Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Pocono 400 (Pocono Raceway; Long Pond, PA)
Friday, June 1, 2018
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st Ryan Blaney
2nd Kevin Harvick
6th Kurt Busch
7th Joey Logano
9th Clint Bowyer
17th Brad Keselowski
20th Paul Menard
21st David Ragan
23rd Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26th Matt Kenseth
28th Cole Custer
30th Michael McDowell
32nd Matt DiBenedetto
34th Aric Almirola
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Fusion – (Qualified 1st)
“We just kept getting better each round and everybody did a great job of realizing what we had to do to get better and pick out of spots where to get better and the car had the speed in it, we just needed to handle good and I needed to hit a good lap. I was kind of messing up the first two runs. We were able to figure out where we needed to get better and it was good. I can’t thank everyone on this Menards/Duracell Ford Fusion team enough. They put in hard work and it is nice to start up front on Sunday.”
DID YOU CONSERVE IN THE FIRST TWO ROUND AT ALL? “I didn’t conserve at all. I don’t feel like you can in this deal. You have to figure out what your car is doing so you can get better the next round. They just did a good job of realizing what we needed to adjust and applying those changes. They did a fantastic job.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Fusion – (Qualified 2nd)
“I thought we did a really good job of trying to pick a pace and trying not to be a hero on every lap and we were able to pick up a tenth in each round. We got a little loose there in three and I didn’t want to tug on the wheel any more just because of the fact I didn’t want it to get any looser so I just let it slide to the center and had to wait and gave up a good solid tenth there. It was still a great lap for our Busch Beer Ford and starting up front is a big deal here.”
YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO FAST AND SO GOOD LATELY BUT YOU’VE YET TO WIN HERE. HOW OPTIMISTIC ARE YOU FOR SUNDAY? “When we qualify this good at these tracks that I have notoriously struggled at in the past and knowing how well we have run here since I have been at SHR we are looking to win the race. Hopefully we can do that this week.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – (Qualified 7th)
“You are never happy unless you are first, so that is really cool for Blaney. It was good improvement for us from practice where we were 15th or 16th and we got faster every round. Everyone else did too. We closed the gap, but not quite enough. First run we were half a second off, then three-tenths and now two-tenths. We made good adjustments and got our car closer. I feel like there was good potential in our car if we just made the right adjustments. We got closer. I am not sure we got all the right adjustments quite yet but we have more time to work on it to get it better. We will fight from there, as Todd Gordon always says.”
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion – (Qualified 6th)
“I thought we had a really good day. We picked up two tenths in the final round of qualifying and that’s good for us. We haven’t been able to do that in awhile. That gives you a shot at a top-five and the pole. We’re sixth and right on that threshold. We’re still trying to figure out how to break through. We’re real close on a lot of adjustments and today was solid with the way adjusted well through the three rounds.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion – (Qualified 34th)
“Our issues started way before we ran out of time. We had a tire issue. One of our tires equalized they told me so my car was just out of control. We tried to take a bit stab at it to go back and try to salvage something out of it but we missed it by one second. I don’t think it matters though because when I drove down into turn one it still drove really awkward. It is disappointing but you just have to move on. What else can you do?”
KEVIN HARVICK PRESS CONFERENCE
WALK US THROUGH YOUR RUN OUT THERE: “It was a good lap through one and two and just slid the back all the way into three and to the center I had to ride the brake and wasn’t able to get off the brake and roll the center to get back to part throttle. That is where we gave up a little time and in the end we stuck to our goal and were able to pick a pace and get a little better and not make any huge mistakes. Our goal every week is to keep ourselves in contention each round and not give up the big mistakes and today we didn’t really do that and we were able to get a good qualifying spot. Obviously you want the pole. Last time here I drove it in and missed the first corner and qualified 12th. That is the opposite end of going for it. It was a good day. We were able to do what we wanted to do pace wise, it just wasn’t quite enough today.”
THERE WERE A LOT OF TEAMS TRYING TO CATCH A CLOUD OUT THERE: “Yeah, we caught a cloud in the second round and the last round was still our fastest. That has been the progression of what we have had the last couple times here as far as how the rounds go. The speed seems to pick up a little bit. That is what we did. We picked up a tenth in each round and kind of went to exactly how we expected it to go.”
DO YOU FEEL YOUR FIRST WIN HERE IS AROUND THE CORNER FOR YOU? “It could happen at any time. These guys have given me fast race cars pretty much every week. What used to be my worst race track on the schedule besides Dover in the first 13 years has now been really good to us. It is just a matter of the whole day going your way. These races aren’t easy to win, especially here because you just never know when the cautions are going to fly, what the right strategy is going to be and who can make it on fuel mileage. There are so many things to manage and have to go your way. Track position is so important and if you get behind you lose so much time to the leader. There is a lot going on. In order to win here you have to have a really fast car and everything has to go right.”
DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT A BATTLE ON THE TRACK BETWEEN YOU AND KYLE BUSCH IS COMING SINCE YOU HAVEN’T HAD TO BATTLE EACH OTHER FOR A WIN YET? “I hope so. At Texas we raced head to head and they beat us there. Phoenix we raced head to head and we wound up winning that race. It is kind of weird that we haven’t really mixed it up for an entire race. I think as you look at their team, it is obviously a lot of continuity and Kyle is a great driver but there is a lot of continuity and experience of being together. Our team is very similar and has a lot of respect for their team and the things they do on the race track. There are a lot of good teams in the garage but you look at the 18 team as being top notch just because of the fact that Kyle Busch drives their car and they have been together a long time. I am a firm believer in that. Of continuity in a team and getting the details out of these cars is highly important and Kyle is that type of guy that can be that part of the equation that really helps fill the gaps from a knowledge standpoint. I think that is one of the biggest differences, the details and how detail oriented I know our team is. I assume those guys are as well when you look at the results those guys get compared to their other cars.”
YOU HAD SIX CAREER POLES BEFORE YOU CAME TO SHR AND NOW YOU SEEM TO BE A CONTENDER EACH WEEK. WHY? “It is really just preparation. For me, in my previous life, it was about not worrying about qualifying and just get what you can get and go from there. The emphasis was different when I came to SHR and the difference was that there was a lot of preparation and time spent in the differences of the setups and things you needed to do. The expectations were much different. When the expectations are different it makes you think about things differently. There are two different processes. For me, I feel like I can do what I need to do on the race track for the race but I prepare more for qualifying on a weekend more than I do a race, if that tells you the emphasis they put on it.”
LAST YEAR, RYAN BLANEY HELD YOU OFF THE LAST 10 LAPS FOR THE WIN. ANY DEJA VU TODAY FOR THE POLE? “No, not really.”
RYAN BLANEY PRESS CONFERENCE
TAKE US THROUGH THAT LAP THAT WON YOU THE POLE: “We made big gains from practice to qualifying and then every round of qualifying. I didn’t think we had the speed to contend with Kevin (Harvick) the first two rounds. He was a solid two-tenths quicker than us. We made really good changes on our race car for the last round. I didn’t hit a very good turn one both laps but finally we figured something out to where I got through there a little better. They just did a great job of changing the car with what they had to work with to make it happen. It had the speed in it all along, we just needed to hit a clean lap and that was pretty good. I am proud of the effort of everyone who got it better and put in the hard work to do that.”
DID YOU GET ANY CLOUD COVER ON YOUR LAPS AT ALL? “Yeah. I didn’t see any the first two rounds and it seemed like there was a little cloud at the beginning of that last round and we tried to make sure we were in that first wave of cars that went. I don’t know if it passed or not. Clouds at any race track when the race track is cooler you are going to go faster. They did a good job of figuring out when the cloud was going to hit. I think five or six of us got it, me, the 4, the 18. That helped out a little bit.”
WERE YOU SURPRISED TO TOP HARVICK AND KYLE BUSCH IN THAT FINAL ROUND? “Yeah, I was really surprised with our speed that last round. I knew we had a better lap but this place is so big that a little bit of improvement in every single corner is going to be huge. I think we picked up four-tenths that last round from our first run. That is a little over a tenth in every corner, you just get a little better and it pays dividends at the end. I didn’t think we had the speed to run with Kevin. He seemed really fast the first two. Our car had it all along, we just had to hit a good lap. It surprised me the lap time when it came up on my dash. I thought it was good but I didn’t think it was that good. Those surprises are always nice. It is a bad surprise when you think you have a really great lap and it is terrible. I have had those too.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A KNACK FOR THIS TRACK? “Yeah, I have always enjoyed this place and coming here to watch my dad race. Like I said earlier, I made my first start ever in a race car at the dirt track here out behind turn three. Me and Jeb Burton and Brandon McReynolds grew up racing scooters. There used to be a small Pocono with MRO in the infield over there. We would race scooters around that. I have a lot of memories of this place. It has always suited me as a driver and a team. I have a pretty good line of communication here with where we need to be from practice to qualifying to the race. I feel like we had the same feeling about Kansas. Kansas is a really great race track for us. You can take away the difference from each place. There are a couple. I’d like to make it so we feel this way about every race track. I feel very comfortable here and the team is confident here and that is always a good combination.”
