Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Focused Health 250 | Atlanta Motor Speedway
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Ford Performance Unofficial Results:
13th – Lawless Alan
16th – Kyle Sieg
19th – Blaine Perkins
26th – Riley Herbst
31st – Cole Custer
32nd – Ryan Sieg
33rd – Morgen Baird
35th – Matt DiBenedetto
LAWLESS ALAN, No. 15 Deal Badger Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It feels really good to bounce back after Michigan to have a pretty solid run and be fast again. We would have finished top five or six, but the 8, when he was pushing me, just shipped me off into turn three. I was lucky to hang onto it at all, but we did decent in qualifying. It wasn’t what any of us really wanted, but we knew that we should be fast in the race. Sim time from Ford, these Roush Yates motors, AutoParkit, AM Racing, Ford, we were fast. I’m bummed, but considering the last five or six weeks this team has had it’s nice to bring it home.”
WHAT KIND OF CONFIDENCE BUILDER IS THIS FOR YOU IN YOUR SECOND NXS RACE? “It would have been a lot bigger confidence boost if I finished sixth, but it feels good. It helps reassure me that I know it’s there and it makes the trucks a little bit more fun. It makes everything a little bit more fun when your confidence is higher.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE RACES IN THE 15 THIS YEAR? “None planned at the moment, but hopefully, yes.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Autodesk/Haas Automation Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I haven’t heard was Justin said, but I think he just blew a right-front. Looking at the replay, I just tried to come down to side draft him and we just barely touched. I mean, it didn’t have any smoke or anything and it looked like me and it blew its right-front, I guess. I’ve never seen that light of contact blow a tire, but it’s just part of the racing. You’re trying to side draft as hard as you can. If you don’t, he’s gonna clear you the next corner, so it’s just tough racing and close racing and just part of it.”
WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE IF THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN? “I thought we definitely could have won. We were up there with the rest of them. It was really weird because everybody was trying to back up to try and get a push from the guy behind you, but nobody was actually pushing because everybody was just trying to back up, so it was interesting racing. I hate these speedways. We go to so many of them in the Xfinity Series now that it’s just a crapshoot if you get wrecked or not. We’re ready to go to Watkins Glen and I think we’ll be good.”
SO YOU WERE TRYING TO SIDE DRAFT EACH OTHER, OR WERE YOU SIDE DRAFTING HIM? “I think it’s both, but I think I was the one that came down a little bit, so, overall, you’re just trying to side draft to try and get the momentum going into the corner.”
RYAN SIEG, No. 39 Sci Aps Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “After being two laps down to come back and get on the lead lap and drive back inside the top 10, and just trying to make some moves and trying to do something with 20 to go. That’s still a pretty decent amount of laps, but you’ve got to get something going because you just kind of get stuck and stagnant riding. I tried to go to the bottom and do all we could do, but we brought a fast Sci Aps Ford. It just sucks to come out of here on the hook because we had a super fast car. We drove from the back to the front a couple times and it was just a tough day.”
ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE DONE IN THAT WRECK? “No. I checked up and I couldn’t check up enough for them in front of me. That’s about all I could do.”
WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH THE CAR EARLY ON THAT GOT YOU TWO LAPS DOWN? “Something with the ignition fell off inside the car. They put it back on and it was fine, but a mistake on our part. We’ve got to clean some of that up and rebound and get some points. We could have come out with some points, but now we’re still behind. We’ve got to figure out what happened.”
RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought we were OK. It wasn’t dominant, but I thought it was fast enough for a top five at least. It just felt good to get points again with my mistake from last week, but I just got ran over on a caution. Somebody didn’t listen to their spotter and made the most of it.”
