Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix | Sunday, March 24, 2024
Ford Performance Unofficial Results:
8th – Chris Buescher
11th – Joey Logano
12th – Ryan Blaney
13th – Chase Briscoe
17th – Justin Haley
19th – Austin Cindric
24th – Ryan Preece
27th – Todd Gilliland
28th – Kaz Grala
31st – Harrison Burton
34th – Brad Keselowski
35th – Noah Gragson
36th – Josh Berry
39th – Michael McDowell
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 8th)
“We were behind the eight ball to get started there, having to drop to the rear. We had a freak deal happen with a parts failure in practice and qualifying. That was unfortunate but I am proud of everybody on this Fastenal Ford Mustang team to pick ‘em off all day long. That was the name of the game. We knew we would be in a really tough spot all day and we knew we would need a handful of things to fall our way if we were going to compete for a win. I am proud of the top 10 finish. We had some big gains. We have some stuff that we learned and we will be better next time.”
WERE YOU SURPRISED THE RACE WENT CAUTION FREE OUTSIDE OF THE STAGES TODAY? “Without the cautions and with the restart zone being in a better place I think everyone just tried to control a lot of that. It was very crazy last time but it certainly was not our best foot forward as a sport. I don’t know how the race was overall but I would have liked a couple of more shots to try something in this race. Certainly we survived with minimal chaos up there at the top of turn one and had a pretty smooth and clean race really.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 11th)
“We passed a few cars and then we always flipped the stages. We were trying to go for a finish. 11th, the way our season has gone so far, we will take that and start scratching and clawing our way up in the points. We probably left a few out there with the stages but overall we had decent pace at the end. Nothing to win with but something we can run with in the top 10 if we were up there. On to Richmond. I am looking forward to that one.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Jack Links Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 12th)
“We didn’t start great. We got some stage points in Stage 2 and then the start of Stage 3 we were really good and drove up to the low teens and I spun out passing somebody into 11. That set us back. Then we drove back through the field to finish 12th. I thought we got pretty decent at the end, we just didn’t start up front. Spinning out didn’t help. We probably could have run seventh or eighth but we still have some work to do.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 13th)
“Our race was overall okay. I felt like, starting 31st that for the first couple of laps we were able to drive up to 17th and were going to be in a really good spot coming to the end of Stage 1. I bottomed out really hard into the esses and it made me miss a corner and that really changed the whole complexity of our race. I had to go to the back and then drove back up there to the top 10. At the end with eight to go I made a huge mistake and got in the dirt in Turn 8 and allowed those guys to all swallow me up those last couple of laps. I thought we made our Mustang better through the day. I thought we had a solid 10th place car but we don’t really have anything else for the rest of the guys. We need to do some work but to finish right outside of the top 10, we have been able to do that pretty much every week this year. If we aren’t in the top 10 we are just a couple of spots outside of it. We have been really consistent which is nice. We just neeed to get a little bit better and then hopefully we can improve on the finishes.”
JUSTIN HALEY, No. 51 Fraternal Order of Eagles Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 17th)
“We had an okay day. I thought we did everything right up until the end when we had a slow pit stop and kind of faded from there. I am really happy with the results we are getting. We have such a small team and we are trying as hard as we can. I appreciate everyone at Ford and RFK for giving us the information they give us and I am glad we are starting to apply it.”
