Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
NASCAR All-Star Race (Charlotte Motor Speedway; Concord, NC)
Friday, May 18, 2018
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Matt Kenseth
2nd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3rd – Clint Bowyer
4th – Kevin Harvick
6th – Ryan Blaney
8th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Joey Logano
15th – Kurt Busch
MATT KENSETH, No. 6 #DoYouKnowJack Ford Fusion – Qualified 1st
“The car drove good. It seemed fine. It was our first laps on the track today with all the rain and Ricky was a huge help to me going out early and helping me with my braking in pit road and his spotter up there helping me. That was a big help to get us up there like that.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion – Qualified 2nd
“I saw that pothole and thought I would cut the corner as low as I could and I got right past the wall and saw that pothole and I was wide open and I hit it. Yeah, that was not good on the equipment but my guys did an awesome job. No penalties. That was big. Any time you do a format like this, being penalty free is good. I do think I could have gotten to pit road better. Right now, I am glad that we beat the 48 and the 2 because those cars were really good at doing this last year. Track position will be pretty key come tomorrow night.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Fan Club Ford Fusion – Qualified 3rd
“Going out cold turkey like that for everybody is fun but it is nerve wracking. Literally, I didn’t even think about looking at pit road when we were out there practicing. All in all, it was a lot of fun for us and look at all those Ford’s up there at the top of the board. Seems like everytime we do this it is a bunch of blue up there. That is what we like to see.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion – Qualified 4th
“My goal going into this was to not slide through the pit box, not spin out coming to pit road and shift in all the correct spots and we did all that. We did all that pretty well and there was no catastrophe and that was really our main goal tonight so I am good with that and we will see what tomorrow brings.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Hawk/Carlisle Ford Fusion – Qualified 6th
“I didn’t come in hot enough. I kind of babied it there which I regret. I wish I could do it again but I really didn’t want to overshoot my pit stall. I feel like I gave up a lot. Over a second on pit road just not knowing. I guess I should have just went for it. We will have to see where that stacks up and go race tomorrow.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Qualified 10th
“I think without the pit road hiccup everything else would have been fast enough to be up top, at least right now. I am happy that I actually made it this time because I have never actually stopped on pit road before. That actually felt really good. Baby steps. We got one part checked off but we just had a hiccup on the right rear. I don’t even know what it was exactly. We will start towards the back for sure but we will fight our way up from there.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. PRESS CONFERENCE
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN: “That was fun. I do wish I would have been able to go a little bit later. I think I gave up some time getting on pit road. I felt like I was really good in my braking zone and getting to the box but I felt like coming off the track to the start of my braking zone I felt like I was a little slower right there. I wish I could go back and do that part again. All in all Scott Bowen did a good job with our pit crew, both Matt (Kenseth) and mine. We were able to have fast pit stops with no penalties and that is mainly the biggest key for this qualifying format. Luckily the car is okay after hitting that manhole cover. I kind of new I was going to shortcut and not go up onto the track so I was looking at the end of the pit road wall and was going to hang a left. Then I hung the left and saw the hole. I think everything is okay, so that is good. It is nice to have a Roush Fenway front row. It has been a very long time since that happened. It doesn’t really matter the format, I am happy with that.”
NOW THAT YOU HAVE HAD MATT KENSETH BACK FOR A WEEK, WHAT HAS HE CONTRIBUTED? “Really it has been what I thought he would contribute. He is pretty direct with how he feels about the race cars and it is nice that his directness is exactly like mine. Hopefully we can get some movement in the right direction with our cars. I think for me it is reassuring that he feels the exact same way that I do and now obviously the guys at the shop and our engineering and the teams, we have to figure out how to make our comments about the race cars and complaints and just make them faster. Matt isn’t an engineer so he isn’t going to technically do that but we will keep giving them all the information we can. It is nice to know that he came over and was at least able to talk about his years at Gibbs and how the cars drove and what he struggled with and didn’t struggle with versus what our cars drive like. That has been nice to hear. We had a good week of meetings. Hopefully at some point we will see the process come around to bringing fast race cars to the race track.”
NOW THAT YOU HAVE HAD THE TIME YOU DID HAVE ON THE TRACK IN THE CARS, HOW DO YOU TRY TO ATTACK THIS THING TOMORROW? “I think we all feel like the speeds are pretty slow and I think looking on Twitter it seems a lot of people are saying the same thing. By themselves they will be like that but it is just the product of the package that we have. I do think it will be interesting when we get out there in the pack to see how they drive. I got four laps in mine today and it felt okay but I never got right up behind somebody. I don’t know how they are going to drive. I think that is an unknown. I like a front row start and hopefully we can just stay out in front. The car drives good out by yourself and I think a lot of cars took drag out and almost brought their speedway cars. There are other teams that spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel getting ready for this package. We did not. We did the things we thought we should do and we will see how it shakes out tomorrow. I think it is a bit of an unknown right now.”
WHAT WAS THE THOUGHT PROCESS FOR YOU GUYS STARTING WITH THE DRIVERS SIDE ON THE PIT STOP? “I knew that we were doing the left sides right before we rolled out. Obviously the guys had been working on that and I think that looking at the top five or so in qualifying all did left sides first. Obviously there was a little speed there and that was cool to see. We were the first one that went out that did it that way. As far as the driving side I had pictures and things that I had last year that my spotter and I worked on to kind of figure out where we were going to brake and we were kind of basing it off of that and then we watched the 48 and 2 go and felt we could go a little further so we did. I think the more I watched we could have definitely gone a step further. It was cool. Matt and I talked about it before we went out and he kind of looked at my notes and he also got to use my spotter. I told him that I will always share my notes with him but I don’t know if I want to share my spotter with him next time. My spotter is pretty good.”
WOULD YOU WANT A PRACTICE SESSION TOMORROW? “Yeah, if we got a practice session I think you would see cars get in a pack or at least behind teammates to kind of switch it up a little bit within your teammates maybe so you don’t tear up a lot of race cars if you are in a big pack. I was really happy with the way mine drove and I am definitely okay with just lining them up and racing tomorrow night. I got four laps on the race track and I think that is the most of anybody. I talked to Harvick and he got behind me three of four car lengths when he was drafting up behind me and I got to talk to him about how his car drove. He said it felt okay. I thought he bailed on the lap because of handling issues behind me. He said it was raining in one and two still. He thought it drove okay behind him so the way my car drove by itself I think I am okay with just starting the race.”
MATT KENSETH POLE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE
CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH YOUR RUN? “The whole thing? Well, I got on pit road and started the engine. I am just kidding. The handling wasn’t much of an issue with restrictor plates so I couldn’t really mess that up too bad. Ricky helped me a lot getting on pit road. It was a good smooth pit stop and pretty decent transition on and off pit road and the cars laps were pretty fast as well. I was proud of everybody the way they executed today with no practice really and having a good pit stop to put both of our cars on the front row.”
YOU WENT FROM NOT RACING TO BE ON THE FRONT ROW TO RACE FOR A MILLION DOLLARS: “Yeah, I am glad we had a decent day today. We didn’t really do much but what we did do was good. That is a positive. I don’t know what to expect for tomorrow yet. I didn’t get any practice around other race cars yet. It is always good to start up front and no matter where you are at it is neat to win the pole, especially here when you have all the other stuff involved. It was a good day today and we will go to work tomorrow and hopefully do a good job tomorrow.”
WHAT IS YOUR ANTICIPATION OF WHAT THE CARS WILL RUN LIKE TOMORROW? WOULD YOU PREFER TO HAVE A PRACTICE TOMORROW OR NOT? “I don’t know. It is a coin flip on practice for me. I could tell you after the race is over if I wish we had practice or not. It might be nice to have a little practice to work through some stuff and see if handling will be a factor and if you need to work on your car. The flip side of that is everyone is in the same boat and a lot of times when you don’t have practice like that some guys are really going to miss it and some guys are going to hit it and it mixes up the field. I am okay either way. I guess if it was 100-percent my choice I would get a little practice around some other cars and see what we have to work on for the race.”
HOW WAS SUNDAY FOR YOU? WERE YOU STILL UPSET OVER THE RACE ON SATURDAY? “I was fine on Sunday. I wasn’t so good on Saturday and Tuesday wasn’t great. Kansas was, first of all it was last weekend and it is behind us and we try to learn what we can do better and there is a lot of it that is going to be a work in progress. Some things are going to take some time and patience. Kansas was just a mess from start to finish, honestly. There just wasn’t really much that came out of that weekend for a positive. With that being said, it is nice to come here and have everyone on their game today and get that pit stop and work together to get both cars on the front row. That is a huge positive for all the guys, myself included. Tomorrow is a new day. We just have to keep working at it.”
WHAT IS YOUR ASSESSMENT SO FAR OF THE ROUSH FENWAY CARS? WHAT AREAS DO YOU SEE THAT CAN BE IMPROVED? “Most of that is all kind of internal I guess. I am just kind of getting started. I am on catch-up mode, trying to get caught up to Ricky and at least get running the way they are running. Ricky has shown a lot of speed at different times this year. We know there is speed there. It is just normal racing stuff. Always trying to get the cars better and execute better and look at all parts of it to see what needs work and what doesn’t.”
IS TODAY A SHOT IN THE ARM GOING FORWARD AT LEAST? “Yeah. I think you are right on both counts, I think it is definitely a unique situation. There was a pit stop and you had to drive it down pit road but certainly winning a pole at Talladega is a lot different than winning a pole at Charlotte typically. It is different but it also shows the speed in the cars. Our lap time was really good and the pit crew did really good. Those are all positives. It is always a positive when you can go out and have a night, no matter what you are doing, and you do it better than the rest of them. That is always a positive and something to build on.”
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THIS WEEKEND TO YOU WITH THIS BEING SUCH A DIFFERENT PACKAGE THAN THE REST OF THE YEAR? “I think there are a few things you can still learn. There are some things with ride quality and those types of things. The rest of it, it is a team sport like anything else. It is another week to work together, work on our communication, try to work out some things that maybe we struggle with at Kansas or so far here. A chance to do more pit stops, get more familiar with the guys. Get on and off pit road. Call a race. It is still a race and you are racing with your team against the same guys. It will probably be a different type of race but I think we need to get some momentum and continuity and get rolling so I think these first five weeks are all really important. They are all different race tracks and different types of races but they are all important for that.”
DOES IT MEAN ANYTHING EXTRA TO SWEEP THE FRONT ROW? “I think it is neat to have both cars on the front row. We only have two cars coming out of that shop right now and the goal on qualifying day is to put the cars on the front row and on race day you want to keep getting better and eventually be up there winning races. That is always a goal, to get both cars to run as good as you can. Especially when you are that small. It is like one big team and I think it is so much easier to work together and share common goals and not be selfish and those kind of things. The goal is to get both cars running as fast as you can.”
