Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Federated Auto Parts 400 (Richmond, VA)
Friday, September 21, 2018
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st Kevin Harvick
4th Ryan Blaney
6th Kurt Busch
7th Aric Almirola
9th Brad Keselowski
11th Cole Custer
13th Joey Logano
16th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18th Matt Kenseth
21st Paul Menard
24th Michael McDowell
25th Clint Bowyer
27th David Ragan
29th Matt DiBenedetto
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion – Qualified 1st
“We didn’t do any qualifying runs in practice so we were trying to get the car dialed in and get the driver to get the most out of it. I did an okay job the last round getting the car to roll fast enough through three and four and then the guys got it tightened up a little bit and we were able to get in the throttle up off the corner. That was really the key.”
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Fusion – Qualified 4th
“I thought that was a good effort for us. I thought our car in practice was pretty good. It seemed like we got a little bit better come qualifying time. That is all you can ask for. This place has been a struggle for us for awhile. We have qualified good here before but we haven’t been racing very good here. Hopefully we can figure out the racing deal. I thought our Ford was pretty decent today. Hopefully we can kind of turn this deal around here. We will see what we can do.”
Kurt Busch, No. 41 State Water Heaters/Haas Automation Ford Fusion – Qualified 6th
“I thought that was as good as we were going to do and then I slipped off turn four just a fuzz. Sometimes in impound qualifying you have too good of a car and then it doesn’t have good long run speed. I am good to be right around sixth. You can see the front, be part of the front and then you have to execute like you are part of the front all day.”
KEVIN HARVICK POLE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE
AFTER LAST WEEK’S ISSUES AT LAS VEGAS, HOW NICE IS THIS POLE, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING YOUR PRACTICE SPEEDS WEREN’T THAT FAST? “Yeah, obviously you don’t know much about how practice works. We didn’t do any qualifying runs and we were able to really work on our car in race trim. That is a good lesson for you. It wasn’t unexpected for us. Don’t stare at that time board, sometimes it is a little misleading. For us, it was expected to run well. I am really pleased with our car in race trim and we were able to put together three rounds and squeak through in the second round and make good adjustments to the car.”
YOU WERE OUTSIDE THE TOP-12 IN THE FIRST ROUND, 11TH IN THE SECOND ROUND AND THEN POLE IN THE THIRD. WAS THAT MORE A CASE OF GOOD ADJUSTMENTS BETWEEN ROUNDS? SAVING YOUR STUFF? OTHER PEOPLE FALLING OFF? “We didn’t really fall off. I think that is part of the game here. I think we made some good adjustments on making the car better and for me just getting more confidence in how fast I could let the car roll and stay in the throttle up off the corner. In the first round we didn’t really know what we had and ran a lap less than a lot of the faster guys.”
HAVE YOU PUT VEGAS BEHIND YOU COMPLETELY? “I did that four days ago.”
SO YOU DIDN’T GO BACK TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH THOSE TIRES? “No, I didn’t even ask. I knew there was something wrong with the tires. I knew that from lap one. Lap one it was absolutely horrible from what it was with no changes to the car. It was just way different and all we did was change the tires.”
YOU HAVEN’T WON HERE IN FIVE YEARS. HOW MUCH HAS THE TRACK CHANGED SINCE THEN? “I don’t really know. It isn’t a whole lot different. The tires have changed a lot. It has been a decent race track for us through the years but I think it has probably been one of our tougher race tracks as we have gone through the five years at Stewart-Haas Racing. As we have come here we have been hot or cold. I don’t think the race track has really changed that much. There have been some circumstances that have changed like my team and just the things that we’ve had going with rules and tires, a number of different things. I don’t think the track is that much different.”
