Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Xfinity Series
United Rentals 300 | Monday, February 19, 2024
UNOFFICIAL FORD FINISHING RESULTS
6th – Riley Herbst
13th – Cole Custer
14th – Blaine Perkins
22nd – Ryan Sieg
33rd – Frankie Muniz
37th – Hailie Deegan
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Obviously, we want better, but I feel like that was pretty impressive how the Fords worked together. That green flag pit stop was one of the best ones I’ve ever seen us work together and still keep the lead. It was definitely a good day for the Fords and showed a lot of promise. We just have to keep it going. I think these superspeedways you never know what’s gonna happen, but we did everything we could all day.”
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU GOT HIT? “I need to see a replay, but I was just going straight. We were leading the line and somebody hit me in the back and I got turned in the fence. It’s just a product of everybody pushing and sometimes you just get pushed wrong.”
RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RESTART? “You can look at any restart today in the 500 and everybody gives the leader the right, the edge, because that is what they earned as the leader. I did the same thing I have done my whole life restarting on the front row and gave the leader the opportunity to fire first. I saw his nose pick up and I went off that. We raced for I think a whole lap and a half and then there was a caution and NASCAR called that I laid back to my teammate on the restart.”
IS THIS SOMETHING YOU WILL GO TALK TO NASCAR ABOUT TO SEE WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY? “I already got called to the hauler. A bad choice of vocabulary they said, so I am going to go see them in the hauler now.”
RYAN SIEG, No. 39 Sci Aps/Scrap University Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WAS THERE A MOVE YOU’D LIKE TO TAKE BACK ON THE FINAL RESTART? “No, I did everything I could. I blocked and pushed and did everything I could. I pushed Sheldon as far as I could and trying to get past the 21. He was the class of the field, so I did all I could do. I have no regrets. I did everything I could, so we’ll just move on to Atlanta.”
HAILIE DEEGAN, No. 15 Klutch Vodka Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WALK US THROUGH THE ACCIDENT FROM YOUR VIEWPOINT: “I saw two guys in front of me start wrecking. I started checking up. I was playing it cautions at the beginning of the race and tried to hang back but I got hit on the entry to the corner. As soon as I was checking up I thought the guys behind me would check up because they were further back but then I got hit on entry of turn one and as soon as that happened it started my momentum back up. I tried to get it slowed down but couldn’t in time. It is what it is.”
HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT AFTER THIS LONG WEEKEND? “It is so frustrating because I feel like at Daytona I have tried so many different strategies and none of them work out. It is very frustrating. I don’t know. Maybe one time we will get lucky here.”
FRANKIE MUNIZ, No. 35 Ford Performance Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED? “After that last cycle of pit stops, after the stage break, we decided to go back to the back. We wanted to just keep riding around a little bit to get some experience. Our whole thing was just be there at the end, so we were trying to be as safe as possible. There was a bunch of pretty fast cars behind us, so I was just staying on the inside letting them go by and before I knew it I just saw a bunch of smoke and tons of cars going all over the place. I thought I picked the right side to go through, but I just happened to go in the grass and the grass is still so wet from all the rain, so I just lost the rear and ran into someone. It’s bad luck, really, because that’s what getting through something like that is – you get lucky if you make it. Unfortunate because we were literally trying to be cautious. Even the whole first run we were chilling where we were and just kind of getting comfortable. I just did my first real pit stop ever. I had hoped to do more than that to get more experience, so it is unfortunate. Joey Gase Motorsports worked really hard. Obviously, they’re trying to teach me really quick. I”ve got so much to learn, but unfortunately we’re done early and by the looks of it it’s gonna be another crash-filled race and if we could have just finished we probably would have had a really good finish, but it is what it is. I hate the term ‘that’s racing.’ It’s my least favorite term in the history of life, but it is especially here. We didn’t do anything wrong, we just got caught up in whatever happened.”
