Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sunday, July 28, 2019
EVENT: Gander RV 400
Ford Finishing Order:
6th – Kevin Harvick
8th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Ryan Blaney
11th – Clint Bowyer
12th – Aric Almirola
13th – Joey Logano
14th – Ryan Newman
18th – Paul Menard
21st – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
23rd – Matt Tifft
24th – Daniel Suarez
25th – Michael McDowell
26th – Corey LaJoie
33rd – BJ McLeod
34th – Austin Theriault
36th – David Ragan
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer Gen X Ford Mustang – “It was a good day. They had the right strategy and I just didn’t time those last two restarts right and our car struggled a little bit on the first lap or two to get the front to turn, but they had everything right where it needed to be. If the caution doesn’t come out, I think we were in good shape, but that’s the way it goes, especially at this place. You have to have the cautions fall your way and you have to have everything go right. We just had a few little things here and there that didn’t go our way and wound up sixth.”
HOW WERE THE RESTARTS? “They weren’t too crazy for me. I was up front most of the day.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR TEAM RIGHT NOW? “We had a good day. Everything is going good, we just have to keep improving and doing the things that we’re doing.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang – “There were some really rough parts. I made a huge mistake the first two or three laps there. I was running hard behind the 41 and I slid up and tagged the wall, but I was able to get it onto pit road and get it fixed and claw our way out and get into a position at the end where I thought we were gonna win the race. Then whoever that car was just stopped on the race track and cost us a shot at the race. We weren’t gonna win it honest, but we put ourselves in position at the end, so I’m really disappointed on that. All in all, we came away with eighth and recovered from our struggles, but gave up a win because of somebody else. That’s just part of the deal.”
A POSITIVE WITH THE WAY YOU CAME BACK? “Yeah, a positive. We had a shot at winning there at the end if one of those cars five laps down didn’t decide to stop on the race track, which is really frustrating but part of it.”
THOUGHTS ON THE PJ1 TODAY? “I thought it came in just right, but there’s only so much you can do with these rules at this track and they tried what they could.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 MoneyLion Ford Mustang – “It was looking real bad for awhile just from not being fast at all. I’m kind of disappointed. I thought in practice we were pretty good. I had to start at the back and we just didn’t go anywhere. We went nowhere and we weren’t really handling good. I thought at first it was dirty air, but a couple cars drove up through there and even when we got a little bit of clean air I still wasn’t very good, so that was frustrating. And then I thought we were gonna get some track position on equal tires on that restart and the 41 ran into us in the tunnel. They did a good job of fixing what they could and just got a good last restart. I think we started eighth and ran 10th, so we salvaged something there. It was kind of a long day, a frustrating day, and we just need to be better.”
WAS THE 41 DEAL JUST RACING? “Yeah, it’s just racing. I was the top of three, he was the bottom of three and the middle guy backed out and he didn’t have any angle into the corner. He drove off in there probably the hardest out of all of us and when you get no angle into the corner your car goes straight, so that’s what he did. He had plenty of room. As soon as he dove off in there you know what’s coming, but at that point there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just racing.”
DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A 10TH-PLACE CAR BEFORE THE RACE? “Before the race I thought we had maybe a top five car and then when we started the race we were real bad. We worked on it and got it a little bit better here and there all day, but it was hard to find what we needed. At least we salvaged something out of it.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 MDS Transport Ford Mustang – “The 21 just slipped up and spun me out in my left-rear quarter panel. I’m sure Paul just slipped out of the groove and lost control for a second and we happened to be there. That’s very unfortunate. I felt like we had a top 20 car today. We raced around the top 20 most of the day. Mike Kelley and our new group of guys called a good race and we had a pretty good weekend. When you’re racing hard like that sometimes things happen and things have seemed to happen to us a lot lately. We’ve been in a slump and had some bad luck and it takes a couple of races and we’ll get out of it, but it certainly is a tough ending to what could have been a good day.”
