Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Advance Auto Parts Clash – Daytona International Speedway
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Ford Finishing Order:
1st – Joey Logano
4th – Danica Patrick
5th – Kevin Harvick
6th – Brad Keselowski
17th – Kurt Busch
KURT BUSCH – No. 41 Monster Energy Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED? “I was just minding my own business in the low groove and we got tagged in the right-rear. It’s kind of a shame. All of the hard work and the effort everybody puts into the off-season – Doug Yates and his engines and everybody from Ford and everybody at Stewart-Haas – all of the effort put towards building a car and we didn’t even make it to the first pit stop, so it’s kind of a bummer.” CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW CLOSE IT IS OUT THERE AND WHEN THIS HAPPENS THERE ISN’T MUCH YOU CAN DO. “No, we’re all just kind of thrown into the draft and it’s tough. You’re gonna have to work out the bugs and some guys were loose, some guys were tight and that’s just the way it is. We just ended up on the wrong side of the coin.” YOU WERE THE FIRST ONE TO GO THROUGH THE NEW CONCUSSION PROTOCOL. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE PROCESS? “There was an individual that met me out by the car, rode with me in the ambulance and again met with the doctors and just went through different sequences to check all of the different vitals and we were released. It’s just a little bit of an upgrade. You can tell that they’ve made an effort and it’s nice to have that security.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “It’s cool to win the Clash. We came close last year and it’s really neat to be in Victory Lane and a good start to our day.” WHAT DID YOU SEE THE LAST LAP? “That was the play. The Toyotas are so selfless, I guess is the way to look at it. They are able to work together and think of one car of winning, and they’re really good at that. We had to think the same way as Ford and with Stewart-Haas and the Penske cars and we were able to get a good enough run to work together enough to break them up and make the passes and then there at the end was kind of a mess. Everything was going really fast. Everything was going on and I was just in the right place at the right time.”
KEVIN HARVICK – No. 4 Busch Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY? “The confidence is high just because a of how fast our Ford is today, so I think once we got the balance and have an idea now of where the balance needs to be we can get the handling right, but speed is not an issue.” YOU GOT FOUR TIRES AT THE END. HOW DID THAT WORK OUT FOR YOU? “It went really well. For us, we were very fortunate that the race wound up in the day, a lot like the 500 is going to be, just because we didn’t really know what we needed and where our balance was going to be, so we were really loose to start the first 25 laps and were able to get that fixed. Speed is not an issue. Circumstances just needed to work out a little bit differently, but, all in all, I’m excited for the week.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 SKF Ford Fusion – “It is the Clash, it’s not the 500 and I guarantee he knows and everyone else who is watching today that I’m gonna make that move again.” DOES IT LOOK LIKE JGR IS DOMINANT LIKE LAST YEAR? “No, we can beat them. They’re good. We can do it.” DID YOU HAVE ANY OPPORTUNITY TO GET OFF HIM AFTER CONTACT? “No, once you make contact the banking kind of wedges you two together. It’s unfortunate. I had to make the move. I know all the other drivers are back watching and they know not to make that block on me again.” YOU SAID YOU HAD THIS ONE, IT’S THE STORY OF MY LIFE HERE IT SEEMS. “I think I’ve been in position to win it three or four times – in second or third in like the last two laps and it kind of falls apart with something, but you’ve just got to keep knocking on the door.” DO YOU HAVE A GOOD CAR FOR NEXT WEEK? “Yeah. Last year, we ran really good in the Unlimited and we were terrible in the 500 and it was really disappointing to be honest. But this year I think we’ve learned a lot from that and have applied it and our car seems to be a lot better for the 500 than even for the Unlimited, so I’m excited about it. I’m ready to go.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE A PUPPETMASTER OUT THERE WHEN YOU CONTROL THE DRAFT? “Yeah, you’re definitely pulling all the strings, but that’s the game. That’s part of what the fun is. You have to be two moves ahead like a chess game.”
DANICA PATRICK – No. 10 Tax Act Ford Fusion – “If you’re gonna have one track where I’ve had good races, you kind of hope Daytona is one of them or maybe the one. It would be great to get a 500 win, but it’s great to run up front. We start off with the biggest race of the year.” DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE A STEP AHEAD WITH THIS RACE BEING IN THE DAY? “Yeah, I would agree with that. The way that the cars are handling in the heat of the day more. It’s a nice, sunny day. We’ve got plenty of humidity out there from all the rain, but it’s good practice for the 500, more so than it would have been if we would have run at night by all means.”
FORD WINS FIRST CLASH EVENT SINCE 2004 AS LOGANO TAKES CHECKERED FLAG
· Joey Logano became the sixth Ford driver to win the Advance Auto Parts Clash with his victory today at Daytona International Speedway.
· It marked the first time since Dale Jarrett in 2004 that Ford has won the Clash.
FORD’S CLASH AT DAYTONA WINNERS
1987 – Bill Elliott
1992 – Geoffrey Bodine
1996 – Dale Jarrett
1998 – Rusty Wallace
1999 – Mark Martin
2000 – Dale Jarrett
2004 – Dale Jarrett
2017 – Joey Logano
WINNER’S PRESS CONFERENCE
TODD GORDON, Crew Chief – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “It was pretty cool. I wondered what was gonna happen. We kind of tried to make a charge, but fell back. Obviously, you could see the Toyotas were trying to work together. It was good to get us and the 2 and the 4 kind of working together there and pushing back up through. It’s a matter of when runs happen and I thought we had a good run coming. The 2 made a pretty good move on the 11. He blocked him pretty hard and put us in a position to take advantage. A successful day. Good for the pit crews to get cycles on pit road. Good for everybody. A good way to kick off Speedweeks.”
MICHAEL NELSON, VP of Operations, Team Penske – “We’ve had a good Speedweeks and a good superspeedway group last year as well. I’m really thankful for Roush Yates Engines, the work those guys have put in in the off-season to try and keep us hopefully where we left off with some superspeedway wins, and the guys at Team Penske really worked hard. Yeah, I think you’ve seen a lot of Fords up front in practice yesterday and hopefully that translates this afternoon in qualifying.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED – COMPARED TO A POINTS RACE, HOW MUCH GAME PLANNING CAN YOU DO FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS? “I think game planning for this place, the biggest part, I think, is preparation in the off-season work, figuring out what our package needs to be handling-wise. This place is getting rougher and getting older, the asphalt is, so handling comes back into play. We learned that at the 500 last year. When we started the 500 after the two night races being the Unlimited and the 150s were both night races. I think the heat of the day and how much we needed to handle was lost on a few of us. We learned a lot in the 500 last year and worked pretty hard in the off-season to work on our mechanical balance. So credit to the team guys of putting in the effort to get our package better. It takes every facet to do this, but strategy-wise for today I think the first run when the caution came out you saw a seven-time champion spin out twice today, so that tells you the place needs to have some handling to it. But we saw that happen, so we took tires there at whatever it was, 52 I think it was. I wanted to be on fresh tires at the end to be able to make aggressive moves. When you let Joey have those situations, he’s gonna capitalize.”
DO YOU HAVE A PLAN TO BREAK UP THE TOYOTAS? “I think everybody saw it happen and once you see it happen you come up with a reaction and it kind of organizes the field. I think you saw it happen here in the 500 and I think the biggest thing they had at that point is they handled. They were disciplined and handled. I think as everybody has made their cars better, there’s more cars that will get organized and try to work against that strategy, but we’ve got to work with our teammates – One Ford. We’ve got some good cars that are in the group, that throughout the different teams within Ford that can work together. We’ll work with anybody. It’s about racing and how it works, so finding cars that you can work with, I think we’ll learn some of that tonight, we’ll work through that in the 150s and try to keep that from becoming a one-line situation. I think we can do that.”
PENSKE HAS WON THE LAST FOUR PLATE EVENTS. ARE YOU THE FAVORITE FOR THE 500? “That’s for you to decide. I’m gonna work on my race car and try to make it as fast as I can. We’ve worked pretty hard at it. I think programs continue to get better. I think Roush Yates does a phenomenal job from the motor side and the aero group continues to work on what we’ve got. We’ve got really good race car drivers and it takes the whole package, so we’ll continue to work forward and I hope we can have the success that we’ve had going forward.”
ARE GUYS GOING TO HAVE TO TRY TO SHOW RESTRAINT NEXT WEEK? “I think it drives the teams to start to think about the balance between handling and speed as a whole. I was really excited when it rained out last night, to be honest with you, because it gave us an opportunity today to race in the sun on a hotter race track and get more of a feel for what next week is, and it’s a data point. We’ll work forward from there. Maybe you’ll show a little bit of restraint, but we’ve got segments to win, so I don’t know how much restraint you’re really gonna see. I think it’ll be exciting.”
HAVE YOU STRATEGIZED WITH SHR TO TRY TO PUT TOGETHER A SIX-CAR PACK LIKE TOYOTA DID LAST YEAR? “I wouldn’t say we’re as tightly knit as that group is. I think there’s more support between the two of them. We’re two independent teams, but I think obviously they have good cars and they have good people. I can speak particularly for the 22 it seems like us and the 4 end up together a lot of these speedway races for a fair amount of it. I think Joey and Kevin drive very similarly. We’ve been around the 41 a fair amount. We’ll work with the guys that we can and those of us that have a common thread, I think understand it’s a good tune for everybody. We’ll work together as we can, but I wouldn’t say it’s the structured situation that the Furniture Row and JGR guys have.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED — LOOKING AT THE DUELS. WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY? “Last I checked Joey’s got one speed. We like to race forward. I think the best thing we can do is race forward and race for wins and race to the front. Obviously, if you get in a bad situation where you’re three-wide five rows back and you see stuff happening, Joey’s smart enough to back out and do what he’s got to do, but I would say our strategy to race is to race. There are 10 points out there and regular-season points are gonna make a difference at the end of 26 races. So I think everybody is gonna race as hard as they can in the right situations and I look for us to continue to do that.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “Today, you definitely had to change your strategy up as the race went. Normally, we start the Clash and start this race and, yes, we want to go out there and win, but it’s also a nice advantage to be out there as a race team to knock the rust off. Five laps into the race I made three mistakes already. I was definitely a little rusty from the last time I went superspeedway racing, and Tab and myself, my spotter, we were able to kind of clean up our mistakes for later on in the race, which was good. Our pit crew had some really good pit stops, so we got some really good reps in for them as well, and I also think this race being in the daytime is a huge advantage for everyone that was in it with the 500 being in the day as well. This track definitely changes a lot when the sun comes out and the draft really works completely different. To be able to get a good read on how that’s gonna be for next Sunday is gonna be nice, but, really towards the end of the race the caution came out there with 11 or 12 to go and the Gibbs cars were down there on the bottom. They are so committed to each other. They do such a good job of being able to stick together and basically be selfless. They’re able to say, ‘Hey, as long as one of us wins.’ That’s what it looks like they say. They don’t try to pass each other. They don’t try to make the block to do anything, they just stay committed. The only way we were going to beat them was to do the same and be better at it than they were, so Brad and myself and Kevin were able to kind of talk a little bit over the caution through our spotters and I said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be committed to each other and we’re just gonna figure it out as we go.’ Once we got in line we were able to what I call leapfrogging, you’re able to kind of grab one at a time. Brad was doing a good job of getting a run, getting outside of them, pull them back, and I was able to follow Brad through. Kevin was following me, and then there at the end I kind of got shuffled out and got stuck in the middle and lost some spots and was able to eventually get a good enough run to break free again, get back to Brad’s bumper, give him the run into turn one that was gonna either win the race or they were gonna crash, and the good thing is he had the run, he had to make the move. Denny had to make the block, but I was able to see the block was coming way too late and it wasn’t gonna work, so I immediately went to the top because I saw that they were gonna crash, and we were basically in the right place at the right time. We were able to drive our Shell/Pennzoil Ford into Victory Lane at the Clash. It was a pretty fun, eventful race. Fun to be able to change your strategy up and figure out a way to win throughout the race.”
YOU FELT STRONGLY THAT ONCE YOU GUYS GOT TOGETHER YOU COULD GET TO THE FRONT? “We would hope so. Usually, once we get to the point in the race that Brad and I are able to work together, a lot of the times we’re able to start picking our way through the field and be able to get ourselves in position to win. I think that and on top of having a few more Fords out there to help us and they are very fast Kevin’s car was good and he had four tires on and was able to handle really well and able to make the moves and push me when I needed to for the three of us to work together. That was what we had to do. One car alone was not going to win this race, didn’t have a shot just because the Gibbs cars and the Toyotas were way too committed to each other. It’s gonna take a lot more than one guy to beat them.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – DID THE MIDDLE LANE WORK BETTER TODAY THAN NORMAL? “The middle is usually not even a bad spot, it just depends on how you get to the middle. If you get put in the middle, it’s usually not a good sign. If you’re the one going to the middle, you can usually make some time up as long as the cars are in the right spot and you’re not getting pulled back from both sides. That’s when you see that it kind of gets really bad is when there is no one behind you and you have a car on your quarter panel on each side. That’s when you go backwards really quick, so I kind of got saved. I got shuffled to the middle, which isn’t a good thing at all, but the 24 was there to save me and kind of pushed me back up. That’s what saved us.”
WHAT’S YOUR REACTION TO WORKING WITH KEVIN NOW AS A FORD DRIVER? “Kevin and I, actually, we are friends now. We get along good, actually. Believe it or not, I know this is probably surprising to everybody in here, but there have been multiple times throughout the speedway racing that we’ve ended up working together. I even called him last year after we left here trying to figure out a way, after we left the 500 going to Talladega, how we can beat the Gibbs cars and I wanted to work with him. Before there weren’t many Fords out there, so I was trying to make as many friends as I can, and we were able to work really well together last year in speedway races. Yeah, obviously, we’ve had our differences because we both are hard racers. That’s what it’s gonna be. We both want to win really bad and we both do what we’ve got to do to win, so obviously we’re not gonna see eye-to-eye on some things in the past, but that’s in the past. I respect him as a race car driver. I believe he respects me as a race car driver and we have the same goals and kind of go through things the same way. I think with all of that being said, we were able to work really well together at the same time because we’re both gonna be aggressive to get to the front, and we both understand we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to win. I think that’s a good driver to work with on a speedway, and it’s not the first time we’ve worked together. That’s what I’m saying. Obviously, that alliance has gotten stronger with us having the same manufacturer now, but it wasn’t a surprise to me at all. It’s kind of the plan from the get-go.”
DID YOU EVER THINK YOU AND KEVIN WOULD LOOK BACK AND LAUGH AT AN INCIDENT LIKE POCONO? “Yeah, you’re supposed to forgive and forget, right? Isn’t that what the Lord tells us to do? It’s not easy to do, it’s not supposed to be, but we’ve moved on. That was 2009. Holy moly. We’re talking about 2009? We’re here in 2017 and we’re talking about 2009? Let’s move on a little bit. We’re in the future now. (laughing)
HOW MUCH HAS BRAD HELPED YOU ON THE PLATE TRACKS? “Quite a bit. I watch Brad a lot on what he does. I think he’s a really, really good speedway racer. I put him up there. I think there are five or six drivers that come to my mind, maybe seven, that are exceptional at speedway racing and Brad is up there at almost the top or maybe the top of the sheet for me to watch and just see the way he makes his moves. Him and Joey Meier, his spotter, do a good job of giving the information and he’s able to process it very quick and make methodical moves – kind of the way you think Brad would. When you talk to Brad you would think, ‘Hey, he’s probably really good at speedway racing.’ He thinks about a lot of things. He’s a thinker and he’s able to make decisions and commit to it. It’s funny. You can talk to certain drivers and tell when they’re gonna be good at speedway racing and he’s definitely one of them. So, yeah, I watch a lot of film and watch him on the race track a lot and see what he does, and then try to apply it. It’s nice to have a teammate that is really good at this type of stuff, and that you can work together and build off of each other. Hopefully, he can see some things in myself that’s good and we can help each other as a team and make Team Penske win more races.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — IS TODAY A PRECURSOR OF WHAT WE WILL SEE IN THE COMING WEEK? “I hope so. It’s a good start, that’s for sure, but we’ve seen how speedway races are – things can change so much. Like I said, the complexion of this race changed so much just through the last 10 laps of the race, so there’s no telling what’s gonna happen in a 500-mile race when you have 40 cars out there instead of 17 and at the end we had even less than that. The pack is gonna be a lot different. The draft will change up a lot. When the pack is small like that sometimes the runs become a lot bigger and drivers are more aggressive out there because there’s not as much lose. You don’t fall back to 40th, you only fall back to 15th, so drivers are willing to make the move. The whole draft is a lot different than what it will be next Sunday and even the Duels itself. It’s a matter of just kind of learning as you go and applying that as the race goes to get the best finish you can.”
DO YOU STILL LOOK AT VIDEO AND WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? “If it worked, we shouldn’t stop. Yeah, we keep doing that. We talk. We communicate. We build those relationships up. It’s important, so we constantly, as a driver I look for different things than what Todd looks for as a crew chief. We’re looking at things differently, so it’s more helpful to watch things with my spotter because he’s looking for the same things I’m looking for. We keep talking about things and watching things and going back to each other. We do that.”
DID YOU NOTICE IF THE NEW TOYOTA NOSE MADE THEM STRONGER THAN A YEAR AGO? “Well, they’re not slow. I know that. Those cars are really good, probably better. The thing that stuck out to me is that they can get to the back bumper of another car better than anybody. I don’t know if that has something to do with the shape of their nose or not. It could be. You would think so. It could be a million other reasons why, and I’m sure there are a bunch of little reasons that make them really fast, but they’re not any worse, I can tell you that.”
WILL DRIVERS HAVE TO BE MORE RESTRAINED NEXT WEEK? “Maybe for some. I’m not wired that way. I don’t know how to not go as hard as I can. I’ve got one gear. Todd laughs at me and makes fun of me all the time for it, but that’s it. If I’m in practice, I’m wide-open and I want to get to the front. If I’m five laps into the race, I want to be in the front of the pack. That’s where I believe that as a race team we’re best is if we stay aggressive. I think as soon as you get relaxed you get yourself in a bad spot and before you know it, you’re in a crash or whatever. I’d rather be the aggressor rather than someone pushing me around. I want to be the person that pushes other people around.”
DOES THE MOMENTUM OF THIS WIN ALONG WITH YOUR PRACTICE SPEED MAKE YOU CONFIDENT THAT YOU’LL BE BACK IN HERE WITH A POLE WIN? “I don’t know. I hope so. I’ve never as a race car driver been close to a pole at a superspeedway. Yesterday in practice it feels like, ‘Man, we’re closer than ever.’ It was kind of new territory for me. I don’t know how many people really show everything they’ve got in practice yesterday. There could be quite a bit of sandbagging going on, so we’ll see. I don’t know. I hope. This is the closest we’ve ever been, so we’re proud of that already. It’s a matter of everyone is gonna pick up quite a bit from practice and hopefully we pick up as much and, depending on how much everyone was laying back or not.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — LAST YEAR IN THE 500 YOU SAW SOME GUYS SPIN OUT ON THEIR OWN. DO YOU GET A SENSE THAT THIS IS AN ISSUE OR JUST A COINCIDENCE THAT THIS IS GOING ON? “I don’t drive their car, so I can’t tell you for sure. I know all of us start slipping and sliding after a few laps out there when it’s hot out. If it was last night, we probably wouldn’t be talking about any of that. The pack could be tighter and handling wouldn’t be an issue, but it gets to the point that handling is a pretty big deal here. Tires start to mean something, especially if you’re further back in the pack. When you’re up front, not a whole bunch, but when you get back in that dirty air tires seem to help a little bit. It’s no surprise. When you look at the Daytona 500 last year it’s the first time since they repaved this place that we were lifting getting into the corner and sliding up the race track and doing all of this crazy stuff. I thought that was really cool. I don’t drive their race car, so I don’t know. There’s always a balance of drive-ability and speed, and trying to make straight-line speed going down. There’s a balance to that. I don’t know where they’re at and what’s going on. I’d say their cars have speed and they don’t look like they handle too bad, but they might just be snappy or something. I don’t know. I don’t drive their car. I don’t know.”
