Ford Notes and Quotes
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Lakes Region 200 (New Hampshire Motor Speedway; Loudon, NH)
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Ford Finishing Results:
2nd – Brad Keselowski
9th – Cole Custer
12th – Ryan Reed
14th – Kaz Grala
17th – Austin Cindric
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang – WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED? “Probably some left-side tires, but that’s just how it goes.”
PRESS CONFERENCE – “It was a good race. Christopher drove really well. It seemed like the 20 car and our 22 car were probably the class of the field and we knew it was probably gonna come down to us at the end and he did a good job. They did a good job and made the right call to put four tires on and kind of got us there, but it was all-in-all a good day. You kind of get mad about second and kind of don’t. You try to respect the fact that it was a great car today and a great effort for our team, but know that the potential is there for more.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU LEARNED FOR TOMORROW? “Yeah, even if you’re not learning you’re just sharpening and honing your skills. Hopefully, we’ll get to race tomorrow. There are no guarantees of that. If we do, I’m sure there will be something, but it’s always hard to know in the moment what that is.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE VHT AND HOW IT AFFECTED THE RACE? “The VHT is certainly very interesting how it plays out. I think sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad for the racing. Generally, at the start of the race it’s pretty good for the racing and then at the end of the race it’s pretty bad for it, so it’s interesting to see how that swings throughout the race. It’s very dynamic and certainly a big part of how the race plays out.”
WHY IS IT BAD AT THE END? BECAUSE IT WEARS OFF? “Yeah, it’s gone at the end of the race and it starts to pull the track apart and cause a whole list of issues for the cars and so forth, and that makes it a little less racy.”
YOUR IMPRESSION OF RYAN PREECE? “I thought he did a great job. It looked like he had a ton of short-run speed, Ryan Preece did, but I don’t know, it looked like his car was probably falling off on the long run, but on the short runs he was tough. I think if this would have come down to a two or three-lap shootout at the end with him on the front row, it would have been really tough to beat him.”
YOU GOT WITHIN A FEW FEET WITH THREE TO GO. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? “I was just way too loose. I didn’t have any left-rear tire and it just wouldn’t keep the back under it.”
WOULD FOUR TIRES HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE? “Probably. Yeah, I think we would have won today on four, but that’s not the way it played out.”
RYAN REED, No. 16 Drive Down A1C Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang – “I feel like we salvaged. We just fought the balance all day long, but the guys on our Drive Down A1C.com Ford Mustang did a good job not giving up like they always do. I just felt like after qualifying we had something for them, starting in the back didn’t help, but I thought we had a fast car. Ultimately, I think there was something going on in the left-front. We ground all the way through our splitter. It was on the splitter all day. I’m not sure. I don’t know if the spring was giving up or collapsing or something, but I think we need to go back and re-evaluate because I do think something went wrong. But I’m proud of the heart of this team, finishing 12th after running around 18th-20th most of the day.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 60 Pirtek Ford Mustang – “Honestly, we probably had the best car we’ve had at least with me in the 60 going to the race track. Obviously, we had complications in practice. We had a few complications in qualifying and an outstanding race going. We really had awesome long run speed. We were set to finish in the top five and for these guys that’s awesome. Then we sped on pit road, had to come back through the field and did so, but just got tangled up the last lap, the last corner and tore up a lot of stuff. It’s just unfortunate.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang – “We fought it all day. We weren’t the best on the short run or the long run, so it was a struggle but we fought hard. We did whatever we could to keep track position and we did a good job there. We’ll try and make it better, but this is definitely not our strong suit.”
