Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Toyota/SaveMart 350 | Sunday, June 11, 2023
Ford Finishing Results:
3rd – Joey Logano
4th – Chris Buescher
7th – Michael McDowell
11th – Kevin Harvick
13th – Ryan Preece
16th – Brad Keselowski
24th – Todd Gilliland
25th – Austin Cindric
27th – Harrison Burton
28th – Aric Almirola
29th – Chase Briscoe
31st – Ryan Blaney
34th – Zane Smith
35th – Andy Lally
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang – “You start in the back you’re gonna get beat up a little bit. Overall, I’m very proud of the Autotrader team today. Yesterday was ugly for all the Penske cars, but Paul made some good adjustments and got it to where we were top five speed, legit, and we just had to get there. He made a great call with a four-stop strategy and getting a lucky caution and getting through everything, so luck was on our side a little bit, but also a decent car. It was nothing to go up there and win with, but we maximized the last two weeks and I’m proud of that, so we’ll go into the off week with a bit of momentum.”
GREAT PIT STRATEGY TODAY. THAT HAD TO HELP. “Absolutely, and just overall as a team we did a pretty decent job. Paul, the pit crew. Paul made some great calls, but also made some great changes. I kind of felt like doing a burnout after our day. That felt pretty good. Great execution. We got the car a lot better last night where I could at least hang in the top five. We got lucky a few times today. One with the strategy, but also we got hit by the 45 and knocked the tire off the bead, but somehow it’s holding air, so we got pretty lucky today and got through it.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang – “Everybody did a good job. Our Fifth Third Bank Mustang had really solid speed on the day. It was a methodical race. I thought we were in a good spot there at the end and got a little caught up in the retaliation stuff going on right in front of us and checked us up a good amount. I don’t know. It’s hard to say if we had anything for the 19. We never quite got to him today, so I think we still have a little work to do yet, but it was a good job by everybody.”
A GOOD RUN. “It is. I really wanted a shot to try to fight the 19 there. It’s really the only car I didn’t quite get around. I think we had speed at times – two runs – and just didn’t work with track position. Everybody did a really nice job at RFK and our Fifth Third Bank Mustang. They did a great job on pit road, had some good strategy calls there. We’re where we needed to be, just needed it to finish a little bit differently for us, but it was a really strong day.”
YOU’VE BEEN GOOD AT SONOMA FOR A LONG TIME? WHY? “Nothing in particular. I just enjoy road racing. I like doing something different from time to time. I’ve had a ball at these things since I was nine years old in a Bandolero running the infield road course at Texas . It clicked then and it’s continued to through my career. I’ve had good help from good road racers to help me fine-tune some of that. I had a good teammate in AJ Allmendinger for a few years and all of that builds up to strong runs and enjoying these things. Take the time to let it sink in and know that you’re gonna have a shot at it and confidence is high coming into it and that makes you have a good day.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang – “Here’s the deal. We ran good all weekend. We had a top five, top three car. I think we legitimately had the pace to run with the 19 there. We were starting to run him back down on that long run and that last pit stop hurt us. It is what it is. I’m proud of everybody at Front Row. They brought a really fast car and had a shot at it. We almost executed all day, it’s just that last stop. We came off pit road 12th or 13th and thankfully we were able to get back up to seventh and get a top 10, but I felt like we had a car that could contend today, so proud of the effort. Thanks to Love’s Travel Stops and all of our partners. We needed the win and we just didn’t do it.”
CAN YOU BUILD ON IT GOING FORWARD? “For sure. Our pace was good all day. It wasn’t a fluke. We qualified well and ran up there. We had really good long run speed, but just needed to fire off a bit better. I just needed that last stop to go smooth and come off pit road third or second and have a shot of winning the race. We didn’t do it.”
WITH OTHER ROAD COURSES COMING UP DO YOU THINK YOU CAN POINT YOUR WAY IN? “For sure. I think we saw today had that caution not fallen in between the stages, we would have probably scored a third and a fifth in the stages. If you can do that at all the road courses, I’m gonna score 40-50 points over all of them, so I think we can, but that’s not what we came to do. We wanted to win because that gives you all the points you need. I think it gives you like 2000, so that’s what we needed to do and just didn’t get it done. I’m thankful for the effort we put in, thankful for the speed that we had and still got some areas we need to improve and we’ll be there.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 America’s Tire Ford Mustang – “We worked to make our America’s Tire/Discount Tire Ford Mustang better throughout the day with tire pressure adjustments to make the car hold on a little longer. It was obviously not the day we were wanting, but the last caution really gave us an opportunity to get some spots on the restart and some decent track position with newer tires. Great effort by everyone, but definitely leaving wanting more.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 41 Autodesk Ford Mustang – “Today was a good day for our 41 team. Like I’ve said, we’re moving in the right direction each weekend. I wish we got ourselves a few more spots to grab a top 10. I’m not a road course guy at all, but I always enjoy them and our team worked really hard to make our program better. I did a lot of studying and work in the sim for this weekend. I’m proud of the effort we made and all the hard work from my team. Looking forward to the off weekend and then getting to one of my strong tracks, Nashville.”
