Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Coke Zero 400 – Daytona International Speedway
NXS Post Race Quotes
Friday, July 1, 2016
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st Aric Almirola
4th Joey Logano
6th Ryan Reed
20th Bubba Wallace
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 98 Fresh from Florida Ford Mustang – Finished 1st
“I was an emotional last few laps. I thought I had a shot to win but wasn’t sure I would get it done. I got a big push from the 7 and then he pulled out and the 18 came and gave me a good push. I am really thankful for that. It is a huge night for me to get back to victory lane in the XFINITY Seires. I didn’t feel like I truly won in the XFINITY Series before but tonight was my night. Now I can truly say I have truly won in every series in NASCAR.”
YOU SAY YOU DIDN’T FEEL LIKE YOU HAD WON IN THE SERIES BUT YOU STARTED THE WIN AT MILWAUKEE THAT DENNY HAMLIN GOT IN AND WENT ON TO WIN, SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU TO TAKE IT FROM GREEN FLAG TO CHECKERED FLAG? “It is huge. What a night. I thought we had a good car all night. The car was running good. We had a good Mustang as soon as we got off the truck. It is the same Mustang we ran good with at Daytona in February. I am proud of all these guys. They gave me an awesome opportunity to drive this car for fun on certain weekends and I love it. It is so much fun, no pressure. I just get to go out and do my thing.”
WHAT WAS THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR CREW WHEN THAT ACCIDENT HAPPENED AND THE CAUTION CAME OUT? DID YOU KNOW YOU HAD WON? “No, I didn’t know. When my spotter told me that they were wrecking behind me I was ahead of the 7 and I knew it. Then he started to get a run on me and he was saying there was still no caution and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I kept side drafting just in case they were going to throw the caution because I wanted to make sure I was ahead of him. They threw it and I felt like we were door to door and didn’t know who would be called the winner.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – Finished 4th
“We had such a fast Discount Tire Ford and it just goes to show with how many laps we led. Toward the end of the race we just made a bad call. Went to the top to block and the bottom was coming with momentum and I didn’t get there in time and we got shuffled down the middle and lost 10 or 15 spots. We recovered to finish third. We will take it. I am happy for Aric and glad a Ford won after all that. We worked really well together so it is cool to see someone you worked with win the race but I would much rather have this Ford in victory lane. Lesson learned.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THE OVERTIME WAS LIKE? “You knew it was going to be a mess. You pretty much know you aren’t going to make it back to the start-finish line. Everyone just takes all thought out of it and just goes for whatever is in front of them and just hits them. You know there is going to be a crash it is just how it happens. I am glad we survived through it and had a decent finish but it feels like we should have won.”
RYAN REED, No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang – Finished 6th
“That was honestly not our best speedway car at all but our best finish here since the win. Congrats to Aric for getting Ford another win here at Daytona. That is really cool. Big shout out to Lily Diabetes for sticking with us. This is a nice momentum builder. It felt like we had a decent run at Iowa with the 11th and coming here to finish 6th makes it a couple decent weeks. We are getting momentum rolling as we go to the summer stretch and we just hope we can keep it going.”
ARIC ALMIROLA RACE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE
JON HANSON, crew chief, No. 98 Ford Mustang
“We had a decent car all day and Aric hung in the top-five most of the day. We got behind at the start but were in the right place at the right time and the cautions fell for us and we had a good day.”
FRED BIAGI, owner, No. 98 Ford Mustang
“It feels good. It was a great race. All the guys on the team did a great job. Aric is tough as a bulldog and hung in there for us and it feels really good.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 98 Fresh From Florida Ford Mustang
“It is huge. I have touched on it all night. In 2007 I was credited with a win but never felt like I deserved that. Tonight I do. I drove that Fresh from Ford Mustang and have so much fun driving it. I get to just go have fun. That is the key. Fred is a great owner and cares about having fun, running good and not tearing his stuff up. Jon Hanson and the guys bring great cars. We don’t have all the resources but what we do have they do a tremendous job. I felt really good about this race tonight. I felt really good in practice and qualifying and knew we could run up front but had to stay hidden in the draft. We couldn’t pull out front and lead. But I knew I had a good enough car that if we got in the right position we would have a car to contend for a win.”
CAN THIS KICK START YOUR SEASON? “It is certainly not bad to win, so yeah. I think any time you get to victory lane is special. It is really good. With the season we have had on the Cup side it has been a struggle. I have been practically beating my head against the wall and my wife has been hiding every sharp object in the house from me. To come to Daytona, a place that is really special for me besides just driving a race car here. I have a lot of childhood memories of coming here on vacation and to have this opportunity to race here is really special. This place has been really good to me over the years. Coming here this weekend I felt like of any weekends to run my season around this would be the one. Hopefully we can carry the momentum from tonight over to tomorrow and get our season rolling on the Cup side.”
FRED BIAGI CONTINUED – THIS CAN PUT YOU IN THE OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP HUNT. HOW DOES THAT CHANGE THINGS? “I think we will just keep doing the same thing we have been doing. We have had some good finishes and we will just keep going the way we are going. We have loved having Aric in the car and don’t mind putting the young guys in there once in a while to see how they do. We will just keep doing what we are doing.”
ARIC ALMIROLA CONTINUED – “That is the really cool thing about Fred. Fred, Bill and Laurie do this for the enjoyment of it. You don’t find many owners like that. They just love to race and they come here out of the genuine passion for racing and race cars and they don’t get caught up in trying to outspend everybody and do all those things. They take all the resources they have and pool them together and put really good race cars on the track when they do go race. That is what I love about racing for them.”
IT WAS ABOUT A FIVE MINUTE WAIT TO SEE WHO WON. “It felt like about two and a half days.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE OUT THERE WHILE YOU WERE PARKED WAITING? “I was just trying to keep my emotions in check. I was ready to be really, really excited or really, really mad. I was waiting to figure out which one I was going to be. That is a really odd feeling to be honest. I felt like when the wreck initially happened that I was clearly ahead of the 7. His left front was maybe at my door. My spotter yelled that they were wrecking behind and he side drafted even with me. I thought they should have thrown the caution. If they weren’t going to let us race back to the finish they should have thrown it immediately. That is typically what they do. I was surprised they let us race longer, knowing they weren’t going to let us come back to the start-finish. I figured if they weren’t going to throw the caution when the wreck initially happened that we would be able to race back to the start-finish line. I knew at any moment the caution could come out though so I was doing everything I could to pull the 7 back. I got back to his left rear and pulled him back and the 18 came and gave me a pretty good push to get me wheel-to-wheel back with the 7 about the time the caution came out. When my spotter yelled ‘caution’, I knew we were wheel to wheel and that it was going to be really, really close. Of course I felt like I was ahead. In my mind I wanted to say I was ahead but I knew it was really close.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL KNOWING YOU HAVE NOW REALLY WON A RACE IN ALL THREE TOP SERIES’ OF NASCAR? “I feel really good. I feel blessed. The Good Lord has been really good to me and given me a lot of opportunities from the beginning., I have been beat up and almost kicked out of the sport, so to speak, from losing rides and opportunities and have been fortunate to have other opportunities come along the way. I have been very fortunate to do that. Tonight, I really consider myself a winner in all three series and for me that puts me on a pretty elite group of drivers that have been able to win in the Truck, XFINITY and Cup Series’. I am really proud of that. As a kid growing up racing go karts in Florida and dreaming about what it would be like to drive a stock car one day and then winning late model races around Florida and wondering if I would ever get a chance to go big time racing and to be here today and say I have won in all three of the NASCAR national series is pretty spectacular.”
DO YOU HAVE THE TROPHY FROM THE MILWAUKEE RACE? “I have nothing. I didn’t take anything from it. I didn’t take them money. I didn’t take the trophy. I didn’t take any pictures in victory lane. I left before the race was over. That was not my race to win. I started the race, I qualified on the pole, I led however many laps at the start of the race when they called me down pit road but I was not in the car when it crossed the start-finish line. Denny Hamlin won that race. When they called me at the shop that week to tell me how thankful they were and Joe (Gibbs) and JD (Gibbs) gave me the trophy, I took it over to the Busch shop and gave it to Dave Rodgers. I felt he deserved it. He made the car good enough for me to qualify on pole and lead all those laps and then Denny to get in and win the race. Dave has that trophy I think.”
