Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Date: Saturday, April 8, 2017
Event: Bariatric Solutions 300 (NXS Post Race)
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Location: Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
2nd Ryan Blaney
3rd Kevin Harvick
5th Cole Custer
6th Darrell Wallace Jr.
11th Ryan Reed
34th Joey Logano
38th Casey Mears
DARRELL WALLACE JR. (No. 6 Leidos Ford Mustang) – Finished 6th
“We were on the free side pretty much every race and I haven’t had enough to lean on to run with those fast guys up there for most of the year. We had some good calls and good strategy today. The 42 got into us there in entry. Just a racing deal. I was a little pissed off at first but you have to remember there are rookies out here and I am still learning myself. What a blast out here today. Texas is tough now. Giving up that bottom groove is like pulling teeth. I really fought hard there and did look with about nine laps to go where I was and got it mixed up between us and the 9 and we were sixth. Unreal. Shout out to my guys. My pit crew was on it all day and all year. They put us in the game there on the green-flag stop. I saw we came out a couple spots ahead of the guys we were behind and I knew it would be a good day. Thanks to Leidos and Ford and Jack Roush, we are making gains.”
RYAN REED (No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang) – Finished 11th
“It was a decent day for us. A little disappointing because we ran inside the top-five for so much of it. We just missed it there a little on the setup. That last adjustment I was a little too free and we got it too tight and we just missed it a little bit. We are bringing speed to the race track. Everyone knows we are here and contending so once we start closing things out we will be good. We are in the Playoffs already so we can try things and be patient. We are growing and learning and keep knocking down top-10 and top-five’s and look for another win.”
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 41 Hunt Brothers Ford Mustang) – Finished 3rd
“I thought our day was really good when the car wasn’t beat up like it was at the end. We had better speed. We were okay after the crash but for the second time out and six weeks in and everything that we have going on, putting both cars in the top-five is a huge day for us. Everybody is doing a good job. We know we have some areas to work on to be better. Hopefully we can continue to do that and come back to Charlotte.”
BIG ADVANTAGE FOR YOU TOMORROW? “I think you got to be a part of watching the groove widen out and it never really came in anywhere off the bottom. Restarts got better, you just don’t to be on the top.”
COLE CUSTER (No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang) – Finished 5th
“We had an awesome Haas Automation Mustang, we just had to bide our time. We kept getting stuck on the outside on the restarts and had to wait and wait until we got track position on the bottom. We had a really strong run. I can’t thank everybody enough who made this happen. I feel like I am getting more and more comfortable as I get experience and used to racing everybody. We are making strides, both me and the team.”
JOEY LOGANO (No. 12 PPG Ford Mustang) — Retired early with engine issue
“I think we dropped a valve or something like that. We lost a cylinder. It is just a matter of time before it was going to make a big explosion and wreck our race car. This car doesn’t race for points so it is win or nothing for us. It is unfortunate because we were running third and really good on the long run. We weren’t good on the short run and we lost a lot of time there. I was hoping for a caution at the end and a good pit stop to put us in position to win. Things happen sometimes. It is part of racing. As long as it is today, not tomorrow.”
DO YOU FEEL RUNNING TODAY GAVE YOU GOOD INSIGHT FOR TOMORROW? “Yeah, it is pretty hard out there. The track is getting a little wider but is still very narrow in three and four. You can kind of go two-wide in one and two but three and four is really tough. Everyone is trying to put it on each others door to stay in the lane without going too high into the marbles or whatever you want to call it up there. When you pin the guy on the bottom so tight you end up just making the guy on the inside loose which causes crashes. I am hoping for a caution for my buddy Blaney here to try to win this thing.”
RYAN BLANEY (RUNNER-UP) and COLE CUSTER (TOP FINISHING ROOKIE)
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
RYAN BLANEY – “I thought our car was pretty good all day. The 20 seemed to be a little better than us for 35 or 40 laps. Then I feel like we could start running him down. We passed him before the last pit stop and I thought our car was pretty decent right there. I needed to turn a little better early in a run. I knew it wasn’t going to be that long for the next stint. We didn’t come out with the lead and that hurt us. I think if we would have come out with the lead I don’t know if I could have held him off. He was pretty good right away but we kind of over adjusted and got too free that last run. I felt like we were kind of even with them 10 laps into a run but then he got so far out ahead that we couldn’t run him down. Just couldn’t get there. I thought it was a solid weekend overall for the 22 group. I felt the way the car has been running on that side is promising. It has been second a lot this year and that team deserves a win. They have been working hard the past six months to get competitive again and be in position to win races. We just need to have one go our way.”
DID THE FACT THAT HE PITTED A LAP EARLY AND GOT TO RUN FOR ONE EXTRA LAP MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN TERMS OF YOUR ABILITY TO CATCH HIM? “It might have. You see that a lot with short-pitting. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it bites you and a caution comes out and it doesn’t go well for you. I saw him short-pit. That might have played a little bit into it. He was pretty far ahead of us before we even got off turn two. I am not really sure that half of lap or lap really made a huge difference but it definitely was a little bit. It might have. I think he might have been ahead of us even if we pit the same because I think our stop was a little slow. We will put that in the bank for next time.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT YOU CARRY OVER TOMORROW? “There was a lot. The track changed a lot in the second half of the race. The beginning of the race was treacherous at the top. I think me and Erik fell back to eighth and ninth from 2nd and 4th just trying not to go anywhere and wreck. I feel like that came in a little to where it wasn’t as deadly up there from passing lap cars. You get stuck behind a lap car and you can’t pass them for a lap or so and that part was tough. They don’t want to leave the line and get in the dust either so you have to kind of wait and just time it right. Personally I learned a lot for tomorrow’s race. I think it will be very helpful. I was really thankful to run this race to get some laps. That part was good. We have a meeting here in a bit so I will have some comments for that.”
COLE CUSTER (No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang) – WHAT KIND OF MOMENTUM WILL THIS GIVE YOU GOING FORWARD? “I think it will be really important for us. We had pretty solid cars the last couple weeks and even at Atlanta we had a good car just haven’t gotten the finishes. We haven’t done that. It was me making mistakes and just having random things happen. If we can keep these solid runs going we will work our way back up there in the points. I feel like we can do this. We have had fast cars the last couple of weeks. We will just keep plugging away at it.”
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE DURING THE RACE? HOW MUCH WOULD YOU EXPECT IT TO CHANGE TOMORROW? “I thought it changed a lot about halfway through. We had a long green-flag run there and it really rubbers up a lot and doesn’t give us time to pick up any rubber under caution. That made it pretty slick I thought. I thought you could run up maybe half a lane in three and four and it wouldn’t be too bad. One and two were still bad off of turn two if you got off the bottom lane you were in big trouble. I think it will change a lot more tomorrow with the Cup cars backing down and forced to move around. With a little more motor we have to find different ways to get off the corner. I learned a bit today we can apply tomorrow to make it work.”
COLE CUSTER CONTINUED – “Yeah, it rubbered up halfway through the race and then you kind of had to back it down mostly in one and two just to try to keep it on the bottom and hug the line. That seemed like it was pretty good. Three and four you could run about a half car width up and be pretty good but it will probably keep widening out tomorrow.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE RUNNING WITH THE CUP GUYS OUT THERE? “You definitely learn a lot from them. You just want to push yourself more. I have known we had pretty fast cars and could compete with them so I wasn’t overly shocked that we were up there but it was definitely a really good run that we needed with what has happened over the last couple of weeks.”
