Ford Performance MENCS Notes and Quotes
Bojangles’ Southern 500 – Darlington Raceway
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Ford Finishing Order:
3rd – Kurt Busch
9th – Kevin Harvick
15th – Brad Keselowski
18th – Joey Logano
20th – Aric Almirola
21st – Landon Cassill
25th – David Ragan
26th – Danica Patrick
27th – Matt DiBenedetto
29th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
31st – Ryan Blaney
35th – Trevor Bayne
40th – Clint Bowyer
KURT BUSCH – No. 41 Monster Energy Ford Fusion – WHAT WAS THE KEY TO GETTING TO THE FRONT? “It was good pit strategy. I was hoping for one more yellow. If there was a yellow with 30 to go, we were a really good car on short run speed. That was the longest run at the end and those guys caught us on their fresher tires, but just to be in position to win the Southern 500 is great. I didn’t quite get the job done, but third is really nice for a big, marquee race.” HOW MUCH DID YOU GET IN THE WALL? “I scrubbed it. It just took away the nice fender flare we had on the right-rear. The car was a little looser after that, but with 25 to go you’ve got to find every ounce you can and I was right there on the limit.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR TEAM WITH THE PLAYOFFS COMING IN TWO WEEKS? “We’ve had a couple good runs, but, still, we’ve got 11 weeks ahead of us. We treated this whole weekend like it was the Playoffs. Richmond will be the same thing next week.” HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS YOUR NIGHT? “I thought that we had a great battle tonight. It was a lot of fun with the Monster Energy Ford. To be in position to win the Southern 500, it throws chills down your spine. With about 100 (laps) to go I knew we were close. I was hoping that we would find the right strategy to come out ahead. The 78 was fast and those other Toyotas came in there. I thought that I was going to do it for our Fords. We didn’t quite get the job done. To be in position to win the Southern 500, I just want to get a shou tout out all the fans. It’s a fun weekend to be here on Labor Day weekend.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Genuine Draft Ford Fusion – “We just weren’t where we wanted to be at the end of the race. I was just kind of holding on and we were gonna probably run 10th or 12th and I got to trying a little bit too hard and brushed the wall. I ended up probably hurting our car a little bit and we finished 15th. Paul made a good call at the end there to get us into 15th when we probably could have been worse than that, so I was proud of that effort. We just need to be faster.”
SPEAKING OF BEING PROUD. WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT AUSTIN CINDRIC WINNING TODAY IN YOUR F-150? “It’s always good to get a win in that series. That’s a good deal for that whole team.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ON THAT LAST LAP WITH AUSTIN CLOSING ON THE LEAD? “I was thinking, ‘This is really stressful to watch on TV.’ That’s really what I was thinking, but it’s nice to have both trucks locked in the Playoffs.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – HAVE YOU EVER HAD A RACE WHERE SO MANY THINGS PILED UP ON YOU? “No. This was a first and it figures it happens in the longest race. It was the most frustrating race. I hit the fence early and that was a huge mistake on my part. I don’t know what I was doing. I got tight behind a car and I was kind of offset and I couldn’t see the wall, and I just should have been smarter and lifted. We clawed back from two laps down to get back on the lead lap, which was great. They did a good job. Then we lost a cylinder or something going on in the engine.” DID YOU EXPECT THE MOTOR TO LAST THE WHOLE RACE AFTER THAT? “I was surprised it lasted. I don’t know what was wrong with it. It was just down. That stunk. Actually, our car wasn’t that bad with the down motor when we had a flat when the lugnut hit the valve stem loose and cut the right rear going into one just piling on. It sucks those things happen.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – YOUR SITUATION IS PRETTY CLEAR. “It’s pretty simple. You could almost write an article without talking to me.” BUT YOU’VE DONE WELL BEFORE AT RICHMOND. “Yeah, but we’ve done well here before too, but we just didn’t have the speed today. The team executed really well. Our pit crew was super-fast and we had a car that was good on the long run sometimes, but never good on the short run. And then at the end it was horrible on the long run, so we just never really got the balance right. We were good in the day, but when we got to night time all hell broke loose for us. We’re on to the next one.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 STP Ford Fusion – “We were just really loose and we couldn’t make any ground. I thought at times during the race we had a decent car. I thought we had maybe a 15th-place car, but the longer the run we’d just get really loose. We’ll learn from it and keep on going.”
CLINT BOWYER – No. 14 Carolina Ford Dealers Ford Fusion – “It just blew up. It’s a pretty inopportune time to have it happen, but it’s never a good time. Doug Yates and all the guys over at his shop do such a good of bringing us reliable, good horsepower and it was just my time. It was my turn and there isn’t much you can do about it. Obviously, the way the Playoffs look right now, we’re not out of this thing. We’ve still got a good race track coming up for us. We’ll just go there and do the best we can and put all the cards on the table over there.”
THERE’S A BIG SENSE OF URGENCY NOW AT RICHMOND NEXT WEEK. “You come to all these race tracks with an urgency to win, just like we did at the Daytona 500. Richmond is a good track for us. We’ll go there and do the best we can.”
