Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Food City 500 | Sunday, March 17, 2024
Unofficial Ford Performance Results:
3rd – Brad Keselowski
7th – Chris Buescher
11th – Michael McDowell
12th – Josh Berry
13th – Chase Briscoe
14th – Ryan Preece
16th – Ryan Blaney
17th – Justin Haley
19th – Kaz Grala
22nd – Joey Logano
26th – Todd Gilliland
31st – Austin Cindric
32nd – Harrison Burton
34th – Noah Gragson
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 King’s Hawaiian Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU WERE UNDER THE HOOD AFTER THE RACE. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? “I just wanted to make sure the car wasn’t gonna burn down. That’s happened before and it’s real expensive. They came and put the fire out, so it’s fine. It was a pretty good day for us with RFK and the 6 car here We just kind of ran top five pretty much the whole race and kept them honest. I got ran into on one of those pit caution cycles. That did a little damage to the front end, otherwise I think I could have had a shot to win it today, but still solid to come home third. It was a really good week.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE FOR YOU WITH THE TRACK CONDITIONS? “It was an interesting day. There was a lot of discipline required and it was a fun race, to be honest, because you just had to be so smart behind the wheel. It would bite you in a heartbeat and you had to have a good setup. I think we had a good setup and tried to run the smartest race I could.”
IT LOOKED LIKE PARADE LAPS IN STAGE 2 RUNNING SIDE-BY-SIDE. “It ain’t no parade lap. You’re still hauling the mail. It’s different, but you’re just managing.”
HOW HARD WAS IT TO MAINTAIN DISCIPLINE IN THE CAR WHEN YOU PROBABLY WANT TO CHASE GUYS DOWN? “It’s hard. I just wish the whole race would have been like the end where we just ran and we didn’t throw yellows because we were in a really good spot for that, but, either way, we had a good car. We ran really solid and came away with a great finish and a ton of points. It’s the kind of weekend where we feel like we can come back here in the fall and win.”
HAVE YOU BEEN IN A RACE LIKE THIS BEFORE WHERE TIRE CONSERVATION WAS SUCH A BIG DEAL? “It’s been a while, yes.”
WOULD YOU LIKE MORE OF THESE? “I thought it was fun. It’s different. Variety is the spice of life.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “That was a good weekend. We had good speed. I was really pretty happy with the car. Obviously, there were a number of issues going on. I’m really kind of speechless on that part, but I thought we did a good job of managing everything. We made some adjustments at the end which seemed to cause the cording a little bit sooner and that kind of tied our hands a little bit towards the end, but, all in all, it was a great effort. I hate that we didn’t get a top 10, but it was a positive day and, honestly, with everything going on it was a lot of fun.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “What a crazy race. This is by far the most bizarre race I’ve probably ever been a part of just with trying to not go hard at all and trying to save your tires. You’d feel good and then they would all just go at once and they’d be blowing. It was definitely weird just how you had to run the race. It was a cat-and-mouse game, which I think would be really fun if you didn’t have to worry about the tires blowing and coming apart. Thirteenth for us, we were definitely way better than 13th. There at the end, my tire just went down, so I was trying to make it to the end without having to pit again. To be frustrated with a 13th from where we were last year says a lot about where we’re at this year. We’ll try to move on and just continue to get better.”
WHAT KIND OF RACE WAS THAT? “That was definitely the craziest race I feel like I’ve ever been a part of in the Cup Series. We normally just run every lap as a qualifying lap and you might save a little bit, but you’re never going that slow to save tires. It was definitely bizarre how it all played out and green flag pit stops, and it was like you had 1000 more horsepower than the field when you were on new tires. It was nuts. It was unfortunate circumstances from a racing standpoint, but, for us, to end up 13th for as crazy of a race as it was, we were definitely way better than 13th.”
DO YOU LIKE THAT STRATEGY? “I don’t mind trying to save tires, but we can’t have the tires just coming apart like that. It would be fun if we fell off two or three seconds and you didn’t have to worry about tires coming apart. I think that would be really fun, but when you’re trying to not make them blow up, that’s not very fun.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THIS WAS EXTREME HAVING TO MANAGE TIRE WEAR. “Yeah, I’d rather that than getting beat by somebody with a faster car that day. Now, I think that obviously they’ve got some work to do. The wear was excessive, but we maximized our day. I think if we didn’t have that tire come apart there at the end, we could have maybe finished top 10, but it is what it is.”
JUSTIN HALEY, No. 51 Ohanafy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We were fast. At the end the tires just fell off, but we ran in the top 10 all day and that’s awesome to establish that because it put a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces. I’m excited to keep digging. I feel like the cars have speed, we just need to keep running like that and we’ll be OK.’
HOW DID YOU LIKE THAT KIND OF RACE? “I loved it. I don’t know what social media says, but as a driver I thought it was fun because you had to manage it. You weren’t all-out the whole time, so it was fun to have a major part in how the car ran.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 10 Bass Pro Shops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We put ourselves in a box early. We started making a lot of speed the first run and got up to 13th running the outside and then wore the right-front all the way down to the cords. We came down pit road and got trapped a lap down. We just didn’t execute today, especially myself. I hit the wall later in the race getting up in the marbles. There’s a ton of tire rubber up there, but there’s no excuses other than I need to get it together for the Bass Pro Shops team. I just didn’t run a good race. I appreciate all the hard work by everyone. We’ll keep it going. It was a tough weekend and a tough result and we’ve got to rebound next weekend.”
KAZ GRALA, No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We had great speed in our Ford Mustang Dark Horse. I’m proud of everyone at Rick Ware Racing. Both of our cars were fast. We were just straight-up top 15, top 12 cars today, which was really cool. Unfortunately, we got behind on the very last run there tire cycling-wise. I got shoved to the top and that wore out our right-front a little early, so we ended up 19th, but we had a strong day. That’s cool to see. It gives us a lot of encouragement going forward. We’re upset with 19th because we ran better than that today, but it’s not a bad position to be in when you’re mad about that.”
