Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
AAA Texas 500 – Texas Motor Speedway
Friday, November 3, 2017
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st Kurt Busch
3rd Kevin Harvick
8th Ryan Blaney
10th Brad Keselowski
12th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14th Danica Patrick
18th Aric Almirola
20th Clint Bowyer
22nd Landon Cassill
24th David Ragan
28th Matt DiBenedetto
36th Joey Logano
37th Trevor Bayne
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion (Qualified 3rd)
“We have done a phenomenal job qualifying all year. I hadn’t been more nervous for one than this one just because I feel like it will be a crucial track position game to dictate your strategy and get the stage points that you need that you need to be up front. They did a good job. I didn’t know if we were going to make it with all the inspection stuff going on. We came out at the last minue. Kurt did a great job getting the pole. We needed him to get the pole, not the 11.”
IS THERE SOMETHING ABOUT GETTING THROUGH TECH LATE LIKE THAT AND JUST JUMPING IN AND GOING AND NOT GETTING A CHANCE TO REALLY THINK MUCH ABOUT IT? “This is a little bit of a nerve-wracking lap because it is so fast. For me, my heart rate has been up since I started because of the anxiety of getting in the car late, not having time to prep yourself getting in and calm down and then you get in there and it is just lap after lap, but it worked out fine.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th)
“We lost speed from practice which was unfortunate. I don’t know. We handled way different in qualifying than we did in practice. I am not really sure where that went. The track cooled off or something. Hopefully we can dial it in and get it a little bit better for Sunday.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Ford Fusion (Starting 36th) YOU DIDN’T GET OUT OF TECH IN TIME TO GET A LAP IN FOR QUALIFYING: “Yeah, we have a lot of work to do now. AAA is our sponsor and they are sponsoring the race and we want to have a good run for them and we still will, we just have a little bit of work cut out for us now. This is a place that is really no advantage to starting in the back. It is not like we get fresher tires. It is a pretty challenging place to pass, especially early in the race and the track isn’t very wide yet. The challenge is pretty big in front of us but I have a team that is up for it. We will keep battling.”
KURT BUSCH (POLE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE)
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion — WOW THAT WAS FAST, WALK US THROUGH THAT LAP: “Yeah, that is pretty neat to hear we were over 200 mph average speed for a lap time at a 1.5 mile track. It was really neat. The way today unfolded for us. Right before I jumped in the car I saw an old friend and he had his two sons with him and they were in awe. They were on pit road checking it all out for qualifying and I winked at both of them and said it was going to be over 200 mph today. I was able to back it up so now I feel impressed. It was a really neat day with the cars runs through each of the three rounds. The last round we have been struggling in round three with the heat cycles on the tires throughout the year. In the last round they asked me if I wanted air pressure, wedge or track bar and I said, ‘D, all of the above.’ We really loosen it up because what is the difference between 12th or fourth of fifth. I wanted to make sure we didn’t leave anything out on the track. It was a nice pole run. I am really happy for Tony Gibson. It is his birthday. And I am really happy for everyone on the 41 car.”
YOU JUST RAN THE FASTEST QUALIFYING LAP EVER AT A 1.5 MILE TRACK. WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? “Three and four is an incredible sensation. Once the car goes into the banking it travels. The suspension collapses in the car and the car gets lower to the ground and picks up speed because you are lower to the ground and have less drag. It is a sensation that is hard to describe. When you have that grip level in the car it gives you the feeling that you can just put it down to the floor and there won’t be any consequences. Turns one and two are where I think the lap times come from. If you can get it to hook and stay right on the bottom because that end of the track is a lot flatter. You have to back out of the gas all the way. Then in three and four you can hold it wide open. Both ends of the track are very different. It is a cool sensation going through thee and four almost holding it wide open.”
WHAT WAS THE G-FORCE FEELING LIKE FOR YOU WITH THAT SPEED AND ALSO FOR THE RACE, TRAFFIC WILL BE IMPORTANT, IS IT POSSIBLE TO MAKE THE CAR BETTER FOR TRAFFIC? “The sensation of speed is unbelievable. It is such a cool feeling to go through both ends of the race track which are very different. To go through turns three and four almost wide open and have that car literally feel like it gains speed through the corner, that is one of the best feelings. That is one thing I always tell people when they ask what the best part is about being a NASCAR driver. It is usually Friday in that first practice session jumping down into the corner at 200 mph. It is one of the best feelings in the world and we got the pole today.”
“As for how the car will handle in the race traffic. It is very dirty air here at Texas. The pace drop off is quite a bit. Lap times will slow up and then they will slow up even more once we get to Saturday’s practices in the afternoon and then the weather forecast is for 92-degrees and sunny on Sunday so it will be even slower. You have to change the setup around the changing track conditions. Texas is one of the tracks that has the biggest delta as far as change between Friday and Sunday.”
SHR AND FORD GOT STARTED WITH SOME GROWING PAINS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE VALIDATION FROM THIS POLE BUT WHAT WE HAVE SEEN AS OF LATE FROM ALL THE CARS? “I feel like the Fords, the aerodynamic balance is good for the single car runs. Low drag and faster tracks. We won Daytona. Stenhouse won Talladega and July Daytona and then Keselowski won at Talladega in the fall. Those are tracks where we are going fast. Average speed is up and it is high, just like today. Even though this is a downforce track, the Fords seem to have a little less drag and when you have that you need to capitalize on it on Fridays. For all of SHR, the balance of the Fords were a bit different than we expected. Some of the rule changes this year with templates and the trend with losing rear downforce compounded the Fords balance. A lot of the rear end rules as far as no skew and how things are tightened up in that region, we have been trying to get back to a baseline that we are comfortable with.”
YOUR POLE TROPHY, YOU GOING TO KEEP THIS ONE OR GIVE IT TO THE OLD MAN FOR HIS BIRTHDAY? “I have it in any of our deals where we get a ring of pole trophy that I get him a replica. It is always cool to come to Texas and go for a pole run and you get a gun afterwards? Heck yeah. A shotgun. It is awesome.”
HOW MUCH SLOWER WILL YOU GO ON SUNDAY IF THE TEMPS ARE AROUND 90-DEGREES? CAN YOU GO OVER 200? “I think we will see 200 but not as an average. It will drop probably seven or eight mph as far as average speed drop.”
ANY PROGRESS FOR YOU FOR NEXT YEAR? “No updates for me. We are in negotiations. Days like today help quite a bit.”
WITH THE SPEED YOU AND KEVIN HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND THE LAST SEVERAL WEEKS, DO YOU THINK IT WOULD BE WRONG TO COUNT YOUR TEAMMATE OUT OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RIGHT NOW? “No, I think Kevin has the right mindset. He knows he doesn’t have a dominant car like he had in 2014 and there are times when the fastest car doesn’t always win the race. With the bonus points that he has and the approach, I think that he can do a nice job of averaging his way into the Homestead finale. If he has a shot to win on Sunday, that is where I have to use my smarts to help him out. Last week, the final restart, he was restarting ninth and I was restarting 12th. I was in the row behind Kevin and you feel that. You feel a responsibility as a team driver to help the guy that is still eligible in the playoffs do what he can to gain one point here or there. I still think that we are going to see a group of manufacturers down at Homestead. A Ford, Chevy and Toyota and that extra one that gets in. There is no reason there can’t be two Fords with Keselowski and Harvick, or Blaney who is eligible too. The Fords are still right there. We just haven’t had the dominance like Toyota has all year. We just have to be smart and maybe a little luckier than those guys to get all the points we can on Sundays.”
IS WATCHING WHERE YOUR TEAMMATE IS AT MORE OF A PERSONAL THING FOR YOU OR IS THAT SOMETHING THAT COMES FROM THE TEAM? WHERE IS THAT LINE OF HELPING AND DOING WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN THAT SITUATION? “I think it is more of a personal call. It is who you are as a person and how you want to be respected on the track and how you want to be respected internally at SHR. That has been a lot of good camaraderie this year amongst the Ford group from the management, drivers, everybody. There are different hats you wear. I didn’t have a shot at running top-five at Martinsville but I had a teammate in front of me. It is the small things that add up and when you are in contract negotiations you wave that in front of them as well.”
