Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Daytona 500 Advance – Daytona International Speedway
Friday, February 19, 2016
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion, was the fastest Ford in today’s second practice session at Daytona International Speedway. Blaney, who was sixth overall, drafted with Joey Logano and Trevor Bayne for 10 laps before calling it a day.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – NOT A BAD DAY’S WORK – 10 LAPS ON THE TRACK AT OVER 190 MILES PER HOUR. “Everyone swaps over to their race engines today pretty much. That’s what we did, so we wanted to go out there for 10 laps just to make sure there were no leaks and everything runs smoothly. We got enough data for the engine guys to look at and make sure everything is OK, so that was just a test run on our race motor. We’re not going to run tomorrow, so all we have to do now is get ready and make sure everything is ready to go for the 500.”
DID YOU GUYS HAVE SOME SORT OF PLAN OUT THERE OR WAS IT JUST FOLLOW THE LEADER AND LOG THE 10 LAPS? “It was kind of follow the leader. Joey led for five laps and then I led for five laps just to kind of see everything. You get behind just to see your cowl pressure and stuff like that, but you can’t really tell anything about your car in a small three-car pack.”
HOW MUCH DOES DEALING WITH ADVERSITY LIKE YOU DID ON THURSDAY HELP YOU FOR SUNDAY? “It helps. Last night didn’t start out very good, but it ended well and that was a big statement of how our team reacted to the situation and how we handled it and how we were able to come back and get a good finish out of it. That speaks a lot for this team. They did a great job in recovering and it definitely gives us a lot of motivation for Sunday.”
THERE IS A LOT EXPECTED FROM THE ROOKIE CLASS THIS YEAR AND ON SUNDAY. WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE PART OF THAT GROUP? “I think it’s a good rookie class, to be honest with you. With Chase and Chris Buescher and Brian Scott and Jeffrey Earnhardt I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun this year. I’ve had the pleasure of running with those guys a lot, whether it was the Trucks or XFINITY Series. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s cool to see all of us have rides on Sunday. It can be a big start of the year, for sure. It’s definitely been big so far with Chase being on the pole. That was a big story and then us running well in the Duel. It’s important to get your season started off on the right foot. If we can do something really great on Sunday and have a good run, I think that’s just really gonna propel us into the rest of the season.”
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE TREVOR BAYNE WIN HERE, KNOWING THAT’S PART OF THE HISTORY OF THIS TEAM? “I hear it all the time. I’ve heard it 20 times already and I’ll probably hear it 30 more times before the race. It’s just a cool moment for this team back in 2011 with Trevor doing that. It kind of opened a bunch of eyes for younger kids. I remember watching that. I was still in late models at the time and that kind of gives the younger generation hope that a rookie can go into the biggest race of the year and win it. It not only gives a lot of hope for the drivers, but for the fans to kind of pull for the underdog too. That’s what’s great about this race is an underdog can win. We’ve got a good race car and you never know what can happen.”
DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING AS FAR AS WHAT POSITION YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE IN GOING INTO THE FINAL LAP? “You can always be in a better spot. It seems like the leader has a huge advantage nowadays with the way these cars draft. The leader can block a lot of lanes and be able to stall out runs, but the way we lined up on the last lap Thursday night with Dale, Joey and myself, I felt like Joey was in a perfect position. If we had a couple more laps to try to plan something, I felt like we could have made something happen. You’ll usually see it. There will be two, three or four cars single file by the end of the race and then two or three-wide behind them, and those three or four cars behind the leader – if they’re single-file – they have a chance to make a run at him if they work together. You never know. You obviously want to be in the first three or four rows just to have a chance to break out and try to make a run at the leader. If you’re the leader, you’re on defense. If you’re behind him, you’re trying to get a run at him. It’s kind of hard to choose what spot you’re in, it really just depends what you’re most comfortable with.”
