Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix – Sunday, March 27, 2022
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
6th – Ryan Blaney
8th – Austin Cindric
11th – Kevin Harvick
13th – Michael McDowell
14th – Brad Keselowski
16th – Todd Gilliland
17th – Harrison Burton
19th – Aric Almirola
21st – Chris Buescher
23rd – Cole Custer
}25th – Boris Said
27th – Cody Ware
30th – Chase Briscoe
31st – Joey Logano
34th – Loris Hezemans
35th – Joey Hand
39th – Andy Lally
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford Mustang — Finished 6th
“It was a hot day for sure. We got done with the first stage and it was hot. We were close to winning the first stage but I just couldn’t get to Suarez. We ended up fourth in that second stage and that kind of put us back behind the eight ball and make our way through the field. We stayed out on old tires and were able to maintain track position pretty good there at the start of the third stage. Then we lost a bunch of spots on pit road when we had to wait on gas. We drove back up through there and just kind of survived. I thought our car was pretty decent. It is so hard surviving restarts and trying not to get turned. Overall it wasn’t a bad day. We got some stage points, so that is good.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang — Finished 8th
“On paper, it is pretty simple, right? Qualify 10th, first stage 10th. Second stage ninth, finish eighth. Easy right? It is definitely not that. A lot of adversity to overcome. I put some of it on me and some of it is just circumstantial I guess. They are tricky cars to drive and tricky to try to out-brake somebody. There were a lot of people out-braking themselves. Either way, a really strong effort by the Discount Tire Ford Mustang. We had the pace to run inside the top-three today and lead laps. I am just happy we got stage points and a top-10. That is what I wanted to come away with today and that is what we got.”
HOW WAS THE HEAT IN THE CAR? “This was the hottest event for sure. I will definitely plan accordingly from here.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 One Cure Ford Mustang — Finish 23rd
“We had speed, so that was good. I wish we had ended up better with One Cure on the car and all the donations and everything. It is just frustrating, everything about it in the second half of the race. We got spun and we should have ended up way better.”
DID THIS CAR FEEL GOOD ON THE ROAD COURSE? “It was definitely good for us to have speed coming here and that will bode well for the other road course races.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 21 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang — Finish 31st
“It was up, down, down and more down kind of day. We got stage points, which thank goodness we got something. We got dumped by the 17. Then we started recovering and had a loose wheel and started to recover again and got back up to 10th and then got dumped again. Then the toe got broken and everything else was bad. I limped it around and finished, I don’t even know where I finished but it was just kind of one of those days.”
DID THE AGGRESSIVE NATURE OF THE CORNERS SURPRISE YOU? “No, not surprised. If you look at this track, look at Turn 1 and how it bends in, it is like it is saying, ‘Hey, go five-wide”. I don’t know. I don’t know what happened on that last restart there. I heard someone had a flat tire. All I know is I had a flat tire after it.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang — Finish 30th
“We were able to keep making the car better through the race and at the end there it felt like we had a chance. The 1 kind of ran me off and I was trying to get back to him and made a mistake and let the 16 by. Then I locked the left front up on a restart and from there every restart after we were just trying to hold on and we blew the right front on the last restart. We had another really fast Mustang, which is encouraging. We had the speed and we were able to run up front again. We just need to put it all together. That has been the story all year long. If we can put the whole thing together we are really tough. That is what we did in Phoenix and we just need to continue doing that.”
JOEY HAND, No. 15 Ford Pass Rewards Visa Mustang — Finished 35th
“We were trying to find our way a little bit and trying to make sure that the car didn’t have any issues from that tire, so I was a little timid with it and just working on it in the first stage. We had a struggle on power-down but we were really good on brakes. I could catch up to guys but I just couldn’t get in the mix. Guys were bringing good changes. We kept changing the air pressure and wedge and got it going pretty good actually. Before these last couple of cautions, we had moved through guys fast. We moved through half the field. Then I just got pogo’d. I got wrecked early on. They come down inside and hit us pretty hard over in 11 and then this last one was just chaos with guys going down inside. I was on the inside and guys were pulling down four-wide and it was just everybody hitting everybody. I ended up getting a piece of the 11, I know that. I guess me and the 5 got a piece of the 11 but it was just soft in there. That corner, Turn 1, it just gets four-wide and you get pushed in there. It is down in tight and you are locked up. We took some hard hits to the front and that last one was enough to bend something in the right front. We thought it was a flat tire but we actually bent something. It was a good day at times but ended up as a bad day, really. I need to finish these races. These guys are definitely hard and coming after me it seems. As a road course guy, I don’t think everybody loves having a road course guy out there in the mix. It is fine. It is racing. They are racing everybody hard. But you have to know – when you don’t race with them every week you have to know what you can do with some and not with others. I probably made a couple new friends out there. You have to race hard out there. Like Charlotte, it is kind of getting thrown in the lion’s den. These guys race together every week and we can run up through them. We have a fast car and can get it done but it is just tough to stay out of trouble.”
