Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sunday, August 4, 2019
EVENT: Go Bowling at The Glen, Watkins Glen, NY.
Ford Finishing Results:
5th – Ryan Blaney
7th – Kevin Harvick
9th – Brad Keselowski
12th – Aric Almirola
15th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16th – Michael McDowell
17th – Daniel Suarez
18th – Paul Menard
20th – Clint Bowyer
22nd – David Ragan
23rd – Joey Logano
24th – Matt Tifft
25th – Ryan Newman
34th – Corey LaJoie
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Mustang – “We were a fifth to tenth-place kind of car all weekend and ended up ninth. I thought we could have been a little bit better at the end if I would have done a few things different, but nowhere near the speed we needed to run with the Gibbs cars or the 9 car, so we made the most of the weekend with what we had.” HOW FAR OFF FROM THE GIBBS CARS DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? “Here they were probably about a good half-second faster. That’s a lot of speed.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Mustang – “We probably overachieved. We knew we were off and we thought we could, at best, finish fifth and we finished seventh, so we were fine.” YOU DIDN’T HAVE ANY DRAMA TODAY. “We didn’t have any drama and we just haven’t been very good here.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 PPG Ford Mustang – YOU HAD THE BATTLE WITH JIMMIE AND ENDED UP FIFTH TODAY. “It was just racing. I got off the bus stop better than him and he left a lane. I tried to back out. I thought he knew I was there. I didn’t mean to spin him. It wasn’t my intention, but it was a good battle back after starting in the back. We had a good car, just could never really get up there to show us how it did, but overall not a bad comeback for this group.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH JIMMIE? “It was just racing. He had old tires. They just did gas only and he was pretty slow and I passed 10 guys off the bus stop all day. He hit the third curb pretty bad and got in that position and he was up and I had a good run. I was there. He left probably a lane-and-a-quarter or so, and I took it. At first he didn’t turn down like I thought he knew I was there, and then he kept coming. I tried to check up and it was just too late. I mean, obviously, I didn’t mean to spin him out. I don’t want to do that. It’s obviously an accident, but he was upset and I can’t blame him for being upset about it. We’re just racing hard and I thought there was a lane there and it just closed.”
HOW DID YOU LEAVE IT? “He’s angry. I can’t blame him for being angry. He’s trying to get in the Playoffs right now and have good runs. Trust me, the last guy I want to spin out is Jimmie. We always race great together. I’ve looked up to him for a long time and still do, and he’s the last guy I want to spin out. It didn’t end well. He wasn’t happy and I can’t blame him. He’ll probably race me pretty hard here for the next few weeks, but I can’t blame him for that. It was definitely not my intention there.”
WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE WAY YOU RAN? “Yeah, our car was fast. We started dead last and took a lot of time to get up through there. We did some pit strategy stuff and got a little bit better throughout the day and got to fifth there. I might have been able to get to fourth, but it would have been tough. It was a good job by everybody for having a fast car and ended up pretty decent.”
