Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Verizon 200 at The Brickyard | Sunday, August 13, 2023
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Michael McDowell
6th – Chase Briscoe
11th – Chris Buescher
13th – Ryan Blaney
15th – Austin Cindric
20th – Brad Keselowski
21st – Harrison Burton
23rd – Kevin Harvick
28th – Jenson Button
30th – Andy Lally
31st – Ryan Preece
34th – Joey Logano
37th – Todd Gilliland
39th – Aric Almirola
MICHAEL MCDOWELL VICTORIOUS AT THE “RACING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD”
- Michael McDowell registered the second win of his Cup career with today’s victory.
- This also marks the fourth series win for Front Row Motorsports.
- Today’s win is Ford’s 725th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
- McDowell was the overall lap-leader with 54 of 82 laps.
- McDowell earned his first-career stage win in Stage 1.
- He clinched a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with the victory.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Horizon Hobby Ford Mustang (Start-Finish Interview) – YOU ENTERED THIS WEEKEND NEEDING POINTS, BUT YOU CAME OUT WITH THE WIN. HOW DID YOU MANAGE SUCH A DOMINANT PERFORMANCE? “I didn’t. It was a total team effort. Our car was so fast. I just knew I had to execute and not make any mistakes. We lost the lead there in that first cycle but got it back on the second. We did everything we needed to do to have a fast Horizon Hobby Ford Mustang. So thankful, man. Such a grind – to finally be in victory lane. To do it at Indy, on a road course – it’s so special.”
THE FIRST REQUEST YOU HAD AT THE START-FINISH LINE WAS YOUR FAMILY. HOW SPECIAL WAS THAT MOMENT FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO CELEBRATE WITH THEM? “It’s special. There’s not a cooler moment than winning the Daytona 500. But to do it and not have my family there, it was tough. So, I always cherry pick the races they come to. They can’t come to all of them, but they come to the ones that we think we can win. Today, we did it.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang – YOU WERE IN THE FIGHT, AND STAYED CONSISTENTLY IN THE TOP-10. “Today was a solid day. From a speed standpoint, we had a top-three car. We just could never get the track position when it goes green like that. There are just no opportunities. I feel like we did everything right from a strategy standpoint, trying to play our cards right. Just a difference from starting 13th versus starting in the first two rows. I felt like that’s what cost us there. Part of it: Kicking myself. I knew yesterday when I didn’t make the final round, that it was going to be very hard to win. It proved itself today. Just kicking myself knowing I had a great shot at it. But overall, I’m proud of our team. We really needed a good run like this. I feel like we really learned something.”
IS THIS A CONFIDENCE BOOST FOR YOU AND THE TEAM HEADED INTO NEXT WEEK’S ROAD COURSE? “For sure. Truthfully, the road courses haven’t been very good to us, really ever since the Next Gen car. This is the most competitive that I’ve been. That’s the best feel I’ve had. Hopefully we can translate that into next week.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang – “It was not quite the day we wanted in our Castrol Edge Ford Mustang. I felt like we were a little stronger than practice, but we got into the race and didn’t really get a lot of movement. The one restart we did have, somebody came in there really hot and got it all jammed up. We kind of pin-balled around. So, took a few good licks there and hopefully, everything was good afterwards. It’s valid to say that with no more cautions, it made it really hard to do much on the day. Proud of our group for sticking after it. We’ll take a little bit of a reset, then get back after it.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “Decent progress today with our Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Felt like we leveled-out, called a great race – just didn’t have quite enough to get into the Top-10 there. Pretty physical race. I mean, going all green like that on a pretty warm day. It was good. Makes you feel like you exercise and prepare for a reason. I’m not content with it, but I think we maximized our day fairly well.”
JENSON BUTTON, No. 15 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – WHAT’S BEEN YOUR NASCAR EXPERIENCE THIS YEAR? “Good. It’d be nice just to get a finish. The pace is there. It’s just that I made mistakes today. The car was working well. Yesterday was frustrating just because we didn’t have any pace. Today, the guys did a really good job of finding a setup that worked for me. I could brake later, so I could make a lot of moves. I can’t imagine how many cars I actually overtook during the race. But at the end of the first pit-stop, I was speeding into pit-lane. So, I had to do a drive-through. Kills your race – about 30 seconds in pit-lane. So, it sets you back a lot, and then when I made a move on someone – I think [Ricky] Stenhouse Jr. – he spun me around and it costed me a bit more time. It wasn’t great. Then pushing to the end to chase down Kevin [Harvick], I locked up and went straight across the grass in Turn 1. So, had to do a stop-and-go. It was messy. But, the pace was there. It was really good. I think we had the third or fourth quickest lap of the race? So, went really well. Just a disappointing result. I enjoyed it. Lots of overtaking, wheel-to-wheel banging as you could probably see by the car.”
