Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Kobalt Tools 400 NSCS Post Race
Sunday, March 6, 2016
JOEY LOGANO & RYAN BLANEY POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
Joey Logano, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Fusion – TALK ABOUT YOUR PERFORMANCE OUT THERE TODAY. OBVIOUSLY IT WAS CHALLENGING WEATHER CONDITIONS THAT YOU RACED IN TODAY, BUT YOU PUT ON A HECK OF A SHOW. “I thought it was a great race out there. We ran really top two or three the whole race, so I was very proud of what our team was able to do all day. I never saw the leader really check out and go away, which was pretty cool to be able to do that, to be able to see some more racing, some passing for the win there at the end with Brad. It was cool to see him come from third. I think the package is awesome. I also think what we did at Team Penske, anytime you have one in Victory Lane, two of them sitting up here, which means it’s a good day. I’m proud of all of Team Penske of what we’ve done over the off‑season. This is one of the first tests to see where we stack up. Atlanta was a beast of its own last week. This is a mile‑and‑a‑half. This really shows where we stack up, so I’m proud of that. Man, we finished second so many times this year already, and this whole weekend we finished second. Second in every qualifying round, during qualifying, second in practice on Friday, second in the race. Just so close. I want to break through and get a trophy eventually. Still, nothing to hold our heads down about. It’s not easy to finish second. I want to break through and get a trophy.”
Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – RYAN, TALK ABOUT HOW THINGS WENT FOR YOU OUT THERE TODAY. “It was a good day for us. We started out okay. We progressively got better throughout the day. That’s really all you can ask for. We were really, really strong there with 30 laps on our tires. We could really start making a lot of ground. We lost so much ground the first 29 laps, we kind of break even by the time it was over. It was just a strong day. We didn’t quite have the balance right with two tires at the end. It was a little bit tighter than we needed to drive up through there. Overall a good day, a nice day to have after our disappointment last week in Atlanta. That was tough for us. Hopefully this is a good step in the right direction. But our team did a great job. Like Joey said, whenever you have pretty much three cars in the top six, that’s a really good day. I think our organization is stepping in the right direction, for sure.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — JOEY, WHO LOOKS THE BEST TO YOU RIGHT NOW AS FAR AS ORGANIZATION ON INTERMEDIATE TRACKS? “I thought we looked pretty good today. We finished 1‑2. I feel pretty good about my race car right now, where we’re at. You know, you see the typical guys are up there. The 4 led some laps, he was fast. The 48 was fast at times. The 21 and 18 obviously were fast at times. So no one’s really head and shoulders above everybody by no means. I thought the 48 was probably the second best car to Brad, I think. He was a really good car. I don’t think there’s one that’s head and shoulders above everyone. I feel like we’re definitely in the hunt of it for sure. But you see the typical guys up there, Stewart‑Haas, Hendrick and the Gibbs guys.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN THE CALL CAME TO STAY OUT AND EVERYBODY ELSE CAME IN FOR TIRES? “Well, a little bit of mass confusion actually. I’m not sure what we were supposed to do. I didn’t hear nothing. I said, I guess I’m staying out. I think it was a little bit of a surprise. I think we kind of got behind a little bit there. But it worked out to where it needed to be. I can play back the race a couple times in my mind and figure out a way to possibly win this thing with what we had. I think that call was the right call. It got us back up there. We had four tires on our car from the pit stop before, which put us back to sixth or seventh. When everyone pitted and put lefts or rights back on, we were on fairly equal tires, but we had our track position back, we were up there in the lead. I think the way we called the race was the right strategy, for sure.”
BRAD HADN’T WON SINCE CALIFORNIA LAST YEAR. YOU WON FIVE TIMES SINCE THEN. WHAT IS BRAD LIKE WHEN HIS TEAMMATE HAS WON FIVE TIMES AND HE HASN’T WON? “Brad’s a confident guy. I don’t know if you guys met him before (laughter). It’s hard for him to lose confidence. We won a lot of races last year. I don’t think it really took a toll on him. He was up there racing with us the whole time. Look at the way we finished in points, we were fifth and sixth in points or sixth and seventh. We weren’t good enough to win, so I don’t remember. I try to forget that part. We were really similar the whole year, but we were able to squeak out a few more wins. This is obviously a big weight off his shoulders, to be able to get that win. Like you said, it’s almost been a year. He’s been knocking on the door quite a few times with a fast car. Last year wasn’t because they didn’t have fast cars or weren’t working well together. They were doing everything right. It’s just circumstances have to go perfectly a lot of times to win these things.”
RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED — COULD YOU BOTH COMMENT ABOUT THE WEATHER. TO US IT SEEMED A LITTLE BIT STRANGE, WIND, RAIN, DUST. “It was pretty brutal at times. It was really gusty. That would be the biggest problem, if it was unpredictable. If it was a steady wind, it wasn’t so bad. You can get into a rhythm. I got blown into three one time pretty hard and almost took the 88 out. That would have been terrible. It was brutal. But our spotters, they did a great job of letting us know if it was picking up or what direction it was going to. They always do a great job with that. It was different today, dust and rain at times, definitely one I’ve never been a part of.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — “I guess that’s the wild, wild west, right? It was dusty, rainy, windy, crazy. It made for a great race. I was pretty worried about what the wind was going to do before the race started. We were up there in driver intros today, and it was really windy. You think the trailer is going to blow over when we’re standing on the top of that thing. We’re riding the back of the pickup truck, the rain is hitting your face like it’s going 100 miles an hour. I was a little nervous about what turn three the first time was going to look like when we got down there. I think the fact, like Blaney said, it was consistent, not gusting very much, it made it to where we all kind of knew what we had and could adjust to it. Definitely as the wind changed, it changes the balance of your car. There are times it got really windy, times it died off. It was changing the balance of our cars quite a bit.”
RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED — HOW SIGNIFICANT WAS TODAY’S PERFORMANCE FOR WOOD BROTHERS RACING? “Very significant. Especially after Atlanta last week, getting spun out on the last lap. Kind of got us down a lot. To come here and have a solid run all day really ups the spirits. This team is working very well together. We kind of had a trial run last year running part‑time. Now we brought in some new personnel this year. They’ve done a great job since Daytona. But just reps at the racetrack and consistency there, they’ve been doing a great job. Jeremy Bullins is doing a fantastic job also. Both our organizations are working side‑by‑side. It definitely showed today. It’s a big, big accomplishment for the Wood Brothers team today and hopefully gives us some good momentum for Phoenix.”
