Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 – Chicagoland Speedway
NXS POST RACE
Saturday, September 17, 2016
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
7th Joey Logano
20th Darrell Wallace Jr.
24th BJ McLeod
32nd Ryan Reed
33rd Travis Kvapil
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – Finished 7th
“That was probably the best we were going to finish, seventh. We just struggled today. I don’t know. We were kind of weak in every department today. We were just slow. It is all we can do to qualify ninth and all we can do to run there as well. That is not what we do, so we need to figure it out. I honestly don’t know what to say about it. We have some work to do to get it better, but I am confident we will.”
RYAN REED, No. 16 Lilly Diabetes/ADA Ford Mustang – Finished 32nd – 10th Seed in XFINITY Chase
YOU HAD A SHORT DAY, AN ALTERCATION WITH THE 42, WHAT DID HAPPEN BETWEEN YOU AND KYLE LARSON? “He never said he didn’t turn into me but I think I gave him a lane up there. He said I got into him off of 4 and I was just trying to side draft him. I never really hit him. I think he had a tire going down and needed a caution and we were in the right spot at the right time. We will put that behind us and focus on the Chase and we are going in as the 10-seed. We would like to be better than that. We feel we need to bring better race cars to the track. We are in the Chase though, the first ever XFINITY Series Chase. You need to be a part of that to have a good note on your season. I think if we go in there and we are smart and at least get in the second round – I know we have some new race cars coming for the Chase with aero improvement. The boys at the Roush Fenway shop aren’t going to stop. We will try to go get it done.”
WHEN YOU SAY BE SMART, HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE RACING SMART IN THE CHASE? “Well, not what I did today. Looking at what I did today, I gave him the lane. If you are in the Chase and know you are racing for points you probably just back off and give him the spot. I know I slid up in to Kyle but I also put myself in position where if he was tired of racing me he could do what he did. I can’t put myself in that situation. He isn’t racing for a championship here. He is racing for a championship on Sunday. I have to remember that and be smart. Thankfully I learned that lesson this weekend, not next weekend. We need fast race cars though or it will be short lived.”
ASSESS YOUR CHASE CHANCES? “We have to be faster. I think you can be smart and be consistent for so long and I think ultimately you can find yourself in Homestead in the final group by being smart and consistent but you don’t want to do it like that. You want to know you have the outright speed. Today we had an 11th place car and we would have liked that finish but the boys know what we had. The confidence is still high but at the same time we have to get better if we are going to continue down the road in the Chase.”
(ACCIDENT QUOTES)
“I thought it was tight racing. Looking back I should have just lifted down out of there. He was on my door pretty tight and got me aero tight coming out of two there. He probably could have given me the spot and was probably upset he had gotten into the wall earlier and was sliding backwards and didn’t want to give me the room. I understand his frustration but it sucks that we tore up a race car on lap 100. It felt like we almost had him clear there and he just came up the wall and tagged me and just kind of had enough. It is part of the deal. We will move on to Kentucky. We have the Chase to focus on. I will watch the end of this race on my XFINITY X1 app and see if there is something I can learn before Kentucky. I think we still have some good momentum headed into the Chase. We are locked in. Thankfully we are locked in. It could have been much worse.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR., No. 6 TMNT Shredder Ford Mustang – Finished 20th – 6th Seed in XFINITY Chase
“That run was nothing to be proud about. I don’t know. It doesn’t give us much hope for the Chase which is frustrating. I am trying to be the team leader here but I am the one driving this thing and it is a handful from the time we hit the track. We will have to have a long debrief on Tuesday to figure out what we are going to take to Kentucky because we can’t keep bringing the same stuff. It is pretty pathetic to run 17th-18th where we were running back there with the back markers. We will see what the outcome is. We will go to Kentucky and hope for the best.”
HAS YOUR CHASE OPTIMISM CHANGED AFTER TODAY’S RACE? “Absolutely. We finished fifth at Kentucky and struggled there in practice, ran second at Dover when the car didn’t drive very great but we were able to capitalize on some restarts and never give up. It seems if we can keep a good head on our shoulders and never give up we can salvage a decent finish. That seems the only way we can get good finishes.”
DOES THIS NEW FORMAT HELP YOU, HURT YOU, OR IS IT INDIFFERENT? “I am just treating it as another race. It is a long shot for us. I look at Kentucky and then I get to go to my favorite track, Dover, and have some fun. That is how I am looking at it.”
