Ford Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
PowerShares QQQ 300 (Daytona International Speedway)
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Ford Finishing Order
3rd Ryan Reed
4th Kaz Grala
14th Cole Custer
27th Dylan Lupton
34th Joey Logano
35th Aric Almirola
40th Austin Cindric
FORD DRIVER QUOTES
RYAN REED, No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 3rd
“Daytona is such an up and down race. You never know what you are going to get when you come here. Got involved in someone else’s mess early on and just tried to recover all day. We picked the right lanes late in the race and got up to the top-10, then the leaders wrecked and the next thing you know we are on the front row. I didn’t think we had a good enough car to lead there with all the damage but we could push really well. I focused on that and my Ford Mustang had a lot of power. Thanks to Roush Yates and Jack and Lilly Diabetes and everyone that supports this deal. What a great way to start the season.
KAZ GRALA, No. 24 NETTTS Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 4th
“I gotta tell you man, this feels like victory lane for me. I think that was the most satisfying race I have every driven in. Getting the win last year was obviously unbelievable but we sat on the pole with that car. This car we qualified 29th with. We really had it set up for the race and that Ford power was really strong in the pack. I am really excited to be able to finish up there. I am so proud of my guys. It is going to be a fun year getting to race with these guys 33 times.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 34th (Accident)
“We were pushing really hard up top and that’s gonna happen at the end of the race. You’re gonna see something similar again here. There’s gonna be a lot of hard pushing. Hopefully, they don’t crash, but they started coming down across the race track and I was right there. I thought I had it missed and then I think every car in the field got a piece of me along the way, so I had a great Fitzgerald Mustang, but sometimes your the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 98 Smithfield/DenBeste Water Solutions Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 35th (Accident)
“WHAT HAPPENED IN THE INCIDENT WITH LARSON? “He had a really good car and led a lot of laps and was really aggressively blocking all day and doing it masterfully. Right there he kind of pulled up to block my run and really only blocked it halfway, so when I ran into the back of him I clipped him in the right-rear quarterpanel and he started a tank-slopper. I hate that. Our Ford Mustang was really fast and I thought we were gonna go get us another Xfinity victory, but unfortunately we didn’t. I’m really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste. They brought some really nice race cars and speedway racing.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 14th
“We weren’t the fastest car, but we could stay up in the pack. I don’t know what happened. I still haven’t seen a replay of that wreck, but I got turned there and got wrecked, but the team did a really good job of trying to salvage a good finish. It was still really driveable there at the end. I was really surprised, but I had a huge vibration, so we didn’t have the fastest car there. I was happy with it. Compared to last year, this is a lot better We didn’t put ourselves in a hole, so I’m looking forward to Atlanta.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 60 Pirtek Ford Mustang
Finishing Position: 40th (Accident)
“I learned that waiting until the end really isn’t a thing. It is tough because you just work all year to get prepared and you work all year trying to find seats to sit in. It is just unfortunate it only lasts that long. It is longer than my Truck race lasted last year, that is a plus. I hate it for the guys on the 60 and anybody else involved. We will move on to Atlanta. I look forward to seeing how Chase (Briscoe) and those guys do in the 60. I will be in the 12. Hopefully we have a longer race down there. We were a little loose coming off of four but I need to see a replay to see how close the 18 was to my door. Those guys were getting pretty aggressive for lap 10 or wherever we were. It is unfortunate to be put in that position but we were just racing.”
