Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Hellmann’s 500 – Talladega Superspeedway
Sunday, October 23, 2016
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “We had a strong Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion all day. I could have made better decisions in lane selection there toward the end but you never know how that’s going to work out. It’s too bad Brad didn’t get to finish. We tried to give him as much help as we could there when he was leading.”
BRIAN SCOTT PRESS CONFERENCE – “It was just a solid day for the No. 44 Goody’s Ford. We had a team meeting before the race. We knew that we were going to have to be perfect. We were going to have to have no mistakes on pit road, gonna have to have a fast Ford, keep good track position all day and try to make friends throughout the race so they would work with us at the end, and our game plan was really just executed really well. The guys did a great job on pit road. We had a really solid car. Roush Yates Engines were amazing today and we were able to show our speed to a lot of the field, and when it came down to the finish or the restart there at the end, lucky enough to have Denny Hamlin and some guys work with us to give us an opportunity at the win.”
WHAT DOES THIS FINISH MEAN TO YOU FOR THIS YEAR AND NEXT? “A good finish always helps. It helps with the team, it helps with the guys at the shop – the morale – just trying to get any bit of a bright spot in this year has been difficult and I think that this is by far the brightest spot that we’ve had in a really challenging year for Richard Petty Motorsports. I guess the results and what this does for us going forward is yet to be determined, but I’m just proud. The guys have worked hard all year. They’ve deserved a lot better finishes than we’ve given them, and I’m just proud to deliver a good, solid top-5 – to do my job behind the wheel to give us a shot at the win, just have a good day for Richard Petty Motorsports.”
ARE YOU SURPRISED GUYS DIDN’T GANG UP ON YOU AND HANG YOU OUT? “I was thankful to have Denny. I don’t know if playing golf with him occasionally helps or not, but, yeah, that’s always a fear of mine. When you have a yellow sticker on your bumper normally people avoid you like the plague. They go elsewhere, and there was a lot of opportunities where I felt guys tried to do it, but I had a great spotter in Stevie Reeves and was able to block and do the right things to keep our Goody’s Ford with good track position towards the front. I don’t know, maybe because this is an elimination race it changed the way Denny raced at the end, but he gave me a great push and gave me an opportunity to get a run at the 22. I just probably didn’t do everything I was supposed to to get a strong enough run or back away from him as much as I could have, and just couldn’t get to his quarter panel, but it was exciting there at the end. Yes, I did feel like at any moment somebody was gonna try to hang me.”
TEAM PENSKE PRESS CONFERENCE
TODD GORDON, Crew Chief – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “We had a misstep on that first pit stop with the jack, but fortunately we got a chance to get back and get it cleared up. It wasn’t a damaged race car and the guys did a great job to cycle us out and got us to the lead there later on a pit stop cycle, and Joey did a great job driving forward. I’m proud of everybody at Team Penske and the race cars they put forward. Obviously, Brad had a lot of speed today and we had it there at the end when we needed it. I’m just proud of everything there.”
ROGER PENSKE, Owner – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “I think it was really Ford won today. The way the cars ran there was no question that Roush Yates gave us some strong motors. I think we had great cars. We’ve had them here the last few races, but the way the guys worked together. You saw many laps they ran one, two, three, just grinding down laps was kind of our plan. I see Gibbs had a plan in the back, we had a plan in the front because we knew we had to run up front in order to get ourselves in the next round, and it was really tough on Brad. I mean, he really had a good car and led 90 laps and was probably as dominating as I’ve ever seen anyone here. He could just drive right up to the front and I think the things that these crew chiefs passed together they were able to make a few changes on Joey’s and he came right up when it was time to go. As Todd said, it was a real team effort and certainly the guys back at the shop that put these cars together are amazing. The pit crews didn’t make any mistakes. No speeding on pit lane because you can see track position today was at a premium and I think I never saw our guys back probably more than four or five spots from the front. That made a difference when we got to the end.”
HOW DO YOU VIEW HAVING ONLY ONE CAR IN THE FINAL EIGHT WHILE OTHERS HAVE MORE? “They have more to lose than I do, I guess (laughing). They’ve got four (Gibbs). It’s gonna be tough as we get into the next round. We go to Texas. We certainly have Phoenix and Martinsville – three different tracks. We feel good about how we run there and you’re gonna have to execute. To me, every one that’s in this Chase from the standpoint – Truex was a real threat to everyone and the fact that he’s not in and Brad isn’t, you take a couple real guys that could win and I think that it’s a level playing field. We’ve got some Toyotas. We’ve got some Chevys and we’ve got a Ford, so we’re satisfied where we are and I think we need to get through what happened last year at Martinsville and get some good success there so we can move on, hopefully, to the next round.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED – IS IT DETRIMENTAL THAT YOU’RE THE LONE FORD LEFT? “I don’t think so. I think the great part about Team Penske is we really operate as one team with multiple cars and the effort is no less because it’s one and not two. I think when you watch, if you looked at last year once Brad got bumped out last year they came back and were on a tear, so there’s no let down in Paul and Brad and the whole Miller Lite team. They’ll focus forward on making speed, which will challenge us and help us build a better notebook. Actually, I think in ways it’s not a negative and may be a positive because we’re that much more open to each other. It was a tough weekend to come here because we were both out of the top 8 and we both needed something to be successful and we kind of knew what it was and we worked together, but going forward it’s all about just wins and success. The whole team will continue the path that they’ve been on.”
ROGER PENSKE CONTINUED – HOW DID YOU START TODAY? THINKING ONLY ONE WOULD GO THROUGH OR A WAY TO GET BOTH THROUGH? “Obviously, when you looked at the statistics it was gonna be difficult to get two. Something had to happen to Truex and it happened early. If Brad would have won and Joey would have finished up second or third I think we would have gotten both cars in, but you never know. We just had to race. The one thing that we sat around the table and talked about the race weekend and we said, ‘We’ve got to race every single lap,’ and I think we showed you that that’s what we did. We didn’t hang back. We ran every single lap. As far as thinking about one car, the good news is you don’t have four people that you’re trying to work with as you go into the Chase. We can put all of our efforts on one car and Joey and of course Brad is one of the biggest supporters of Joey, so I think this will pay dividends for us.”
DID YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH THE FINAL FEW LAPS? “It’s like we do every time we’re in the lead with only a few laps to go and anything can happen. I certainly didn’t like to see Bowman shooting down across the start-finish line there, but, look, Harvick, we owe him a huge vote of thanks – Joey does – for the big shove and certainly Scott on the restart before because it got us out in front and once we got in front they didn’t really have any speed to catch us. I thought it was gonna probably be more of a jumbled-up mess than it was. I think it was pretty calm when you think about those two restarts.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED – “To build off of that I’ll even go back to the two restarts earlier. Ryan Blaney did a great job of giving us a push and helping us to secure the lead again. He did a great job and it was kind like one Ford and helping the whole cause and understanding what he could do to help. I think he and Brian Scott did a great job and Kevin worked with us through a long run of keeping guys with discipline that we could get ourselves out there.”
