Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sunday, February 17, 2019
EVENT: Daytona 500
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
4th – Joey Logano
5th – Michael McDowell
12th – Brad Keselowski
13th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14th – Ryan Newman
20th – Clint Bowyer
26th – Kevin Harvick
29th – Paul Menard
30th – David Ragan
31st – Ryan Blaney
32nd – Aric Almirola
33rd – Daniel Suarez
36th – Matt Tifft
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Ford Mustang — “Hey, it is the Daytona 500, I had to go for it. I was a little bit frustrated with the lineup. I know I was ahead of the 22 when the caution came out but I guess it went back to the last scoring loop or something. It seemed like the lineup had trouble all night long. This just sucks, man. We had such a good Rush Truck Centers, Mobil 1 Ford Mustang. This is my best foot forward I have ever had here. We had a shot at it and I took it. I had a big run on the 34 and knew that I had to make quick work of him because in the mirror they were going three-wide and losing their minds so you knew that was going to come down on ya. So I decided to lose my mind too.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang — “We had a really good Shell/Pennzoil Ford. I actually felt like we had the car to beat and just couldn’t get there. It’s so hard to get to the front. Once I got to the front I felt like we had a really good car, but I had a good push from behind with the 47, which is pretty cool. We’re both from Connecticut and we race quarter-midgets against each other, so I thought it was really neat to be working together in the Daytona 500. How neat is that? So it shows you that dreams can come true for little kids, so that was pretty cool.”
WALK US THROUGH THE LAST FEW LAPS? “It was intense, as you would expect with the Daytona 500 on the line and I had a great push by the 47 of Ryan Preece, and I thought that was cool. We grew up racing quarter-midgets against each other in Connecticut and it just shows that dreams can really come true. I’m proud to be racing with him in the Daytona 500. I think that’s super-cool. I just didn’t get the push I needed at the right time. I was able to get to second, but then just kind of got used up there at the end.”
YOU SPOKE WITH MICHAEL MCDOWELL. WHAT WAS THAT CONVERSATION ABOUT? “I was just kind of surprised by a decision, that’s all.”
YOU SAID YOU GOT HUNG OUT. WERE YOU THINKING HE WOULD STICK WITH YOU? “Yeah, I was just surprised by the situation and what happened. Yeah, I thought that was gonna be the plan. It’s part of it. He’s racing too, I guess, and we can’t win these things alone. We’ve proven that quite often, but we did what we could do. It’s good momentum. We carried the momentum from where we ended last year, so it’s good.”
DID HE HAVE AN EXPLANATION OF WHY HE HUNG YOU OUT? “I didn’t really give him a chance to talk (laughing).”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang — ANYTHING DIFFERENT YOU COULD DO ON THE FINAL LAP? “Yeah, there’s always things you could do differently. We just didn’t have the speed to break the plain of 18 or the 11. We were trying like heck, but so was everybody else. When the 18 shot to the outside there he had a big run, a lot of momentum and I tried to go with him to hope that the 18 and the 11 would get together and maybe I’d sneak a win out of it. It just didn’t work out. I’m really proud of everybody with the Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang It was fast. We would have loved to pull into Victory Lane, but a top five is great.”
HOW DOES A P5 FOR THIS SMALL TEAM HELP YOU GUYS? “I think for a small team it’s awesome. There’s no doubt about it, but I’d be lying to you all if I told you I was over the moon excited. I’ve been in the Cup Series over 10 years now. I have one goal and one goal only and that’s to get a win. I was close to getting there tonight or at least had a shot at it and wasn’t able to get it done at the end. I’m happy with the finish. I’m proud of the team, but that wasn’t the goal.”
HOW DO YOU CARRY THIS MOMENTUM TO ATLANTA? “Atlanta is brand new for everybody. It’s a new rule package. Who knows? It could be like Daytona and Talladega. If it is, I’ll do really well because these are my best tracks, but Atlanta will be a fresh start for everybody and we’ll see who has the speed and how the cars race and move on from there.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN GOING WITH KYLE AS OPPOSED TO JOEY? JOEY FELT THE FORDS WOULD STICK TOGETHER. “I would have loved to work with Joey, but he was moving left to right. The 18 had a big run, a lot of momentum and Joey had a lot of damage. The back of his car was completely smashed, no rear bumper, a parachute hanging out of it. Joey wasn’t gonna win the race. I wanted to put myself in the best spot to win the race and the Fords weren’t that friendly to me this weekend.”
DID YOU TALK WITH JOEY? “I just told him that my team doesn’t pay me to push Joey Logano to a win. That’s not what I get paid to do. At 200 miles an hour I made a split-second decision on what was the fastest car and who had the best shot of winning the race and that’s where I went.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang — “A lot of wrecks. We got a flat tire. We got in a good spot with about 20 or so to go and I guess the 20 car ran out of fuel or something and the line failed and went all the way to the back. And then we got caught up in two wrecks not of our making and just never can get anything to go our way on these deals. I’m confident when they do we can win them. We don’t have to have good luck, but we can’t have all the bad luck we’ve been having.”
