Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Iowa Corn 350 Qualifying | Saturday, June 15, 2024
Ford Performance Unofficial Results:
2nd – Ryan Blaney
3rd – Josh Berry
5th – Brad Keselowski
6th – Chase Briscoe
11th – Joey Logano
14th – Todd Gilliland
15th – Chris Buescher
19th – Justin Haley
21st – Austin Cindric
22nd – Michael McDowell
23rd – Noah Gragson
25th – Harrison Burton
28th – Kaz Grala
29th – Ryan Preece
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HAS IT BEEN A GOOD WEEK SO FAR IN IOWA? “Yeah, it’s nice to come back. My mom grew up not too far from here, so we’ve got like 80 people coming out this weekend. They’re all camping. We bought a lot of tickets, that’s for sure. It’s nice to have a track to where part of your family is from and they come out and support. They did the same thing 10 years ago when we raced Xfinity here and it’s nice that they all came back out and hanging out all weekend. It’s definitely a very special weekend for me just from that side of it and hopefully we can capitalize. It would be fun to celebrate, I don’t know how we’re gonna get 80 of them across the racetrack if we win the race, but we’ll try to figure it out.”
DO YOU HAVE A SENSE FOR WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE A CUP RACE BACK IN THE MIDWEST FOR THIS FAN BASE? “I think it’s great. I’ve been wanting a Cup race here for a long time. I think they do a good job here. The fan base here is very loyal to motorsports. I know they were really upset when Xfinity went away from here and Trucks and we lost them for a couple years and they were upset, so it’s just nice to come back. Like I said, the track does a good job. The track is hopefully just as racy as it was before that. I don’t know if it will be that, but I think it’s important to have these tracks in the midwest. There’s a huge fan base out here. People love NASCAR. People love motorsports out here in this area of the country and they deserve to have a big race come to their area.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE MIDWESTERN RACING FAN COMPARED TO OTHERS? “I don’t know. We get to see all types of them throughout the country. They’re all dedicated and passionate, just a little bit different accents. They all love racing and I think when you come to these places where you don’t normally go, it makes for more excitement because these people might not be able to travel to other states to go see a race. If it’s in their home state, they can drive a couple hours down the road and they’re gonna see a big race and a Cup event. It definitely means a ton and it shows through the weekend and talking to people and the hype about the race in the area. It definitely means a lot to them when we can bring it somewhere close to them.”
A GOOD STARTING SPOT FOR TOMORROW, BUT YOU JUST GOT NIPPED BY LARSON AT THE END. “It would have been nice, obviously, but that’s a big improvement from yesterday. We did a lot of work overnight and this morning to figure out how to be better than where we were yesterday at the end of practice. We’re really proud of that effort. Larson does that stuff, but it was a really good run. I wish I would have done one thing a little different my second lap. I got a really good first lap, but the second lap I tried to switch it up to gain time and I kind of missed the three and four mark that I was trying to hit and maybe that was a little bit of it, but, overall, a good day. We have a good starting spot for tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT STARTING UP FRONT? “Just unknowns, so it’s nice to get a good pit stall, qualifying up front and see the lead. It will be interesting to see where the track goes and how it progresses and moves around. I’m sure it will. We’ll just have to be ready for that.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE IN THIS POSITION ON THE BUBBLE WITH THE GAINS YOU MADE AT THE END OF LAST YEAR? “No. I mean, we expect to run a lot better than where we’re at, obviously. Some of it is not of our doing and some definitely of our doing. We just have to get faster, but I do think you look at the last few weeks we showed some speed at Gateway. At Sonoma, we were on the pole, leading and got wrecked, so there is light at the end of the tunnel for sure. We’ve been in this position before. We have not the best summer months. My wife reminds me of ‘18 all the time because I was a pretty miserable person to be around. She goes, ‘Remember, you won the championship that year.’ And I go, ‘Alright, you’re right.’ So, I’m still optimistic we’re gonna figure things out.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – ONE AND DONE. WHY? “I thought I hit a really good first lap, but I got pretty free getting into three on the second lap and just had to chase it up the track and abort it. I felt like we hit a really good one on the first one, so we’ll just have to wait this out. There are a lot of good cars left to go, but, overall, these guys have done a really good job. We didn’t have the best practice session yesterday, but I felt like we were OK. Rodney and these guys looked at some of our teammate stuff overnight and put together a really good plan for today, so I just tried not to overthink it and screw it up and, like I said, we’ll see how this shakes out. Overall, we’ll have a good starting spot.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra USA 30 Years Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW GOOD WAS YOUR LAP? “It was terrible. I could not believe that honestly held up to be the quickest in our group. It’s encouraging that our car was that good from a speed standpoint, but I think we’re starting sixth the way I understand it, but the track is gonna keep getting better and better. Our car balance-wise was not very good, so I’m glad it held up for our end. Starting sixth will be good with how hard it’s gonna be to pass tomorrow. So far, so good with our Mahindra Tractors Ford and hopefully we can keep it up there.”
NOAH WAS THE FASTEST YESTERDAY. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THE SHR FORDS THIS WEEKEND? “Our cars have been really good from a balance standpoint and even just our driver group I feel like we’ve all always run really well here. Noah has run up front. I’ve won here. Preece has won here. Josh, I think has run here once, so I feel like all of our drivers just get around this place pretty good too, which helps. All of the SHR cars have pretty good speed and hopefully we can all keep them up front.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Ruedebusch Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’d say overall it’s definitely a step in the right direction from where we’ve been qualifying, to be honest with you. I just barely touched the wall, but we’ve got something good to race with for tomorrow. It’s been kind of an interesting day as far as qualifying with the rain. It wasn’t looking like we were going to get it in for a little bit, but overall we have some positive for sure.”
JUSTIN HALEY, No. 51 MotoRad Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We brought a good setup. We worked really hard on the Ford simulator this week and obviously it’s paying off a little bit. We were a little free in qualifying. I would like to have been just a tick tighter on the right rear, but, overall, a great day for everyone at Rick Ware Racing. It’s awesome to bring competitive cars that we can come up here and compete with, but it’s a long race tomorrow. We’ll see where it goes.”
HOW MUCH FUN IS IT WITH THIS TEAM AND THE PROGRESS YOU’RE MAKING? “It’s a blast and a complete 360 from where they were, but it’s all the same parts, pieces and people that they’ve always had. We’re just trying to point it in a different direction, bring some more process and meetings in place and go from there.”
