Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
Kansas Lottery 300 – Kansas Speedway
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Ford Finishing Order:
3rd – Ryan Blaney
10th – Ryan Reed
19th – Cole Custer
COLE CUSTER – No. 00 Haas Automation/Code 3 Associates Ford Mustang – WALK US THROUGH YOUR DAY: “We were a solid car, could have done better. We fought hard to keep it in the top 10. We got good stage points. Nothing we could do at the end of the race because we ran over something late in the race and crippled the right front. It’s just how it goes. There was a big cut in the tire and had to pit.”
LOOKING AHEAD, WHAT DO YOU GUYS NEED TO IMPROVE ON TO COMPETE FOR A CHANCE AT HOMESTEAD? “We didn’t race here all year so it was hard to know what to expect. We got our car better all day. This place isn’t our strong suit. I think we have some good tracks coming up for the 00 team.”
“YOU GUYS MADE THE CALL TO TAKE FOUR TIRES IN THE SECOND STAGE. DID YOU AGREE WITH THE STRATEGY? “I thought it was great. I thought that it got us a lot of stage points, more than if we would have stayed out. I was a great call. The stage points saved us today.”
RYAN REED – No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang – HOW DID YOU GUYS TURN YOUR DAY AROUND AND GET A TOP 10 OUT OF THE DAY? “Yeah, I felt like we weren’t all that far off. We were just a few adjustments from being really competitive. Phil, my crew chief, made a great call to put two spring rubbers on the car and I thought, ‘Man, that’s a really big change.’ I didn’t think that we were that far off. It worked. The car came to life after that and started to pick up a lot of speed and got competitive. I had really good restart on the last restart and picked up some track position. That was really the key to having a good finish. I had to make up a bad restart that I had earlier in the day. P10, not bad. I think we made up some points. We’re going to have to be better. We need to find some more speed. We’re up to the challenge. We’re only five or six points out. Five or six points out, we can make that up. We’re hanging around and everyone knows that we’re there. We’re ready to go get them.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY: “The 18 and 20 were really strong today. I thought we were getting better there at the end and then we had a right-rear come apart at the end of the race. That sucked. I thought that we had something at the end for the leaders. Just not our day. We just stalled out with 15 laps to go.”
