Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying
NOCO 400 Qualifying | Saturday, April 15, 2023
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Ryan Preece
3rd – Aric Almirola
4th – Chase Briscoe
7th – Kevin Harvick
10th – Chris Buescher
13th – Todd Gilliland
15th – Joey Logano
20th – Michael McDowell
21st – Brad Keselowski
25th – Austin Cindric
31st – Ryan Blaney
32nd – Harrison Burton
33rd – Zane Smith
36th – JJ Yeley
RYAN PREECE EARNS FIRST NASCAR CUP SERIES POLE
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece earned his first NASCAR Series pole today at Martinsville Speedway.
That gives Ford a sweep of all three poles this weekend after Zane Smith won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole and Cole Custer took the NASCAR Xfinity Series top spot yesterday.
In all, Ford will have five drivers starting in the top 10 as Aric Almirola (3rd), Chase Briscoe (4th), Kevin Harvick (7th) and Chris Buescher (10th) join Preece at the front.
RYAN PREECE, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang – “A lot of anticipation for tomorrow. As a race car driver you want to come here, you want to compete, you want to win races and I know my team is capable of that. I know I’m capable of that. I know my crew chief is capable of that. It’s really just been trying to put it all together and get the finishes that you feel you deserve. It’s nice to not be starting in the back for one week. We have such a fast HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”
HOW DID THE CAR FEEL ON A LONG RUN IN PRACTICE? “Honestly, we’ve been making adjustments since we started and since we came here. We weren’t really happy with it at the beginning of practice and every adjustment Chad has made and this team has made has just made it better and better. I’m pretty pumped and looking forward to 400 tomorrow.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang – “I thought I screwed up in the second round, truthfully. I felt like I had a really good shot at the pole and I just tried to get a little bit too much. That one’s on me, but, overall, a really good start to the weekend for the company as a whole to have all four cars in the top 10 is something that we haven’t been able to say in a really long time. We know the short tracks are where we need to capitalize and I think this is a great way to start the weekend. Track position is gonna be huge for us. I don’t know how our car is gonna be on the long run. On the short run I knew it was gonna be pretty good, but until we start racing tomorrow it’s gonna be really hard to say what we have, but so far I’m happy. I’m surprised with how well my hand has been holding up, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
RYAN PREECE POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
RYAN PREECE – No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang – TAKE US THROUGH YOUR LAP? “The first lap when I came across the start-finish line and Andy said it was a 20.12 I knew it wasn’t enough for the pole. I was fighting loose that first lap on entry and drive, so going off into one I just grabbed myself a whole bunch of front bias and it just helped it stick and did everything I wanted to. When we crossed the line and we did that .90 I figured I lived up to my word to Chad that it was gonna take a .90 to get the pole even though it didn’t, I guess.”
ALL OF SHR WAS STRONG TODAY. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? “I think you guys out of everybody see how important track position really is nowadays and when you get, whether you have control of the race or you have track position you can’t give it up because it’s so difficult to pass. From a company standpoint, it is certainly makes us all very optimistic for tomorrow and we can be smart and all have good days, but it certainly shows that our short track program is really good. I know our superspeedway stuff has been extremely good too, so we’re just gonna continue working on the speed areas and we’ll be just fine.”
DO YOU FEEL ANYTHING FROM THE CLASH TRACK HAS TRANSLATED HERE? “I saw a lot of people comparing it, so maybe a little bit. Maybe how you would try to pass a car, but there’s a quarter-mile bullring versus this style half-mile racetrack, if you’re really gonna get into details are very, very different. How you need to make speed from a setup standpoint I have no idea. My background at Martinsville, I felt really comfortable coming here because this is where I won my first pole. I think I actually have the track record in a modified here. This is where I won my first modified race, so I’ve had a lot of success here and it’s certainly a place that suits my style.”
HARVICK SAID YOU HAVE TO RUN 10TH AND THEN TOP 5, BUT CAN YOU MAKE THAT LEAP TO VICTORY LANE? “Yeah. What it is, to win these races it takes not just a great car, not just doing everything right, your pit crew’s got to do everything right. I never really realized how many things can go wrong to take you out of contention. I feel like, yeah. I mean, we have a team that is certainly capable of it, so I feel like tomorrow if we make some changes, little things that I feel like can help us so we have that speed in a race run and do all of the right things, I think we can give ourselves the opportunity for sure. I agree 100 percent with what Kevin says. I preached it to people in the past of you’ve got to run up there consistently with those guys so they race you a certain way and not just feel like you’re in the way, but this 41 team is certainly working hard to be up there week in and week out and be a contender.”
DO YOU HAVE A CHIP ON YOUR SHOULDER AFTER THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS AND ARE YOU A BETTER DRIVER THAT WAY? “I don’t know, it seems to be working right now, I guess. I don’t necessarily have a chip on my shoulder. There are certainly frustrations because as a driver I know I’m putting in a lot of work, a lot of effort. I know my crew and my team, we put in a lot of effort together from a team-building standpoint, from the car standpoint and sometimes it certainly gets frustrating when you don’t get the results that you feel like you work so hard for throughout the day and then statistically it doesn’t look phenomenal, especially points wise. But, you know what, it’s like I’ve said throughout the year after some of those days where you want to get negative or your want to get down, the clock resets at midnight. I mean, we just got the pole and it’s just like you’ve got to keep moving on. You can’t keep thinking about the previous week, so I think we did a good job of that and now we get to go work really hard tomorrow and hopefully I can talk to you tomorrow.”
IT’S A POLE NOT A RACE, BUT HOW DOES IT FEEL TO SHOWCASE YOUR TEAM’S POTENTIAL TODAY? “I think for the organization and for the short track stuff it was great seeing all four of our cars in the final round, so that was obviously phenomenal. Certainly, we did all the right things today and it shows when push comes to shove we can do all the right things and give ourselves an opportunity to start up front and have track position and run top 10 or top 5 and contend. I think that’s a big thing.”
YOU WON A TRUCK POLE AND WON THAT RACE. YOU WON AN XFINITY POLE AND WON THAT RACE. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO DO THAT AGAIN IN CUP TOMORROW? “Doing all the little things right, like Kevin says. Two things that I’ve taken notice – one, like I just said, doing the little things right, but, two, you can’t drive a slow car fast. We obviously have a fast race car and preparation. I know I’ve been working really hard to make sure I’m as prepared coming to the races than I’ve ever been, and that’s how I feel. I guess I’ve got some more work to do tonight to make sure that I’m 100 percent ready for when it gets to lap 200, 300, when the tracks seem to take that swing or even 100-300, just to be up to date. A lot of these guys have a lot of laps. They’ve been doing it for a long time, so they understand the way the tracks change and how to stay ahead of it, so hopefully I can do a good job and keep that statistic going.”
