Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Saturday, June 1, 2019
EVENT: Pocono 400 MENCS Qualifying
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
3rd – Clint Bowyer
5th – Brad Keselowski
9th – Daniel Suarez
11th – Kevin Harvick
13th – Aric Almirola
14th – Paul Menard
16th – Joey Logano
17th – Ryan Blaney
18th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
19th – Ryan Newman
27th – David Ragan
28th – Michael McDowell
30th – Matt Tifft
33rd – Corey LaJoie
34th – Bayley Currey
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Haas Automation Ford Mustang: Qualified 3rd
“We were fast. Holy cow that feels fast. It has been a lot of years coming here and I have never rolled through the corners like that. It is hard to convince yourself how much you can get away with and not get too much. You know you have to roll in faster than you did in practice. You know the speeds were up five or six-tenths out there. You can’t get it everywhere but they are holding it down in the tunnel turn which is different than practice. In one they were getting in harder and rolling faster, three they were rolling faster. Eventually you just quit thinking about it and go out there and put your lap together. Our Mustang was fast. I am proud of the guys. A good starting spot is going to be beneficial tomorrow for sure. All hell is going to break loose with this package. Restarts are going to be crazy. Cautions one way or another can throw your day for a loop big time. You just have to be ready for whatever they throw at you.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Wabash National Ford Mustang: Qualified 5th
“The lap felt fine. It was pretty simple. Almost wide open. Just trying to make the most of what you’ve got.”
HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT THIS RACE AND THE EFFECT NOT SHIFTING WILL HAVE? “Everybody messes up shifting. It is really hard to do in a stock car. I think the cars are definitely easier to drive here than they were before and that should definitely make it easier on the rookies. Not having to shift makes it easier. The cars went from being very difficult to drive to very easy to drive.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO THIS WEEKEND TO PREPARE FOR NEXT YEAR’S DOUBLE-HEADER? “I haven’t really thought about that because we don’t know enough about it to say what it is going to be. Is it going to be two races in the same day in the same car? I saw something yesterday where they talked about running the road course one of the days. I think you can get over your handlebars thinking about next year really easy and forget about what you need to do to be successful this year.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Father’s Day Ford Mustang: Qualified 11th
“We just kind of missed turn one and that set the tone for the lap. I tried to carry too much speed and got the car up the race track a little bit. The rest of the lap was good though.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR CAR WILL RACE? “Pretty good. It was good in practice yesterday.”
EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE TRACK POSITION GAME TOMORROW: “Yeah, I don’t know. It won’t be easy to pass for sure.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Valley Technical Academy Ford Mustang: Qualified 13th
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE DOUBLE-HEADER RACE WEEKEND HERE NEXT SEASON? “I think it will be cool. I think so many times we leave the race and kind of monday morning quarterback and always wonder what we would do if we had another shot at it. I think that is cool to have that opportunity now to race Saturday and then think about it Saturday night and then do it all over again on Sunday.”
“The fans will be able to show up here and see a lot more racing and, like you said, it will be much more of an event. You will have the big race on Saturday and then I am sure followed by an infield party and all that stuff they typically do here and then have another event on Sunday. It will make it a big weekend.”
DOES NOT SHIFTING FOR YOU VETERANS EQUALIZE THE FIELD FOR THE YOUNGER GUYS THAT WOULD MAYBE MAKE MISTAKES? “Yeah, potentially. Shifting was definitely an element that as a rookie when you showed up here was really challenging trying to figure out the down shifts and all those things. When to do it and the timing and all those things. I do feel like just leaving it in fourth gear is a lot more straightforward and self explanatory. I think it is just one more thing in the grand scheme of things that make the cars – I have to be careful how to say this – but it does make the cars slightly less challenging to drive.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang: Qualified 16th
“We never made a qualifying run in practice, we were focused on racing good. So we paid the penalty in qualifying and hopefully we get the reward tomorrow.”
HOW DIFFICULT WILL THAT BE WITH THIS BEING SUCH A HUGE TRACK POSITION RACE? “Yeah, I think it will be a huge track position race for sure. But there are going to be restarts and you have to handle in those situations. I think our Mustang will be able to do that. We have to make the right decisions on the restarts and the right strategy and we will get ourselves up there. If we get there we will be fine, we just have to get up there. It will be a battle. It will be hard fought, but I think we can get there.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Libman Ford Mustang: Qualified 17th
“We didn’t qualify like we wanted to. We were too free. Hopefully it races better. I thought we were okay yesterday in race trim and just need to be a little better. We will find out tomorrow and see what we’ve got.”
YOU SEEM LIKE YOU ARE TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT STILL: “I am just thinking. I got out of the car about one minute ago so I am thinking about my lap and what I could have done better and what I need to do better. There are things – you change a lot of stuff from this weekend format last night that you are keeping in for tomorrow with the impound qualifying. So you wonder if it was the right adjustments, if you went too far or not enough.”
IS IT HARDER ON THE TEAMS NOT HAVING THAT PRACTICE AFTER QUALIFYING TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS? “You don’t really change a ton from qualifying to the race. It is just some minor with air pressure and trackbar stuff. I don’t think it makes it tougher on the teams. THe toughest part is just the cars trying to pass tech afterwards.”
RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Wyndham Rewards Ford Mustang: Qualified 19th
“I didn’t get turn one. I just didn’t hook up in one. I felt like my two and three was decent. It is something to work with our Wyndham Rewards FOrd and a lot of laps to try to gain some track position.”
IS IT DIFFICULT TRYING TO RELEARN HOW TO RUN THIS PLACE WITH A NEW PACKAGE? “I have been here with several new packages over my career but this is definitely a big learning curve for all of us. Probably the biggest one of the last 18 years that I have been involved. We will just do our best.”
MATT TIFFT, No. 36 Surface Sunscreen Ford Mustang: Qualified 30th
“We weren’t very good. We were extremely loose. We had one or two runs in practice we thought were more solid and went back to more of that direction as far as qualifying for today but I think adding the grille tape gained so much front grip that our rear just couldn’t keep up with it and we got too loose.”
