Ford Performance MENCS Notes and Quotes
Apache Warrior 400 – Dover International Speedway
Friday, September 29, 2017
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion) met with the media today prior to first practice for this weekend’s Apache Warrior 400 at Dover Speedway as part of a three-driver panel with Ryan Newman and Austin Dillon. All three drivers are battling to advance to Round 2 of the Playoffs next weekend.
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion — CAN YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF YOUR THOUGHTS AND THE INTENSITY OF THE BATTLE OF THE RACE WITHIN THE RACE HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, I was rewatching the race from earlier this year and I thought all three of our cars were really fast and you can add the 1 and 41 and 5 in there as well. I felt like we all had really fast cars. It is going to be a battle. I think there is some strategy you can play to maybe get some stage points but you don’t want to give up too much track position here. It will be a fine line of what your crew chief wants to do but it will be a heck of a battle for sure.”
ANYTHING DIFFERENT OR MORE COMPETITIVE HERE THIS WEEKEND THAN ANYWHERE ELSE? YOU GUYS ALWAYS RACE HARD. “You have to race the track as well here at Dover. It is tough. The car is always on edge to be fast here. It is always easy to make mistakes. You have to watch other people around you and be able to get on and off pit road. There are a lot of things that you have to pay attention to yourself, not just what Austin and Ryan are doing. Heck, who knows. The 41 could go out and get stage points and all of us miss stage points and before the end of the race you are talking about him as well. We have to go out and do the best we can and really kind of keep your head down until after that second stage and then see where things shake up and go for it after that.”
BRIAN PATTIE SAID EARLIER THIS WEEK AFTER CHICAGO AND NEW HAMPSHIRE THAT WHEN HE LOOKED AT THE POINTS HE THOUGHT YOU GUYS WOULD BE FURTHER BEHIND BASED ON CHICAGO BUT YOU GUYS ARE STILL IN IT. DID YOU NOTICE THE POINTS AND WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO STILL BEING IN IT WITH THOSE PLAYOFF POINTS KEEPING YOU IN CONTENTION? “After our poor performance at Chicago I thought we were kind of out of it. Then when I got done with the issues some of the other cars had we were right there within striking distance. We didn’t have a great Loudon but we managed to gain some points there and that is what we have to keep doing. We have to keep our head down and fight to the end.”
