Ford Performance MENCS Notes and Quotes
Bank of America 500 Qualifying – Charlotte Motor Speedway
Friday, October 6, 2017
Ford Qualifying Results:
3rd – Kevin Harvick
5th – Clint Bowyer
6th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Kurt Busch
12th – Danica Patrick
15th – Ryan Blaney
22nd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24th – Aric Almirola
26th – Trevor Bayne
28th – Joey Logano
29th – Matt DiBenedetto
30th – Landon Cassill
31st – David Ragan
KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion – HOW WAS ROUND THREE DIFFERENT FROM ONE AND TWO? “I didn’t feel like I got to the green quite as good and I felt like I had a little bit to spare in one and I didn’t. I got the ground just a little bit and got up a foot and just had to wait a split-second, but we have a really good car. We had three good rounds, a good starting spot and we’ll go from there.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion – “That’s not bad at all. We had our hands full in practice and it was a really nice recovery by the team.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE A TEAM THAT OVERCOMES ADVERSITY LIKE YOU HAD TODAY? “It’s very, very important because life is no different than racing, there’s a lot of adversity and it’s not always how you respond when you’re up, a lot of times it’s how you respond when you’re down.” WAS IT A CASE IN THAT FIRST ROUND OF GETTING A FEEL FOR THE CAR AGAIN AND HAVING MORE CONFIDENCE IN ROUNDS TWO AND THREE? “Yeah, probably a little bit of that and then we needed to dial it in a little bit.”
CLINT BOWYER – No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Fusion – WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE IN ROUND THREE? “I got through one and two like I needed to. I had been missing one and two like I needed to, and I was pretty good in three and four the first two stabs at it, and I got through one and two and thought this is my opportunity for a pole and got overconfident and drove it into three a little too hard. The way it is, it’s just a really, really narrow groove right there until that gets a little better, and I just slid up and got in the grease a little bit.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “We obviously want to be better. We’re starting 15th and hopefully we can work our way up. We’ll just have to see.”
DANICA PATRICK – No. 10 Ford Warriors in Pink Ford Fusion – “That’s far better than we do on a regular basis, so it was a good day. We weren’t that great in practice, so it’s nice when the changes going into qualifying work.”
