Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Clash at the Coliseum Main Event | Sunday, February 6, 2022
FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
1st – Joey Logano
7th – Cole Custer
10th – Kevin Harvick
12th – Harrison Burton
16th – Michael McDowell
17th – Ryan Blaney
20th – Ryan Preece
22nd – Chase Briscoe
LOGANO WINS FIRST RACE IN NASCAR NEXT GEN CAR AS HE DRIVES MUSTANG TO VICTORY IN THE INAUGURAL CLASH AT THE COLISEUM
Joey Logano gave Ford it’s 10th all-time victory in the Clash and became only the second Ford driver to win the event more than once, joining Dale Jarrett, who won it three times (1996, 2000, 2004).
Logano won the Clash for the first time in 2017.
This marks the second time in two years Logano has won an inaugural event as he captured the Bristol Dirt Race last season at Bristol Motor Speedway.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE THE FIRST WINNER OF THE CLASH AT THE COLISEUM? “I can’t believe it. We’re here. The L.A. Coliseum. We got the victory with the old Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. This is an amazing event. Congratulations, NASCAR. Such a huge step in our industry to be able to do this, put on an amazing race for everybody. I’m out of breath. I was so excited about this. This is a big win. My wife is having a baby tomorrow, our third one, so a pretty big weekend for us.”
YESTERDAY IN PRACTICE YOU STRUGGLED. HOW DID YOU STEP UP SO BIG AND MAKE THE RIGHT ADJUSTMENTS TO RUN AND WIN? “Paul and Shaggy and the engineers do a great job. The guys working on the car did an amazing job finding speed when we were slow. We were 28th or so on the board yesterday and made some good changes – worked with our teammates – Ryan Blaney a lot. I owe a lot to him, too, to see some of the gains that they made and ultimately get the win. I want to say hey to my buddy, Hutson and Jamison and my wife, Brittany. This is cool. I’m headed home right after this. I told her, if you’re having the baby I’m just running right off the track from here, so I don’t think it’s happening right now, but this is special to get the first Next Gen win, the first win out here in the Coliseum. It’s a special one, so we’re gonna have some fun and celebrate it.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang – “I thought it was a great event. I think for the way that everything went I don’t think you could have asked for it to go any better as far as the event goes.”
DID YOU LEARN SOME THINGS ABOUT YOUR CAR? “My car was just way too loose all weekend and couldn’t get going.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Great Lakes Flooring Ford Mustang – “He destroyed me for seventh. It doesn’t really make any sense. I don’t know. I was kind of just riding around and just run in the back of you and killed our car. Yeah, I was mad, but you’ll have that.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – “From the last chance race, which was the craziest race of the day. We happened to be in that one and in the middle of all that, but to make the show and run how we did is exciting. I think guys are proud of themselves and should be. We came a long way from our first practice to where we are now and we learned a lot about us and learned about our car as well. I made a mistake and got into Ricky. I feel bad about that. That was just a plain mistake. I talked to him and he seemed good with it, so I appreciate that. Overall, it was just a crazy day. This is an amazing event, seeing all the fans and the National Anthem and the crowd going nuts was a really cool experience for me. This is just my second race, but the first two times in Cup have been Talladega and now this event, so pretty cool event to do it and just proud to drive this 21 Wood Brothers Ford.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF TODAY? “I just think that we know we can do it. There were times where we showed really good speed and we’ve got to start somewhere. It’s not a bad starting spot. We’ll keep going from here. I’ll keep getting better from here. Our team will get better from here and it’s a good leap pad to kind of go from here up and to finish 12th in our first race as a team isn’t bad.”
WITH SO MUCH CONTACT IN YOUR HEAT RACE DID YOU FEEL YOU HAD TO SEND A MESSAGE THAT YOU WEREN’T GOING TO JUST TAKE IT AND GET RUN OVER? “Yeah, somewhat. I race people hard and race them how they race me. Aside from my mistake with Ricky, I wouldn’t take anything I did today back. I’m just proud of that and when I lay my head down tonight I can know that I did my best job. We got used up. Our back bumper is pretty demolished, but that’s part of being a rookie and everybody’s got to pay their dues. I understand that, but you can’t get pushed around either. There are too many people paying an exorbitant amount of money for me to be here and believe in me too much to just get pushed around.”
DID YOU THINK TY DILLON JUMPED THE RESTART AND WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN THE DECISION CAME DOWN? “Yeah, I thought he jumped it. I mean, that’s a hard call. Every driver kind of pushes that as hard as they can and he’s no different. I understand where he’s coming from trying to just go and get away from the chaos that was that whole race and obviously it worked out in our favor, so I was excited. It was just cool to be a part of this event. I feel like we deserved it. We led a lot of laps in our last chance race and I had a good showing and kind of got spun out there with him and I think the 15 were pushing each other and got me too. So, to come back from that and in three laps make it to the show again, you can’t believe it when it happens.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang – “It was one of the coolest events I’ve ever been a part of. To walk down those steps into the Coliseum and see the big names performing. It was a fun track to race around. Hat’s off to NASCAR. The deserve a great pat on the back for what they’ve done here. I’d love to come back.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THE NEXT GEN CAR? “There are definitely little things for sure that will help, like maybe when we go to Martinsville and just little nicks of things, but there are gonna be a lot of different things thrown at us at the different tracks.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 15 Jacob Companies Ford Mustang – “Our brakes went in the feature. I like the format, but I just wish our brakes didn’t go. I felt like we had a pretty good car, but unfortunately we had to quit early. It was a cool event. Everything about was electric, so we’ll see.”
