Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Night Race Qualifying | Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, September 20, 2024
Ford Qualifying Results:
5th – Chase Briscoe
14th – Ryan Preece
16th – Noah Gragson
17th – Chris Buescher
18th – Michael McDowell
20th – Joey Logano
22nd – Ryan Blaney
23rd – Brad Keselowski
24th – Todd Gilliland
25th – Josh Berry
26th – Justin Haley
27th – Austin Cindric
34th – Harrison Burton
36th – Kaz Grala
37th – Josh Bilicki
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s a good start to our weekend for sure with our Rush Truck Centers Ford. I feel like our Dark Horse is pretty good. I don’t know what to think if we go to the top. I felt a lot better about my car on the bottom and, honestly, I thought we would qualify a touch better than that as crazy as that seems. Overall, that’s what we needed to do. We had to put ourselves in contention to start up front and have the ability to try and score some stage points. It’s gonna be tough. It’s gonna be an uphill battle because all the guys we’re racing with qualified right around there, too. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re gonna have to race around those guys all night. As long as we do that, we have a little bit of a cushion to lose one or two spots to them throughout the race. I feel good about it right now, we just need to execute tomorrow.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING TO ACCOMPLISH AT AM RACING NEXT YEAR? “I definitely would love to go there and win races. I haven’t gotten to talk to Cole much about his experience. I do know Cole well and like Cole, but just haven’t had a chance. I’ve been really focused on the Cup side right now and obviously the goal in my career is to get back to Cup and try and win races in Cup. I was really fortunate to win one this year, so I’ll try and go down to the Xfinity Series and win more races and earn my way back and just see how it goes.”
DO YOU FEEL THIS WILL BE MORE OF A LEARNING EXPERIENCE TO GET BETTER? “It’s a privilege to drive a race car in NASCAR in any of the top three series, so obviously it’s not what I wanted to happen. I didn’t want to lose my job, but what I did do was learn a lot from this experience. I feel like I’m a better race car driver than when I was in Xfinity and AM Racing has confidence in me that I can help them turn their program around and get it to where it needs to be as well. They have shown the want to do that and get better and are willing to put the work in to do that. I think with both of us having that same mindset, I don’t see why there’s any reason we can’t. I’m excited to get that rolling when we do, but as for now I’m just focused on today.”
HAVE YOU TALKED WITH THE TEAM YET AND WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN OUT OF THEM THIS YEAR? “I think what they have right now is they have a decent foundation of the alliance with the Haas Factory Team. That’s really gonna help them next year. They have the equipment and now it’s just about putting the small details together and showing up prepared. What I’ve been very fortunate to do in my career is being with a lot of really good race teams. I’ve got a lot of experience, whether its my late model team with my dad or trucks or Xfinity or Cup teams and what works, what doesn’t work, and I can kind of bring that to those guys and someone that’s had a lot of experience for my young age and hopefully help them get their program where it belongs and I think we can do that relatively quickly.”
WHAT WAS THE TIMELINE LIKE FOR YOU SIGNING WITH THEM? “It was pretty recently that I signed my deal. It wasn’t like I had this deal signed and was sitting on it. I’d been talking with them. They expressed interest in me as a driver early on, as soon as my announcement came out that I wouldn’t return to the Wood Brothers they expressed interest and have kind of shown me the will and want to improve and get better and do things the right way. As time went along, I felt like that was the best opportunity for me to help them build their program and in doing that help rebuild myself and my confidence and try to win races in the Xfinity Series.”
