FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR NOTES AND QUOTES
Date: Saturday, July 8, 2017
Event: ALSCO 300 (NASCAR Xfinity Series Post Race)
Series: NASCAR XFINITY Series
Location: Kentucky Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
2nd Ryan Blaney
4th Kevin Harvick
6th Joey Logano
10th Cole Custer
15th Casey Mears
36th Ryan Reed
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Snap-On Ford Mustang (Finished 2nd)
“I didn’t really have a lot of fun but it was nice to have a good race car that we could pick our way through the field. We got it really good at the end. We were good all day. I thought we were the best car all day, personally. Before that last caution. I thought we were going to get by the 20 and set sail. The caution came out and we were debating on whether to pit or not. It is easy to look back on it now and say that we should have stayed out and seen what happened. I thought the right call was to pit and we just had a violation. That stings. It almost stings worse running all the way up there and finishing second than if we would have finished 10th or something. I can’t thank Brian Wilson and the Snap-On team enough for letting me drive it and working on it all weekend to get it so fast there at the end and really all weekend. Not where we wanted to be but hopefully we learned some stuff for tonight. It is fun to have this double-header. Thanks to the fans for sticking around for a double-header day. It is disappointing. I think you have to look at the positives and know we had a really fast car and that is something to build off of.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 41 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang (Finished 4th)
“For some people restarting on the outside was okay but for us we were too free to hold the throttle down. On the bottom I could hold it wide open but on the top I was just kind of chasing the car. I gotta thank Hunt Brothers and everyone from Ford and Stewart Haas for letting me be a part of this program and putting this program together. Everytime we have run we have been in the top-five. We have to keep building on it. The first year is definitely a building block year and they are doing good with it.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang (Finished 10th)
“We had track position at the start and were able to get some points but we fought the handling a little bit on our Mustang today. We did get better as the day went on but just missed it a little bit. We will learn for when we come back.”
RYAN REED, No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang (ACCIDENT, Lap 1)
THIS DAY JUST STARTED OFF BAD FOR YOU AND PUT YOU OUT OF THE RACE ULTIMATELY. WHAT DID IT? “We just got ko’d on lap one there. The brought us down really slow and took off and stopped again. I saw those guys check up and I laid off the 11 and whoever was behind me came with a full head of steam and picked my rear tires up and shoved us into the 11. We went back out there with the thing completely destroyed and ran a top-10 lap time, so I know we had a good car. The oil was getting too hot to keep running. We salvaged a few spots though. Thank God we have a win at Daytona. That is the insurance that it bought us getting a win down there and locked into the playoffs.”
RYAN BLANEY POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE:
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Snap-On Ford Mustang (Finished 2nd)
“I thought we had a really great car all day and we were just getting it better. Before that last caution we were second behind the 20 and I thought we were going to get by him pretty easy and set sail. Our long run car was pretty spectacular. We were kind of debating whether to pit or not right there. I thought we had enough laps on our tires to where we could come down and we had to take rights. We took rights the stop before that. I thought it was time to do it and it looked like everybody was coming. I think all but the 18 and 41 came. I think we came out fourth, which was going to be fine. We made an adjustment to our car to make it better and fire off better and then we had that penalty. I guess we didn’t get the right front back to the wall. I came in and put four (tires) on it and made a really good change to tighten me up a lot. I was pretty loose all day. That brought it to life. I wish it was 202 laps, that would have been pretty nice. It is a disappointing day of not getting the win with what I thought was the fastest car. You can look at the positives and know that we did have the fastest car and that is something to build off of for sure in the future.”
HOW ARE YOU FEELING PHYSICALLY WITH 400 MORE LAPS TO GO TONIGHT? WHAT WILL YOUR REGIMINE BE THE REST OF THE DAY? “I am good. It is honestly not that hard of a day. It is 700 miles today. That isn’t too bad. This race track is tough but it wasn’t that hot out there today for this race and it will be a night race in the Cup car. I don’t think it will be a big issue. I will probably take a nap and eat something and be good to go.”
WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU LEARNED TODAY THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO THE CUP RACE TONIGHT? “A little bit, yeah. Even though it is a day race with XFINITY cars and night race with the Cup stuff, I think we can take away changes we made through this race to apply to the Cup cars. I was pretty loose all day and thought we made some good changes in this car. Those usually apply to that side. That is something good to know. There is definitely things we can take away from this race as far as setup wise and changes we made to help out for tonight.”
COULD YOU TELL MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE OF THE TIRE-DRAGGING IN THE MIDDLE GROOVE THIS MORNING? “When I lost the lead on that last restart – when I slid up in three I didn’t wreck and I think I would have wrecked if the Tire Dragon wasn’t brought out. I was up in that third lane. I think that kind of saved me a little bit. I thought that was good. I saw that move made a couple times in the Truck race and people spun out. I didn’t see that today. I saw a lot of cars get loose and slide up to that lane and it kind of caught halfway and they were able to keep going. Hopefully that will help out. I ran kind of high in one and two coming back through the field and it seemed to have some grip like half a lane up. It didn’t hurt at all getting that Tire Dragon out this morning. Hopefully tonight the Cup cars will get really slick on the bottom and we will be forced to move around. That is usually what happens and I am hopeful for that.”
WHEN YOU WERE CHASING DOWN ERIK JONES FOR THE LEAD IT SEEMED YOU WERE CATCHING HIM IN ONE AND TWO AND LOSING HIM IN THREE AND FOUR. WHAT DO YOU CHALK THAT UP TO? “I think the biggest thing was that one and two is a lot faster, a lot more banked and there are a lot more things to lean on. You can get in the corner pretty even with the car in front of you, if not a little harder. The banking is there to hold you. Even though if aero isn’t your best friend with them taking the aero away. In turn three it is so flat. It is so hard to enter with that person. You are already loose into there to begin with and then you get a car in front of you and it takes all the air away. You have to let them go and back that corner up and try to get a run off. Different corners, different banking. The aero stuff we always talk about comes into play a lot more in three and four than one and two. I hate to say it but I think it will be the same way tonight unless the track widens out. With two races in the same day and no rain I think that will just help that process of it widening out.”
