Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Pocono 400 – Pocono Raceway
Saturday, June 10, 2017
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 22 SKF Ford Mustang – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “It’s a little surreal talking to Ryan Blaney in victory lane. Crazy. Blowing my mind. We were leading or second or whatever it was. Elliott (Sadler) gave me a good push to clear the 00 but it carried all the way into Turn 1. I got down there and my rear tires were off the ground and went straight trying not to back it into the wall. Kind of a never give up. It felt like 30th. I drove by a bunch of cars and just pushed as hard as I could. It looked like Kyle’s (Larson) car was struggling just a little bit and he was getting tight in the middle, loose off. He was doing a really good job holding it low so I couldn’t get a run. Just on the last lap I got on his bumper and got him loose. He was trying to do the side draft thing down the backstretch and all the way down the apron. That had to look pretty cool. I can’t wait to see the replay on Fox. Hell of a race. Really happy for the 22 team. It’s been a while. I think it’s been well documented that they haven’t been in victory lane. Discount Tire has been a part of this program for a long time. They deserve it. Without them I probably wouldn’t have a career in NASCAR. They’re on the car today…SKF…proud of them guys. It’s good for Ford and everybody. It feels good for me, the team. They deserve it.”
COLE CUSTER – No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang – “We had a really solid car. I thought Jeff had a really good strategy and got us up there. I think me and one of them just got our communication a little bit messed up there on how we were gonna push each other going into turn one, but it was a good day. We had a solid car and made a lot out of it, got to lead some laps, so I’m really happy with our Haas Automation Mustang.”
HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL TO PUT SEVERAL OF THESE TOGETHER? “It’s nice because at the start of the year we couldn’t even put one race together. It’s been a good stretch for us so far and we just want to keep it going through this 20-week stretch.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ABLE TO LEAD LAPS AFTER SUCH A TOUGH START? “It means a lot. This makes you feel like you deserve to be here a little bit more. It reaffirms your confidence, I guess. I still need to try and win some races, so we’re gonna try and focus on that in the future.”
WHAT ABOUT YOUR STRATEGY OF PITTING LATE IN STAGE 1. DID THAT TURN YOUR RACE AROUND? “Yeah. I felt like at the end of the race we were right where we finished. We were like a fifth to eighth-place car. We got the lead because of strategy and we could keep it, we just needed a better restart there at the very end. It was a solid day and we ended up where we should have.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 Ford EcoBoost Ford Mustang – WHAT ARE YOU EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW? “Yeah, it sucks. I love these guys and I had a lot of fun this year, but it’s just circumstances and it’s the business to shut this program down. We wanted to be a lot better than what we finished for sure. I gave it my all for them right there on that last restart. They said we picked up 12 spots and it would have been cool to finish 10th and get a top-10 to close it out. It’s just unfortunate. These guys deserve a full season. We were hitting on some things this year, but I’ve got the big picture to focus on tomorrow. This one is behind us. Best of luck to them finishing out the year strong. Ty (Majeski) is gonna run and I think Trevor (Bayne) is gonna run some, so best of luck to them. It will be fun to watch them on Saturdays, but I’ll be damn sure wishing I was in it.”
RYAN REED – No. 16 Lilly/American Diabetes Association Ford Mustang – “It was a tough day. Obviously, you don’t want to finish 14th, but given a lot of the adversity that went our way like the caution coming out right after we pitted and a bunch of guys stayed out. That put us behind and that was just a no-win situation there. We still found our way from 21st to 14th at the end of that. Our car had decent speed, but we still need to get better for Pocono. There’s only one track like this, so while we need to get better here, this doesn’t really kill our momentum for the tracks coming up.”
