Ford Performance MENCS Notes and Quotes
Apache Warrior 400 – Dover International Speedway
Sunday, October 1, 2017
FORD FINISHING ORDER:
6th Clint Bowyer
10th Brad Keselowski
15th Joey Logano
17th Kevin Harvick
19th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18th Danica Patrick
20th Kurt Busch
21st David Ragan
23rd Ryan Blaney
24th Trevor Bayne
25th Aric Almirola
29th Landon Cassill
31st Matt DiBenedetto
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Finished 23rd) (Advances to Playoff Round 2) NOT THE TYPE OF DAY YOU WERE LOOKING FOR, BUT IS THERE A SILVER LINING IN THE FACT THAT YOU ADVANCE TO ROUND 2? “Yeah, there is a silver lining in that for sure. It is definitely not the day we wanted and we got trapped a lap down early, didn’t fire off very good. At least we got our car a little better the last 100 laps or so but then we had an issue and I had to take it easy toward the end. It figures. We got the car better and then just had to kind of ride around the last 60 laps or so. That stunk. The main goal is to transfer and I think the second round is really good for us. I am really excited about that. I am excited to get to Charlotte.”
WHAT ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT? “I think the tracks just play into our favor. We are really fast at 1.5 mile race tracks and had a good run at Kansas earlier and speedways we run great. Charlotte, we had a broken axle earlier this year but we were pretty decent in that race before that happened. The 1.5 mile tracks seem to be our strong suit and hopefully we can keep that up and keep making that our strong suit.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion (Finished 19th) (Advances to Playoff Round 2)
YOU SURVIVED AND MOVE ON TO ROUND 2. “The feeling is lucky really. We caught the caution there right at the right time with a perfect amount of laps left in the stage to get stage points and that was the turning point of the day. Our Fastenal Ford was definitely not close to what we needed, especially the last two runs. We were close before the last two runs and made some adjustments there and really fell off. All in all, like I said, I feel lucky that we had all the mistakes at Chicago and really not a good car at Chicago, Loudon or Dover but we still made it in. Really it is hats off to the guys for fighting all day and it is nice that the round starts over.”
YOU HIT THE RESET BUTTON GOING INTO THE NEXT ROUND TO SOME TRACKS YOU LIKE, WHAT IS THAT LIKE? “Well, we have to run better. We have to bring faster race cars to the track because what we are bringing to the track right now is not nearly fast enough. All in all it is positive momentum that we did make it to the second round.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) (Advances to Playoff Round 2) WALK US ROUGH YOUR DAY: “Qualified 16th. Had some pretty good strategy running long and caught the yellow cycle. Had a good pit stop that put us in position to win the first Stage which was good. Then we cycled back to sixth the next two rounds and fought really hard from there to just keep track position. We were holding on to sixth or seventh most of the race and at the end we tried to a little bit of strategy and it just didn’t quite work out.”
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion (Finished 20th) (Eliminated from Playoffs) YOU WERE COMING THROUGH THE FIELD WHEN YOU HAD THE PIT ROAD INCIDENT. WALK US THROUGH IT: “Yeah, disappointed in the way that I drove all through these playoff run. I was driving at 101 percent trying to get every ounce of speed out of it. It just never had a flow for three races. We might have finished 10th here today. The wreck last week really put us in a hole. We needed perfect day today and playoff stage points. We just really never did well in Stage 1 and I thought that it might be our Achilles heel. If we add up the numbers (that’s) probably where it was. I can’t fault anybody. We ran hard. We gave it everything we had.”
ANY SOLACE IN THE SEASON WHEN YOU DIDN’T ADVANCE BUT WON THE DAYTONA 500? “Yeah, winning the Daytona 500, you always see the jinx that happens afterwards. We experienced it. There’s a lot that goes on with it. My car never had the handle in it this year where I was always loose in, tight on exit. Loose in, tight on exit. I don’t know why we had that so bad this year.”
