Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Food City Dirt Race – Sunday, April 17, 2022
FORD FINISHING ORDER:
3rd – Joey Logano
5th – Ryan Blaney
9th – Michael McDowell
11th – Brad Keselowski
13th – Cole Custer
15th – Chris Buescher
16th – Austin Cindric
17th – Todd Gilliland
20th – Harrison Burton
22nd – Chase Briscoe
23rd – Aric Almirola
25th – Josh Willilams
26th – Cody Ware
30th – JJ Yeley
34th – Kevin Harvick
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang – TAKE US THROUGH THE LAST LAP. “I was running Tyler down and I just tried throwing a slider. I didn’t expect him to drive in there on me and I was spinning out, I think, either way and I hit him. I feel terrible. I was wanting to race him clean. I wasn’t gonna wreck him for the win. That’s why I tried to slide him and I was trying to leave him enough if I didn’t get there and that was my fault 100 percent. I hate it for Tyler. He’s a good friend of mine and I wanted to see a dirt guy win if it wasn’t me. I’m gonna go down here and apologize and deserve what I get, I guess. That was just racing. I was trying to go for the win and I feel terrible for him.”
YOU’VE GOT TO MAKE A MOVE TO GO FOR THE WIN. “Yeah, I was just trying to win the race. I ran him down so fast and I knew it was gonna be hard with lap traffic, so I tried throwing a slider and it was the wrong move.”
HE SAID ON HIS RADIO HE WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING. “Yeah, I’m gonna go talk to him. If he punches me, he punches me. I get it. I think it was just a racing deal and we’ll see what he says.”
POST-CONVERSATION WITH REDDICK:
WHAT DID TYLER SAY AFTERWARDS? “He got it. Obviously, Tyler and me have raced enough with each other. Both of us know we’re not gonna wreck each other or do something stupid on purpose, and that was just a racing deal. We were both going for a win. Both of us dirt guys. There’s a lot of pride in being the guy that wins the dirt race and it’s unfortunate. I hate that neither of us won, but I think Tyler understood and he was really cool about it and said he would have tried the exact same thing. He said it was his fault for letting me even get there in the first place.”
IT SEEMED YOU WOULD GAIN ONE LAP AND THEN FALL BACK THE NEXT WHEN TRYING TO CATCH HIM. “Yeah, it was definitely back and forth. I was trying stuff kind of behind him so if I did get there I kind of had an idea of what could work. My middle line that I was running down here kind of went away, so I knew the only way I was gonna pass him was to throw a slider, and it’s so hard when it’s that fast around the top. If you would have entered on the fence, I think I maybe would have got there, but when he went in right beside me there was no chance I was gonna make that work and that’s where I started spinning out in the first place.”
DID THE LAST RESTART NOT GO THE WAY YOU WANTED? “It could have gone a little bit better, but it was my fault because I spun the tires off of two and let the 18 back by. I had to get by him and then once the top came in I felt like I was ripping it pretty good. The only thing that didn’t go the way I wanted to on the restart was when I hit the 8. I was trying to do what I did to the 99 earlier in the race and Tyler waited so long to go that it just jammed me up and that’s what gave the 18 the opportunity.”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THIS RACE COME BACK NEXT YEAR? “I had a blast. The track was way way better. I don’t know how much the rain helped that, but the banking – everything – was awesome. I thought there at the end you couldn’t put on a better race from a dirt track standpoint in these cars, so hopefully that sold more tickets for next year and gives it an opportunity to come back because if we keep doing this at night, I think the opportunity to put on a good race is there.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – “We’ll take that. We weren’t fast enough obviously to win. We had great execution on restarts and kept ourselves towards the front. Paul made a good call leaving us out. The tire was coming apart there at the end, but we did what we had to do to stay towards the front. Track position was so big. It’s so hard to pass and I felt like if I could just get towards the front, I could try to hold them all off and that’s what we did with our Mustang. We were able to get a top three finish with our Shell/Pennzoil car. It’s OK. We’ll take it. It’s not a win, but we’ve been stringing together some good finishes the last couple of weeks.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang — “It was a pretty decent race for us. We had to start 25th and come from the back and I thought our car was pretty fast. I kept having to restart on the bottom and kept losing all the spots we’d gain. Our car was good enough there at the end. I thought I was faster than a couple guys ahead of me, but it was a fun race. I thought the track was really good and you could move around. The track was pretty wide, so I’m happy we got the whole race in. That was nice and not a bad day. We’ll just go on.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Latte Ford Mustang – WHAT CAN YOU TELL US? “The first thing I can tell you is we did a terrible job prepping the track and full of mud and there was nobody here to pack the track, so we all look like a bunch of bozos coming in to pit because we don’t know how to prep the track. And then we don’t get the lucky dog for whatever reason with two cars on pit road, and then we got run over. I don’t know who ran us over at the end.”
AFTER YOU GOT YOUR LAP BACK DID YOU FEEL LIKE? “I had a great car. The racetrack was fine. They just did a terrible job to start with. They’ve done this before, but, obviously, it doesn’t look like it.”
WILL YOU GO AND TALK TO THEM OR SAY SOMETHING? “You can’t talk to them.”
YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO. “Might be, but if I had my choice we wouldn’t be doing this anyway.”
DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOMETHING THAT’S SALVAGEABLE? “What’s the point, really?”
THE POINT IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND GOING BACK TO THE SPORTS’ GRASSROOTS. “I guess the TV ratings will tell that. If the TV ratings are high, it’ll be great.”
YOU REALLY LIKED THIS TRACK THE WAY IT WAS, RIGHT? “I think Bristol is a great racetrack, but it must not have been what everybody liked.”
PRETTY FRUSTRATED? “I think it’s ridiculous that we’re doing what we’re doing anyway.”
