YOU HAVING AND DID YOU KNOW YOUR CAR WOULD BE THIS GOOD TODAY? “Well, we had good speed, you know, in practice most of the weekend, and to be honest with you, when we took off, I was really struggling for grip. Way loose on that first run and lost all my track position. I mean, heck, I almost went a lap down there. You know, and just kept working on it. That’s the cool thing about being with a team like this, with an organization like this, having teammates like I do; I mean, it’s just you can continue to work on it and get it better and better and better, and just like Kyle, I made a mistake on pit road and got caught speeding, and we were able to capitalize on that even and get ourselves in position to have a shot at winning the race. And that’s all a credit to this race team and the organization that I signed on for a long time ago.
“So yeah, it’s a lot of fun. You start getting that close to wins, know what I mean, you can’t let too many of those go by the wayside. You’ve got to use those opportunities and capitalize on those opportunities, but definitely a confidence and momentum-builder for sure.”
WERE YOU WISHING ILL WILL ON JIMMIE WHILE TRYING TO GAIN ON HIM? “Well, you never really wish ill will. You just hope something. It was one of those deals where I gained on him a little bit in the first few laps that I got in second, and I was really hard on my stuff, and then you start doing stupid stuff, trying to free it up, putting more rear brake in it and stuff that you know is probably not going to work, but you’re just desperate and trying anything you can possibly do, started getting loose in, and I just kind of had to protect the ride. It is frustrating, you could see him out there, but dammit, you’d think he’d get tired of winning all these races.”
IS THIS ALMOST BITTERSWEET IN A WAY BECAUSE YOU’RE SO CLOSE TO WINNING? “It’s called racing. Been that way my whole life, since I was about five years old. You know, I mean, you struggle and struggle and struggle for a year and a half here, and hell, next thing you know you’re being greedy about second; you know what I mean? That’s just the way racers are wired and the way it’s always been. Having a ton of fun and working hard and seeing the results is gratifying for this race team. I mean, we need sponsorship on the side of this car rather than the boss, and good runs like this and positive momentum and mojo is a good way to do that.”
WERE YOU HOPING FOR JIMMIE TO JUST MAKE A MISTAKE AT THE END? “Not even. You know better than that. It’s Jimmie Johnson. You’re just ‑‑ you’re starting to ‑‑ you try everything you possibly can, like I said, and I was starting to do some pretty desperate things with brakes and my line and stuff like that, and then you just realize ‑‑ your mindset quickly changes, and you’re like, all right, let’s put it in perspective here, we’ve come a long ways, it was a long day, and second place is probably a good run for us, and we should be happy with that. We shouldn’t hang our head about it.”
I KNOW JOHNSON HAS GOOD CARS AND EVERYTHING. “Turns out he’s pretty good too. Yeah, I don’t know that I would take anything away from Jimmie.”
DOES HE MAKE FEWER MISTAKES WHEN HE’S IN THAT POSITION THAN OTHER GUYS? “I just ‑‑ he’s just faster. Turns out he’s pretty good. No, I don’t think it’s a matter of making mistakes. I mean, he’s just ‑‑ he’s a seven‑time champion. I mean, that’s all you can say about it. It’s good to know that you’re trying to outrun and frustrated with having the best that’s probably ever been beat you. I guess there is something to say about that. He’s still a butthole.” (Laughter.)
HOW DID THE SURFACE FEEL TO YOU TODAY? “I don’t think you really ‑‑ I mean, I know that everybody wants to see that Bristol of old and ring around the bottom and us beating and banging and moving cars. I’m telling you, the workload, the effort that you put into driving that car, you can’t drive them any harder than that. Literally it’s a qualifying lap almost every single time. I think they’ve done a great job of creating that environment. You know, Kyle and I were just talking ‑‑ it really is an ever‑changing race track, a lot like a dirt track, and even within runs, not so much just within the day, within a run. You’ll start on the bottom, get up there and find something on the outside, and hell, by the end of the run you might be right back on the bottom and finding better grip and better speed down there. It’s a ton of fun to be able to race like that, and it’s extremely challenging, and I hope that we can sell that and do a good job of selling that because if we can’t, I don’t know how else to do it, because I’m telling you, I’ve been doing this a long time, and that’s about as hard as I’ve ever drove in my life. I mean, it’s a qualifying lap every lap.”
