Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Quaker State 400 (Kentucky Speedway; Sparta, KY)
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Ford Finishing Results:
2nd – Ryan Blaney
3rd – Brad Keselowski
5th – Kevin Harvick
6th – Kurt Busch
8th – Aric Almirola
10th – Joey Logano
11th – Paul Menard
12th – Clint Bowyer
18th – David Ragan
19th – Matt Kenseth
24th – Michael McDowell
26th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
37th – Matt DiBenedetto
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Fusion
Finishing Position: 3rd
“It was a good call from my crew chief, Paul Wolfe. We had better speed than we’ve had at the mile-and-a-halves, but not enough to run with the 78. He eventually got by us there and I thought we might have had a shot at it if we could have restarted fourth there, but we kind of cycled back to sixth and it wasn’t enough to be able to make something happen there. All in all, a decent day. I hate that I kind of dug a hole early in the race with the speeding on pit road. We were just racing the 18 off pit road and tried to get a little bit too much, but we’ll take this and hopefully build off of it for the mile-and-a-halves in the Playoffs. It’s gonna be really important and I’m looking forward to next week in Loudon. I think we’ll be really good there.”
WHERE WOULD YOU ASSESS TEAM PENSKE COMPARED TO THE COMPETITION? “We took a step up this week, but obviously we weren’t as good as the 78. It was a nice little boost, but we still have some work to do.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 DEX Imaging Ford Fusion
Finishing Position: 2nd
“It’s not a win. It’s a positive, that’s for sure. I hate it. I thought we were in a good spot there restarting fourth and Martin struggled a little bit the first couple laps and I thought I could get by him, but just couldn’t quite get a run on him. His car came in and mine kind of faded a little bit and he won the race. That stunk. I thought we had a shot at it tonight, but I’m really proud of the gains we made all race though, to be honest with you. I didn’t think we were a second-place car at the beginning of the race, and we got a lot better throughout the night so Jeremy Bullins and everybody did a great job. I can’t thank DEX Imaging and Ford and Menards enough for what they do. You said it, after the last few weeks we’ve had this is a very good positive for us. Hopefully, we can keep it going in the right direction.”
IS THIS A SIGN TEAM PENSKE IS CLOSING THE GAP? “I hope so. That’s really all you can hope for, but you never know. The 78, he kind of dominated the night. They had a really great race car and they did a good job. They’ve done that all year. We’ve just got to keep working hard like we all have been at Team Penske and just keep trying to close that gap until we dominate races and we lead a bunch of laps. Hopefully we get there soon.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion
Finishing Position: 5th
“It’s just hard to pass. It’s hard to make anything happen. I think for us we got worse the last run and got loose into three and that really just killed everything, and then I hit the wall with 15 laps to go and that pretty much ended everything we had.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion
Finishing Position: 8th
“We had a good car. I messed up in qualifying, got greedy and tried to go for the pole and qualified 12th. This place is so track position dependent that we ran eighth to 12th all night. We just kind of got stuck in that area of track position and we just never could jump ahead. I’m mad at myself really for not executing qualifying better because we had a really fast car. We could have run top five easily.”
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion
Finishing Position: 6th
“I really enjoyed the way Billy Scott called the race because our lap times were really strong on the super-long runs, and that’s why he left me out there in Stage 1. We didn’t get points, but it put us in good position for Stage 2 and then we were ahead of the game to make a call again. It just kept us ahead the whole night. Even though we didn’t have the fastest car, we led a lot of laps tonight and it was fun to have the Monster Energy Ford out front. We probably would have ended up seventh and we finished sixth. It was a good battle.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion
Finishing Position: 10th
HOW BIG WAS THE EARLY CALL BY TODD TO FLIP TRACK POSITION? “Yeah, it was something that we planned on doing if that first run went green, which it did, and it was something we were gonna try to get track position that way. Honestly, I thought at the beginning of the race we were probably better than we thought we’d be and were able to gain quite a few spots, and then the track was wider than we expected it to be. It rubbered out and the track was wide so it was harder to hold everybody off on the older tires. We tried. I don’t think we got the best gain out of it. We didn’t lose any, so it was kind of a wash, and then after that it seemed we just kind of lost the handle the last run. We were up there and maybe running in the top five and then the last run it took off super-loose and then at the end I was as tight as it could get. I’m not exactly sure what happened there at the end, but overall we fought hard and got a top 10 out of it, which isn’t where we want to be by no means, but it’s consistency and we’ll keep pushing hard with this Shell/Pennzoil Ford. We have to get faster by the Playoffs. We’ve got to keep pushing hard. We’re close in the points and we’re hanging in on that part of it, but we’ve got to figure out how to get more speed in our race cars.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 MDS Transport Ford Fusion
Finishing Position: 18th
“Our MDS team did a nice job on pit road and we made the car a little bit better throughout the night, so that’s important on these 400-mile races. You can’t get behind much and I felt like we were decent when they dropped the green flag and as the track changed Seth and Angela made good calls. We would have liked to finish in the top 15, but there were a few cars that were just a little better than us at the end, but I’m encouraged by the effort on the mile-and-a-half track to see some improvement and that will be good for later on in the year.”
POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
BRAD KESELOWSKI AND RYAN BLANEY
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, coming up and down all night, we ran second behind Martin there at the start and I felt like we were a little bit better than him at the beginning of the race, and as we transitioned into the night, we kind of lost a little bit of speed. I got the pit road speeding penalty, which was a real kick in the you‑know‑whats track position‑wise, and my crew chief Paul Wolfe made a good call to get us some track position back, and we took the lead there and were trying to just run, run, run as fast as we could, and Martin just ran us down and got by us pretty honest, so he was just super strong, and that was all we had.
RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, we made good gains all night. Obviously at the start of the day, I thought we were okay. I didn’t think we were a second‑place car, and we made our car a lot better throughout the night. I thought we were in a good spot there the last restart, starting fourth, and Martin pinned on the bottom, and couldn’t quite get up next to him to get by him, and that was kind of the race.
I thought I had a small shot there. His car took a little bit to come in, and I couldn’t really get close to him to mess him up or get him loose. I was so loose into 3, and that’s kind of where you have to make your move. And then he ended up pulling away. But proud of the effort. We needed a run like that after the last few weeks that we’ve had. Back to where this team deserves to run, which is good, and I think our company as a whole is making small gains. Granted, I think we still have a good chunk to cover, but small gains are always nice, so hopefully we can keep making those.
Q. Brad, I think I heard you on the radio after the race compliment your team for I think big pickup on the mile‑and‑a‑halfs if I heard that right; is that correct?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yes, sir.
Q. What did you see or what was different for you guys tonight?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Well, first off, we’ve had decent speed in qualifying on the mile‑and‑a‑halfs. We’ve been right in that fifth‑ to six‑place range, but I feel like when they drop the green the leaders just drive away from us, and this week, at least at the start of the race, we were able to run with Martin. As the race progressed we couldn’t stay with him, but all in all, that’s still as fast as we’ve been on a mile‑and‑a‑half this year, and that’s something commendable for my team, and I just wanted to make sure they got that recognition.
We’ve been good, not great this year, and this is a sport of great. You know, you’ve got to be great to win. This is the closest we’ve been to great this year on the mile‑and‑a‑halfs.
Q. Ryan, yesterday Kyle Busch said that you seemed to be the next young driver ‑‑
RYAN BLANEY: Kyle said that? Wow, that’s amazing. Kyle Busch said that; that’s crazy.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Congratulations.
RYAN BLANEY: Thank you.
Q. Do you think your time is coming to find Victory Lane?
RYAN BLANEY: I mean, I think we’ve been poised to do it all year to be honest with you. I think we have a great team over at the 12 group that work great together, and we’ve had a shot to win a couple of races and just haven’t really played out for us. But I’m pretty confident every weekend. I think we have a group to do it.
Like Brad said, we’re good right now. We’ve got to be great, and I think we’re on the verge of that. It’s just a matter of keep on working hard and trying to find little things here and there to put us in that category.
But we just go try to win every single race. I don’t really think of the rookie drivers versus the veteran guys. Everyone is a competitor in this sport, and you ask anybody, they look at it the same way.
Q. Obviously as you said, it’s a big night for you guys, you made progress, but how much frustration is there, and does that override the feeling of goodwill that one of the big three, one of the dominant cars still were the dominant ones that won tonight?
RYAN BLANEY: I wouldn’t really say frustration. I’m bummed that we didn’t win the race because we were so close to doing it and we had a shot. Whenever in defeat, you’ve got to look at positives. Whether you run second or you crash, you’ve got to look at the positives on the weekend and figure out where you were the best and where you need to get better. We’ll take both of those away from it. We’ll appreciate what we’ve done on our mile‑and‑a‑half program of we’ve gotten it a lot better, but it’s not good enough.
So yeah, there are positives and then things we can work on, as well. I wouldn’t say we’re frustrated or defeated. I mean, I might be a little down just because I wanted to win the race, but you go back and you realize that you’ve made gains and you’ve just got to keep making those.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, I don’t know if frustrating is the right word. You know, we can see the end of the tunnel, and we’re just 20 yards away. It’s just a matter of getting there, not taking a step back and taking a step forward.
