Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sunday, June 9, 2019
EVENT: FireKeepers Casino 400 MENCS Post Race
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang: FINISHED 1st — VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW
“It is so hard to have perfect days like that. I made one mistake on the restart and let the 4 get to the outside of me and really made me mad at myself. I was able to make that up, which is great, we are keeping Hudson up past his bedtime. This is a good place for him to get ready for sleep I guess. It feels so good to get into victory lane. I gotta thank the fans, everyone that stuck it out through the rain yesterday and came out today to watch a great race and a wild ending. You don’t want to see cautions there at the end when you are the leader but as a fan that is like the one thing you do want to see. I am glad we got the best of both worlds.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU TO WIN HERE AT MICHIGAN FOR FORD? “This one, outside of the crown jewel events I consider this the biggest race to win because it is Ford Motor Company’s backyard and Roger Penske’s backyard and there area lot of die hard Ford fans out here in the grandstands right now and it feels great to represent that company and get to victory lane today.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Mustang: FINISHED 6th
“We just didn’t put it all together today. We were in a really good spot and had the pit road penalty and lost the lap and it took us til about 70 to go to get it back. It is kind of a miracle that we got back up to sixth to be quite honest. We have to execute the entire weekend and we just didn’t today.”
“We were hoping if we could get a yellow, we were 24th with 60-70 laps to go and we got up to sixth. With a yellow we might have had a shot at winning it. I thought the team did a good job with the strategy all day.”
“The cars when they get behind each other they make the car in front of them faster. If you go back 20-30 years ago that was not the case. You would draft but you wouldn’t make the car in front of you faster. Now it seems like when you get up behind somebody you make them faster too.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 41 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford Mustang: FINISHED 4th
“The car was pretty strong the entire weekend and then again today. We just struggled for whatever reasons on the long runs in the first half of the race. We were able to make some adjustments and come back and I am proud of my guys. We still have some work to do but we are slowly heading into the right direction.”
RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Coca Cola Ford Mustang: FINISHED 8th
“To have our best lap I guess other than maybe one lap to be our last lap makes me proud of the guys. The Coca Cola Ford wasn’t the greatest all day. We had some good restarts toward the end but just struggled with the dirty air. I think everybody did. It is obvious if you know anything about racing. It was a good points day for us. We need to get some stage points. Nevertheless I am proud of the guys.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Haas Automation/ITsavvy Ford Mustang: (Retired on Lap 130 after accident)
WHAT HAPPENED? “The 20 got loose and I tried to basically make an evasive move to get under him. The 3 was there and got loose under him and then I got into him and ran out of real estate. It was a pretty frustrating day. Pretty frustrating out there.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE RACING TODAY? “It was pretty much what I expected.”
REALLY FRUSTRATING FOR YOU: “Yeah, frustrating for all of us. It just wasn’t out day. The 20 got loose and I tried to move down to not hit him and then I got loose with the 3 underneath of me and got into the 20 and got wrecked.”
HOW FRUSTRATING IS THE RACING? “I mean, it is not racing. I am sorry, I am biting my tongue. I have never been penalized for trying to make a pass in my whole life since I was four years old. You get a run on somebody and you can make a complete pass and by the time you get to the next corner you have been passed by four people. It is really, really frustrating.”
IS THERE ANYTHING THE DRIVER CAN DO TO TRY TO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE UP? “It is all situational and all comes down to what call you make and when you make it and when you make it and how your track position plays out for stage points and then how your luck plays out from there.”
