Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series at Dover Motor Speedway
Wurth 400 | Sunday, April 28, 2024
Ford Performance Results:
6th – Noah Gragson
7th – Ryan Blaney
14th – Josh Berry
15th – Austin Cindric
16th – Joey Logano
17th – Chris Buescher
19th – Chase Briscoe
23rd – Justin Haley
26th – Harrison Burton
29th – Kaz Grala
30th – Brad Keselowski
31st – Todd Gilliland
36th – Michael McDowell
37th – Ryan Preece
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 10 Miller Tech Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE A SOLID RUN LIKE TODAY? “I thought we qualified really well and then we kind of fell back there the first half of the race. We got really lucky with that caution coming on the final green flag pit cycle, but the Miller Tech Mustang was good once we got some track position. It just took a little bit, but things fell our way and we were able to come home with a top 10 finish, finishing sixth. It wasn’t looking pretty there in the middle of the race, but I’m thankful things went our way and we were able to get that track position at the end.”
YOU ARE REALLY BUILDING EACH WEEK. “Yeah, definitely. We set goals throughout the week on where we want to run. We were hoping to qualify in the top 15 and then run top 16 today, so to come home sixth feel really good. A big thanks to Drew Blickensderfer and Andy Houston, our spotter, and everybody else on this number 10 team. They’ve been doing a great job with me and I’m excited for the future.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I still thought we had like fourth to seventh-place potential all day, so I’m proud of the effort by everybody on this team for sticking with it. I really wanted to win one for Wurth. It’s a big race for those guys and they’re a great partner for us, but we just missed out. Hopefully, we can get a redemption shot next year if they do this again, but I appreciate the effort. It was a long day. To run 400 laps around this place is tough and working on it all day, the 12 boys stuck with it so I appreciate their effort, Ford, Roush Yates, Menards and we’ll go to Kansas next week.”
YOU WERE IN THE TOP 10 ALL RACE LONG AND GOT STAGE POINTS THROUGHOUT. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR DAY? “it was a consistent day. I just wish we had a little bit more pace to compete like the leaders. We led a little bit early and then the track changed and we couldn’t really keep up with it and the better cars kind of showed their muscle when the track got slick. Overall, we hung around the top 10 all day and I thought we could have finished anywhere between fourth to eighth, so we were right in the middle and hopefully we can learn from it a little bit.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’m proud to have a result that is representative. I feel like we’ve struggled to finish these deals out the last month or so, the speed that we’ve shown, so I’m proud of that. Fifteenth is solid, but we still have more progress to make. The guys called a great race. We made good adjustments and it feels nice to execute one. We just need to keep moving forward.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 4 Overstock Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was solid. We had a good car all day. We just needed to get a little bit more track position. We kept chipping away at it and just could never quite get into the top 10, but I thought we were gonna be really close to having a top 10 effort there. We definitely had top 10 speed, so we just have to keep chipping away at it and doing the same thing and the results will come.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was weird, . We started off pretty good and we just had on real bad run where we went from fifth to 25th and we just couldn’t find the balance. It was never where we needed it to be. It would be one way and then the next run it would be the other way. It seemed like we were always kind of chasing our tails. We also got burned by a caution and ended up 19th. I don’t know. This place has been a struggle for us for whatever reason and we’ve got to do our homework a little bit more and see what we can find.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 The Pete Store Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a challenging day. We fired off pretty good. We needed a little bit of adjustment, but we just miscalculated with our pit road. We thought that we could run hard into our box because we were the first box and the timing line was in the middle of our box, so we thought that there was no way you could speed. That’s what I was told, like, ‘There’s no way you can speed coming in. Come in as hard as you can.’ And I did, and we sped in that section, so I really hate that. That put us in the back and then just fighting all day to try and get back up. Once we got in the back of the pack it was really tough to pass, just like it is for everybody, but we had a good car at the start of the race. Right there, I’m not exactly sure, but it looked like a right-front hub failed, so we’ll have to dig into that and see why. Obviously, Dover is a high load, high wear and tear on parts, but we haven’t had any issues like this in the past, so we’ll just have to dig into it.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 41 Morton Buildings Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I felt like I was on fire and I went the first 70 laps just trying to push through and then it got so bad that I couldn’t put my hands on the wheel. I was worried that an oil line or something would melt and then the whole car gets engulfed in fire and I don’t want to be trapped in there having that happen, so I pulled off. Whatever happened it was completely unnecessary and we can’t afford days like this.”
WAS IT THE FOAM? “I’m not gonna be the one to say what happened, but it wasn’t necessary. It could have been prevented.”
