NASCAR CUP SERIES
SUNDAY, AUGUST 16, 2020
GO BOWLING 235 – DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
FORD PERFORMANCE DRIVER – POST RACE QUOTES
FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
5th – Chris Buescher
6th – Clint Bowyer
9th – Joey Logano
10th – Michael McDowell
13th – Brad Keselowski
15th – Matt DiBenedetto
17th – Kevin Harvick
19h – Ryan Newman
22nd – Cole Custer
24th – Aric Almirola
30th – James Davison
31st – Ryan Blaney
32nd – Corey LaJoie
34th – JJ Yeley
35th – John Hunter Nemechek
36th – Garrett Smithley
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang — Finished 5th
“That was just a fun day for our Fastenal Ford Mustang team. We needed that after a couple of hard weeks. Some decent runs and some bad luck and that was fun. I was able to mix it up and steadily work our way forward. We kept learning as we went and there at the end we got beat up. All four corners of this Mustang are beat up but we got the finish out of it. That was a good one. A good day.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 PPG Ford Mustang — Finished 9th
“We are starting to get some consistency which is good. We tried some interesting strategy stuff today. It didn’t work but we were able to recover for a top-10. Overall, we know what we need to work on for the Roval with our Mustang and we will go to work. The 9 obviously has been really good at these road courses, especially with this tire. We have to find some rear drive. That is where he was beating everybody. We will go to work and try to find it.”
THE RACE PLAYED OUT A LITTLE MORE TAME THAN MAY ANTICIPATED IT WOULD. DID THAT SURPRISE YOU? “We are better than you think (laughing). I think this field is full of so much talent. I think with the technology that the manufacturers have with simulation and how good the teams are with getting a setup that is ballpark. I would have liked to work on my car some but I am sure everybody did. I think for the most part it is pretty similar to what you do on the simulator minus a few different things. I think everyone was pretty cautious to start. You don’t want to take yourself our right off the bat. You want to give yourself a shot to win and be smart the first few. Everyone was really cautious, especially in the braking zone and into the bus top and the chiccane.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU GOT TIRES LATE? DID YOU NEED EXTRA CAUTIONS? “Yeah, you hope you can run a lap and a caution comes out and you can re-rack ‘em and go again. But that didn’t happen. We weren’t going to win from where we were. We were seventh and we weren’t going to win from there. To give it a shot, we were pretty far back and got back to ninth but we had nothing to lose so figured we would go for it. What the heck? Why not? I thought a lot more cars would pit. I was surprised how many cars behind me stayed out. When I saw the leader stay out I thought, ‘Heck yeah, I am pitting, this will be great.’ I can’t believe more didn’t pit.”
HOW WAS IT GOING THROUGH THE CHICCANES? IT LOOKED LIKE NASCAR WAS LETTING YOU DRIVE THROUGH THE GRASS A LITTLE IF YOU WANTED. WHAT WAS THE STRATEGY IN THOSE AREAS? “The curbing here is a lot different than Watkins Glen. There we are jumping through the curbs and you have four tires up in the air. Here, they are just really a little different texture. It doesn’t go up or down and you can drive right over them. You drive through there a lot different than what the bus stop is at Watkin Glen but I thought everyone handled it pretty well. That penalty of needing to stop and go was huge and track position was big so everyone was pretty careful with it. The biggest thing more than anything was learning how to pass cars and figure out where the passing zone were. That last chiccane as pretty tough. You can’t really get in there. It isn’t a real good spot. If I was to adjust anything I would adjust that last chiccane because it doesn’t present a passing opportunity.”
THIS WAS A LATE DEAL BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE THE GLEN, BUT COULD YOU SEE A POINTS RACE HERE? IS IT GOOD ENOUGH TO HAVE A REGULAR POINTS RACE HERE? “Yeah. We just did and it went pretty well. I guess that is kind of up to you guys if you enjoyed the race or not. I haven’t rewatched it or seen anything of how it went but it seemed there was some interesting strategy. At least what we did. I think the fastest car got out front and checked out if I had to guess. I didn’t see it but I would assume once the 9 got up there he was gone.”
PEOPLE THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE A CRAZY RACE AND IT ENDED UP BEING CLEAN. WERE YOU SURPRISED? DO YOU THINK YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH CREDIT FOR HOW GOOD YOU ARE BEHIND THE WHEEL? “Yeah, you missed that question. The answer was we are better than you think we are. The whole field is. The preparation that goes into the simulators by the manufacturers that they are able to build and get cars set up well it seems like everyone was able to kind of figure it out pretty quickly.”
THAT LATE RESTART THERE WITH THREE LAPS TO GO. ANY ANTICIPATION THERE THAT IT WOULD GET A LITTLE WONKY? “Yeah, for sure. I said it over the radio that it was going to be a mess. You just hope you are in the right lane and be the one moving forward and take everything and learn from watching other races and the laps that we have made there and just go off of that. You knew there would be bumping and banging. It is pretty tight through the infield.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang — Finished 6th
“We did what we needed to do today. We had a great Mobil 1 Ford. I thought it was going to be even better there at the end, but we must have gotten hot. (William Byron) got me on the restart and then another car got by me. If I didn’t have anything to lose there I might have been able to get a few more back. But that was a good points day. I hope we are on a roll and we continue this at Dover.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Chicago Pneumatic Ford Mustang — Finished 10th
“It was a decent day. We had high hopes which is good. You should come to places like this where we have a lot of experience and track knowledge. Unfortunately we started really deep in the field and we were able to drive up to the top-10 there before the end of the first stage and then we talked about it and it was all about trying to win a race for us. We didn’t try to get stage points. We came in with a few laps to go and we were able to get into the top five and get to third. I saw those rain clouds coming and I thought that was exactly what I needed. I was hoping that it would rain because I have experience on this course in the rain and the others guys don’t really. We lost a little bit there at the end and got passed by guys that had fresher tires. We still managed to get in the top six or seven and then that caution came out with five to go. We knew we weren’t going to beat Chase and those guys up front on the same tires so we just took tires.”
WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT IT WAS A LITTLE LESS HECTIC OF A RACE THAN MANY PEOPLE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE? “Oh super surprised, yeah. When that caution came out there at the end, I thought if we could restart 15th and get a few more and get another caution and get a few more and get another caution we would be sitting on tires with a green-white-checker. It didn’t work out. It stayed green and we restarted 19th and we were able to get inside the top-10 which was still a good day but obviously running in the top-five, I think we could have finished a little better. I am proud of Drew. He made a great call, the same call I would have made. We needed to win the race and we weren’t going to beat those guys on the same tires so we had to try something different and it just didn’t work out.”
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS COURSE FOR A CUP RACE? WOULD YOU WELCOME IT BECOMING A REGULAR THING? “Oh for sure. I thought it was a good race. I think it will be an even better race if we come back because people will have the opportunity to work on the car and know the setup and have some experience on the track. Road courses in particular are so much about rhythm and feel and just getting in the car and feeling comfortable and doing the things you need to do. Without practice it makes it tough and I think that is why you saw it spread out. It is hard to get in a rhythm but I thought the track raced well. I think that if we brought back a softer tire, the tire today was really hard and didn’t wear, so a softer tire would create a little more racing and passing but all in all, for our first shot at it I thought it was pretty good.”
