Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
DAV 200 Honoring America’s Veterans – Phoenix International Raceway
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Ford Finishing Results:
2nd – Brad Keselowski
8th – Darrell Wallace Jr.
9th – Elliott Sadler
13th – Chris Buescher
18th – Dakoda Armstrong
23rd – Ryan Reed
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED FOR THE 54 TODAY? “A lot more of everything, but we had a great effort. We had a great day on pit road. The guys on the pit crew did a great job there. We gained spots, so that was really cool and real fun, but we just needed a lot more speed to run with the 54. Either way, it was a pretty solid day.”
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 AdvoCare Ford Mustang – HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR DAY? “That’s not a good day, it’s an OK day. The team worked really hard to get this AdvoCare Mustang fast and we were good for a short run, but after that it just went away in a hurry. It’s just tough. We never really run good here at Phoenix. I thought this was the best car we’ve had and it probably was overall, but something about this place doesn’t work for us very well. On the points side of things, this was a good day. We’ll be able to go into Homestead and if we pretty much stay out of trouble be able to wrap this thing up.”
DO YOU FEEL IF YOU DON’T MAKE A MISTAKE OR HAVE A MECHANICAL FAILURE YOU’RE GOOD AT HOMESTEAD? “Yeah. In the grand scheme of things we need to go to Homestead and we need to have a good day and do what we did there last year – just run around and stay out of trouble, run fifth – that would be just fine. When you look at the averages and points gained versus our needed position to finish our window is getting bigger as we go through these last four races, so that makes me feel good as we go to Homestead. Even though they gained some points, honestly, unless something crazy happens at Homestead it’s just not gonna be enough.”
IS 13TH GOOD BECAUSE THE OTHER GUYS DIDN’T HAVE GREAT DAYS? “That’s not good enough. We’ve got to get better here. For whatever reason these flat tracks the last couple of years have been really hard on us over at Roush. We changed everything in practice and even from the spring race here the amount of things that are the same on our race cars you can probably count on one hand. It’s very minimal, so we just have to figure out what we need to get around this place.”
EXCITED OR RELIEF? “Relief that this race track is over. I think you look at this place as being a game changer when you look back in history. It’s a place that leads to issues real easily and leads to accidents on the race track really easily and we avoided all of that.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 EcoBoost Ford Mustang – “We actually were able to race a car that we practiced, instead of the last two weeks. The last two weeks were backup cars, but, overall, this was a better run for us here at Phoenix. After that first round of practice we were bad and we made some big swings at it there in the second round and I felt like we were about a ninth-place car all weekend. We qualified 10th and the fastest we got in one of those three qualifying rounds was ninth, so I think we bettered that. We finished eighth, so I can’t thank Ford enough for giving me a great car and for my team for preparing it the way they did. We’re learning on these things and we’re growing together, so Homestead should be fun for us.”
