Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Coca-Cola 600 Qualifying (Charlotte Motor Speedway; Concord, NC)
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Ford Qualifying Results:
2nd – Joey Logano
5th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Ryan Blaney
9th – Aric Almirola
13th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14th – Paul Menard
16th – Kurt Busch
17th – Matt Kenseth
19th – David Ragan
28th – Clint Bowyer
29th – Michael McDowell
31st – Matt DiBenedetto
39th – Kevin Harvick
RODNEY CHILDERS, Crew Chief, No. 4 Mobil 1/Busch Ford Fusion – CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY YOU DIDN’T GET THROUGH INSPECTION? “I think it’s something that’s been building throughout the year and at some point you had to get back control of it. There were some things in the garage that basically the template side of it wasn’t getting used and straight edges weren’t getting used and we were just purely going off the OSS, and that was fine until it somewhat starts getting out of hand. They changed some things around last week and some personnel around and positions around and started checking things differently. The whole garage had trouble last week, but we all got through it and I’ll be honest with you, we worked on this thing for 12 hours on Monday trying to get all of it how they wanted it. We felt good about it when we unloaded it. We went through there and the hotel was green and everything was good, and then we went back through for qualifying and it was red. We sanded on it and it was more red, and we sanded on it again and it was more red, so that part of it I don’t understand. That part is disappointing, but it’s not their fault. Everybody is gonna push things as much as they can and I think everybody knows that the 4 team is out to push things as much as they can and win races, so it’s disappointing to start in the back. It’s disappointing not to have Cheddar (Smith, car chief) here, but we’ll get through it as a race team and we’ll have a good car on Sunday.”
YOU’LL LOSE 30 MINUTES OF PRACTICE ON SUNDAY? “The second practice session.”
IS THAT NOT AS BAD OF A PENALTY BECAUSE THE MORNING SESSION WILL BE MORE LIKE TRACK CONDITIONS ON SUNDAY? “It doesn’t really matter. You either got a good car or you don’t, and I’m guessing it’ll be pretty good. We’ll just have to serve our penalty and move on.”
WHAT DOES THE LOSS OF CHEDDAR MEAN TO THIS TEAM? “The loss of Cheddar means I have to work a hell of a lot harder, but I was a car chief for many years. I can do it as good as anybody can, so we’ll get through out, but we’ll miss him on Sunday.”
SO YOU DID NOT PASS THE OSS? YOU MENTIONED TEMPLATES EARLIER. “One thing affects the other. In the beginning of the year it was strictly the OSS and trying to take the human element out of it and now we’re back to the human element of making sure quarterpanels are straight and rockers are straight. The bad thing about the way that all of that system works is that if you change it in one spot it affects it in another spot. Metal is metal and it has to go somewhere. The straight edge part we got by and was okay with that. The real issue ended up begin the OSS and the right-rear tail. That part is sometimes hard to explain. We go through it at the shop with our OSS also. It’s just part of it. We all have to learn from it. We can be at the shop and sand a quarter-of-an-inch off and it doesn’t do anything and we can put a half-an-inch of mud on it and it doesn’t do anything. You just kind of have to play that fine line every week of knowing what’s right and what’s wrong.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 PPG Ford Fusion – “Obviously, we’d like to be a little bit further up, but I didn’t get the best lap there at the end and hopefully we can be pretty decent in race trim. We’ll have to wait until Saturday to find that out, so we’ll see.” HOW DID THE TRACK CHANGE FROM THE START OF QUALIFYING TO THE END WITH THE SUN GOING DOWN? “We all moved up. I ran the bottom the first round and a lot of people ran that middle and then we ended up all running the middle there. Your car needed completely different stuff, so I wish we would have known that a little bit more, but I didn’t know we were gonna run the middle though. I just ran the bottom the first round and wish we could have worked on it more, but that’s not a bad starting spot for Sunday.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “Trying to get through tech and rushing, that first round I kind of missed my marks and didn’t put a great lap together. Thankfully, we squeaked through and then the next two rounds were much more methodical and a little more controlled and we had a chance to catch our breath and make some adjustments to the car. It’s solid for sure. It was a little hectic, but a solid starting spot for 600 miles.”
PRESS CONFERENCE
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – HOW DOES SECOND SET YOU UP FOR WINNING? “It helps. I came in here earlier talking about how important qualifying was and at the time we just got done with practice and we were around 20th on the speed chart and I was thinking, ‘Qualifying is important and we’re not very fast,’ but we made some good adjustments. The track also changed a lot. It’s hard for me to say what was the changes and what was the race track. The XFINITY cars ran on that PJ1 a lot and definitely activated it and got the grip definitely up there, so it’s hard for me to say what was what, but, overall, the car got faster and that’s all I really care about. We were able to get a good starting spot. It’s not the pole. We were a solid tenth off, but we improved every round in getting our car faster. I think it’s the best we’ve qualified all year, so that’s a good sign for us. Hopefully, when we come back here on Saturday we’re able to adjust on our car a little bit and get it to where we can be good on the bottom, be good on the top and as the track changes like we just saw hopefully we’re good on both of those and that’s what we’ll work on and hopefully at the end of the day we’re winning the Coca-Cola 600.”
HAS THE TRACK GOTTEN BUMPIER SINCE LAST YEAR? “We’re on a landfill. My dad was a garbage man. I learned a lot about these things and these things seem to fall in every now and again and there are a lot of bumps. This track was bumpy before they repaved it and every time we come back here the bumps are getting worse and that on top of we’ve got the drop heights in the cars over the last couple of years, but still that makes it a little bit stiffer feeling from inside the car. But I was talking to Todd in between practice and qualifying and I said, ‘Man, I kind of think this is the bumpiest race track we go to now.’ There’s no huge big bumps like Vegas has that big tunnel bump and all that, but it’s kind of like driving on a cobblestone road, like the lefts and the rights don’t tie together. The car is shaking back and forth and it bounces your head around a lot, for sure. You’re bouncing off the headrest back and forth and ride quality is important. There’s always a trade off to that from the aero side and grip side for some ride quality, so it’s a trade off, like we always have to figure out how to get that balance right, but that’s part of it is how do we make those right decisions and what will be right for 600 miles. It’s rough. It’s brutal in there, but you’ve got to put up with it if you want to win.”
HOW MUCH OF THE RESULT IS WHAT YOU DO TO THE CAR VERSUS WAITING TO GO OUT AND ALL THE GAMESMANSHIP? “There’s a lot of gamesmanship there. I wish I could say it’s pure talent, but there’s a lot of thought that goes in behind that for my race team and helps me with that. Every race track is a little bit different of when you want to go out there. You think of tracks like Martinsville or Bristol is different than coming to a Charlotte or Dover and when you want to go out there and when we think the track is best. Tonight, we saw Kyle go right out. I went fairly late in the second round, which we just wanted our tires to cool a little bit more and the sun is going down, so you kind of have those things going for you, but as you wait more cars go out there and you have dirtier air, the track is fuller, the track might actually gain some temperature because there are cars out there. You have to think about all this stuff, so it’s kind of fun in between qualifying sessions because you’re thinking about your car and what it’s going to do from round to round, and then you’re thinking about, ‘Okay, when is the right time to go out there on the race track and get the best race conditions out there for your best run you can get?’”
“We bounce ideas off of each other. I’m not quite good enough to do it all on my own, so I have to have a good team behind me to help me with that. Todd and I and Miles and Logan, our engineers, we all kind of bounce ideas say, ‘I think this and I think that.’ It’s good. I feel like I kind of help with some of what I feel down at the end of pit road when cars are pulling out there. They can’t see all that and I kind of have an idea of when I think the track is best and we talk about that before qualifying. We talk about it during qualifying depending on how our car is and things like that.”
YOU JOKED A COUPLE WEEKS AGO WITH MARTIN ABOUT LAST YEAR YOU WERE CHASING THE 78 AND THIS YEAR YOU”RE CHASING THE 4. IN THE LAST SEVERAL WEEKS DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE MAKING PROGESS ON THAT AND HOW FAR AWAY DO YOU FEEL FROM BEING ABLE TO GO TOE TO TOE? “We’re not far – about a tenth (laughing). That’s all it really takes, too. This sport we’re so close all the time. It doesn’t take much to flip over and have a car that’s better than everybody and it’s all about peaking at the right time. Everyone talks about peaking at the right time, but these days everyone is showing up with everything they’ve got. It’s not like you’re holding something in the tank. Every race means so much now. The points that you’re able to gain for the Playoffs at the Coke 600 is way more important than it used to be. It doesn’t carry just for the first round when we all said, ‘just don’t crash’ and you get through the first round. Those points carry you through all the way to Miami, so every race is super-important and you can’t really afford to not bring everything you’ve got every week, which is great. That’s the way racing should be. You shouldn’t hold out. You should bring the best thing you’ve got every week, bring your A-game whether it’s the car or the driver or the team, you’ve got to bring your best to compete against the best. I think that’s why you kind of see some cars that are real dominant for a while and then it kind of switches back because everyone is just developing so quickly right now.”
DO YOU FEEL THE TOYOTAS HAVE FOUND SOMETHING TO GET A LITTLE CLOSER TO THE FORDS? “I wouldn’t say the Toyotas have been off. I think Kyle’s got three or four wins. That’s a lot of wins. I don’t think they’re off by no means. I think it’s been a little overshadowed because Kevin has won a lot of races here recently, but I think the Toyotas have been fast the last few years. They’ve been really quick. The Gibbs cars have been quick. The 78 has been quick and now you see Kevin, who always has been one of the fastest cars every week, but they found a little bit. I think personally Penske and the 22 team in general has kind of gotten closer to where we need to be. I’d say we’re comparable to where the Gibbs cars are right now – Team Penske is. I think we’re about where that is, but we need to obviously keep improving. The development cycle happens so quick that we’ve got to keep improving there.”
DOES IT HELP TO HAVE HARVICK IN THE BACK TO START SUNDAY? “It sure don’t hurt (laughing). We taking bets on how long it’s gonna take for him to get up there? Where is the new betting thing? Is that what we’re doing now? Is that in the media center? That’s funny.”
