Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Pure Michigan 400 – Michigan International Speedway
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Ford Finishing Results:
5th – Trevor Bayne
11th – Kurt Busch
12th – Aric Almirola
13th – Kevin Harvick
15th – Trevor Bayne
17th – Brad Keselowski
18th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22nd – Danica Patrick
23rd – Clint Bowyer
25th – Landon Cassill
26th – Matt DiBenedetto
28th – Joey Logano
30th – David Ragan
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “The team did a good job. We executed in qualifying and all of those things, and we really made the most out of everything we had today, it just didn’t come out our way.” CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE LAST PART OF THE RACE? “It just didn’t come together there at the end, but it was nice to lead a bunch of laps. That was good and something I was really proud of, but I just didn’t have enough to really run with the 77 and the 78. We tried a little strategy to kind of get something out of it, but the way it all played out I ended up getting the bottom lane on the restarts and getting absolutely swallowed. We tried. We put in as much effort as we could. We knew we didn’t have as much as those two, but we gave it 100 percent effort and I was really proud of my team for that.” YOU SAID THIS WOULD BE THE BIGGEST WIN OF YOUR CAREER, SO HOW DOES THIS FEEL? “I’m gonna race here more than once, but we gave it our best shot and left it all out on the race track.” WHAT DID AUSTIN DILLON TALK TO YOU ABOUT? “I don’t know. He was worried about something with restarts.” TALK ABOUT HOW BAD YOU WANTED THIS ONE TODAY. DID YOU SEE KYLE LARSON COMING? “I don’t know what happened there at the end, but I know the 77 and the 78 were the two best cars. I don’t know why it didn’t work out for them, but that’s the way it was.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD A GOOD RACE TODAY? “I feel like we left it all out on the race track. There isn’t much more you can do than that.” YOU’RE PRETTY DISAPPOINTED. “Yeah, I am. I feel like this is probably the best race I’ve run as a driver here and it just wasn’t enough.”
KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion – “We were just terrible loose when the sun came out and then the strategy just went the wrong way and we wound up a lap down.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 Roush Performance Ford Fusion – YOUR STRATEGY WORKED OUT TODAY? “That’s what we needed. Man, if it stayed green we had another shot like Indy to hold off that 78, but we had a caution at the wrong time. I got a great restart and pushed the 42 to the lead. I went for it in turn three and it didn’t stick. It got massive loose and ended up fifth. Third and fifth, that’s not a big difference. If I went home thinking I should have gone for it in three, I would be kicking my butt. But it’s a great day for our team. We needed this to recover a little bit.” HOW WAS YOUR DAY? “It’s refreshing. We’ve had a tough couple of months not getting the results we thought that we deserved. Today, to get a result feels really good. We had fast car early on. We had fuel strategy at the end. Probably gonna have a shot to beat the 78 if it stayed green. Got a caution and I was like, ‘Oh man, here goes Indy again.’ We had a good first restart. The second restart was even better. We were able to push the 42 up to the lead and getting into (Turn) 3 I tried to go for it from the top and hit the Speedy Dry, got loose, and came home fifth. Cost us a couple spots. Man, when you’re in that position you have to go for it. I wouldn’t have slept good at night if I didn’t stuff it in there and try something. It just didn’t stick. It feels really good for our team.” HOW IMPORTANT WAS TODAY’S RUN AS WE HEAD INTO THE STRETCH RUN? “It’s nice. We’re still not in the Chase yet and we have to keep pushing and making our cars faster and for Ricky’s sake, who is in the Chase. We have 13 races left with or without the Chase to go make a statement, win races and run well. It feels good to be in contention. We still aren’t the fastest race car. We can’t beat them on raw speed, but we can put ourselves close with fuel strategy, tire strategy and trying to be in the mix in the end. And that feels really good from what we’re used to.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT LAST RESTART. YOU WERE NINTH AND FINISHED 12TH. “The bottom lane was not really the preferred lane all weekend in Trucks or Cup or anything, and I restarted on the bottom lane and just couldn’t get going. Brad got to my inside and I got stuck in the middle and it was just kind of a dog fight after that. I would have gave anything to restart 10th instead of ninth, but it is what it is. It was a solid day for us. I’m really proud of Drew and everybody on this Smithfield Ford Fusion team. We worked on it all weekend and got it better and better, and the best we had it was right there in the race. I’m really proud of everybody. To come out here in Ford’s backyard and have a good run was nice for us.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – NOT BAD CONSIDERING EVERYTHING YOU WENT THROUGH TODAY. “Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. We had a fast car and things just didn’t work out. We have fast cars every week and that gives us something to look forward to.” DID YOU THINK YOU HAD AN ENGINE PROBLEM EARLY ON? “Yeah, there were some things going on in the car that made me think something might let go, but fortunately that didn’t happen.” WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE TIRE PROBLEMS STARTED? “I’m not sure, but I think we brushed the 4 and that knocked the crush panel into the tire and it went down.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “The speed wasn’t there. We were a little better and obviously in qualifying our cars are good, but we just couldn’t hang with the Toyotas up front there. Those two cars there – really the Furniture Row cars is what I should say. They’re just lights-out fast. The fastest car didn’t win the race, I can tell you that much for sure. We had a flat tire. I don’t know why we had a flat tire, but maybe we ran something over. I don’t know. On to the next one. We’ll keep moving.” YOU WANTED THIS BAD. “Yeah. On to the next race. If we finished second today it wouldn’t have made a difference, so we’ll just move on and try to win.” CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RACE? “There wasn’t much good. It seemed like we were running top 5, at least the first stage, but just didn’t have the speed that a lot of the other cars had. We kind of fell into where we were gonna be 10th or so, just like we’ve been, and then the right-front blew out somehow. It wasn’t like it was a long run or anything like that. We must have run something over, but after that we were two down and it just didn’t matter.” LIKE YOU SAID, SECOND PLACE WASN’T GOING TO GET YOU THROUGH ANYWAY. “Second place wasn’t gonna get us through today, so we’re all or nothing.”
LANDON CASSILL – No. 34 MDS Transport Ford Fusion – “We needed to have a solid race with a good finish. We haven’t had one in a while. It was really, really loose the whole and the speed came when we tightened it up, but to start the race it was really, really loose. I think if we get that balance right to start the race in the future, then we won’t get behind at all.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 38 Overton’s Ford Fusion – “Our balance was OK at times during the race, but the strategy just didn’t work into our favor. We’ve been really fortunate this year to have good strategy during the stages and with no cautions those first two stages we got a little behind, and then tried to short-pit there at the end and the caution came out that cost us a lap or so. That’s one of those days when you don’t have a lot of attrition, not many cautions, and you just have an average race car and we kind of paid the price.”
