Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Coca-Cola 600 | Sunday, May 29, 2022
Ford Finishing Results
3rd – Kevin Harvick
4th – Chase Briscoe
8th – Michael McDowell
11th – Harrison Burton
16th – Todd Gilliland
17th – Aric Almirola
18th – Cody Ware
19th – BJ McLeod
20th – Joey Logano
21st – Cole Custer
26th – Chris Buescher
29th – Ryan Blaney
30th – Brad Keselowski
34th – Austin Cindric
37th – Ryan Preece
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE A NIGHT LIKE THIS? “We went to the back five times for bad pit stops too, but everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang team did a good job. We just kept battling. We had a decent car after I hit the wall I got a lot tighter and then every time we’d make it up, we’d just fall on our face on pit road and go to the back again. We just kept battling. That’s just kind of the name of the game in this particular race because it’s just so long. I knew the attrition was gonna be high.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE. “Our race was atrocious. We went to the back eight times, but everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford just kept plugging away and we wound up in a good position there at the end and wound up with a good finish, but it was ugly. Everybody’s night was ugly for the most part.”
HOW DID IT FEEL AT THE END WITH ALL THE RESTARTS? “I’ve been to this race a lot and I knew that the way the mile and a half races had gone this particular year that it was gonna be a war. There weren’t as many tire issues as I thought there were going to be, but it wound up just being spin outs because the cars would just become an incredibly big handful as you’d get towards the end of the run. You just had to hang on to it, and it was definitely interesting to say the least.”
HOW WAS THE NEXT GEN CAR IN SUCH A LONG RACE? “I think for me it was just every lap was kind of the same. You just kind of kept grinding away.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang – HOW DID YOU FINISH FOURTH AFTER EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED? “We just had a really really good Mahindra Tractors Ford and just super proud of everybody at SHR. We’ve obviously struggled really bad the last month and a half and to have a good car like that today and had a car capable of winning and I threw it away, plain and simple. I’m glad we were able to at least get back to fourth. It’s unfortunate. There are 100 different things I would have done differently if I could re-do it again, but obviously you’re racing in the moment and made a mistake and went too far. We’ll come back next week and see if we can cap it off.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE. “In the daytime we kind of struggled and I think a lot of that was just the sun. I was kind of timid around the fence. We kept getting track position. On restarts we were really really good, but I could never get clean air. I felt like if I could have got ahead of the 1, I was a little bit better on the long run. I could have maybe held him up on the short run. I had a shot at him. We threw a couple sliders and then the 5 was able to get out front and kind of the same thing, our car was really good on the long run. It seemed like if the guy could take the wall away from you, it was just really hard to do anything, but my car was really good almost one lane off and I just kept working Kyle really hard and waiting for him to make a mistake, but he’s the greatest of all-time, in my opinion. He just doesn’t make very many mistakes. I was able to drive it in so much deeper into one than him kind of all race long and felt like that was my opportunity if I could just get to his left-rear quarter panel on exit I would typically make people tighter. I drove in just as deep as I had been the whole race and I don’t know if he came off the wall because he’d been running so close on entry and as soon as I drove in there it just spun me out right away. I’m glad we were able to get back to fourth, but we definitely had a lot better race car than fourth.”
DID IT FEEL LIKE BRISTOL DIRT ALL OVER AGAIN? “I’m sure it looked the same. The move was totally different. With Reddick, I was going in there to try to get there and I didn’t have an opportunity to get there, where with Kyle I knew there was no way I was gonna drive in there and clear him. I was just trying to get in there to where I could get to his left-rear on the exit because you can’t follow the guy into the corner. You just get so tight. Like I said, he was lifting so much earlier to run the fence that I could just drive it in there so much deeper typically. There were a couple times I was literally inches away from getting there and I couldn’t get there, and then that last time I think it was two to go I was like, ‘Well, this is my last chance to try to get to his left-rear’ and I drove in there and, like I said, just kind of spun out as soon as I went into the corner. I wish I could do it all over again. There are 100 different things I’d do different those last 30-40 laps and I just was running 110 percent. I probably should have been running 95.”
HOW DOES THIS RACE COMPARE TO PAST 600s? “I’ve only ran one race here in the past in the Cup car, but, to me, that was the most fun Charlotte race I’ve ever ran. The racetrack was awesome. You could run the fence. You could run the middle. You could run the bottom. You could throw sliders. This car, it seems like, the long run and short run cars we have a little bit more of that where in the past it seemed like we kind of got single-filed out. It was a lot of fun. I’d do another 600 miles for sure.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 FR8Auctions.com Ford Mustang – “We had a really fast FR8 Auction Ford Mustang. Unfortunately, we got too much damage in that wreck, that big pile up when the 6 spun with somebody. That kind of took a little speed out of our race car, but we did a good job working really hard trying to get the balance back. Then a lot of attrition there at the end. It was a wild race and we got ourselves in position there. I’m proud of everybody. It’s another top 10. We keep clicking them off. We had good speed. We qualified in the top 10 and finished in the top 10 today, so it’s good. It’s good to be disappointed with that. I thought we had a top five coming to the checkered there and got all stacked up there four-wide and got in the fence a little bit, but we’ll take a top 10 and move on to Gateway.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 Chicken Cock Whiskey Ford Mustang – “The team did a great job working on the car all night and keeping up with the track. I was really happy with what we had and it felt like we had made big gains and turned things around. I felt like we had a good shot at the end, but it just ended up that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I really can’t wait to get to the track next weekend. We’re moving in the right direction and I’ve always loved racing at Gateway.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang – “We just got caught up in it with our Fifth Third Bank Mustang. Our team did a really nice job and made some huge gains through the weekend. I’m really proud of them. We had a good race car. We drove all the way into the top 10 and just got back a little bit there and got around cars that really hadn’t been and got caught up in a wreck. It’s unfortunate.”
TAKE US THROUGH YOUR FLIP. “It’s not ideal by any means. I’m gonna be a bit sore tomorrow. I haven’t been upside-down in a really long time. The team did a really nice job. We had great speed and had a chance at this thing, it just didn’t work out.”
ON THE SAFETY CREW’S JOB. “I do appreciate them for helping me and setting it back over again, so thank you to everybody working for not slamming it back. It was nice to be able to get out. The blood is rushing to your head a little bit. I guess I could have pulled the belts and fallen right to the ground, but figured I’d just wait on them.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang – “Something happened where Blaney got turned and I saw it and checked up and got wiped out from behind. I hate it for everybody at RFK. We unloaded and weren’t very good and we finally got the car good the run before this. We were driving forward and making passes and were almost into the top 10 and then get wrecked. We just can’t seem to catch a break.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BODYARMOR Ford Mustang – “I was tucked up tight behind the 8 and he was kind of lower than I thought on the frontstretch and kind of ran through the turf, and then got to one and jerked right and I think he was up behind the 99 and thinking he was gonna hit tha apron and I didn’t have time to kind of get right and I just kind of hit the apron and got me loose. I hate that other cars got tore up. I just didn’t really know where I was at being close to him and you kind of see that sometimes. I just hate that it tore us up”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang – Involved in accident on lap 146. “We cut a left-rear tire down right on corner entry. There was absolutely no warning and unfortunately that was the lap I decided to run the bottom, so a long distance to the wall and a pretty hard hit. We had a really really fast Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang. I was having fun. We had a fast car and fast cars usually climb up through the field running the top and running the bottom. It’s just unfortunate.”
