Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Zippo 200 / I Love New York 355 – Watkins Glen International
NASCAR Xfinity Series Post Race
Saturday, August 5, 2017
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
2nd Joey Logano
3rd Brad Keselowski
6th Kevin Harvick
12th Cole Custer
15th Ryan Reed
25th Casey Mears
JOEY LOGANO, No. 12 Snap-On Ford Mustang (Finished 2nd) — “It’s fun. Dang, I wish it was for the win and not for second. I had such a good short run car, just in the wrong position to start that last run. I feel like if I was second I could have won the race. I just had a really good short run car. Our long run speed was off a bit and that’s when the 18 and 22 would drive by us and we were a third-place car on the long run but probably a winning car on the short run. By time I cleared the 22 the 18 was gone. If we had another four or five laps (he would have drove off again). I needed a caution”
WAS TODAY A GOOD CONFIDENCE BUILDER FOR TOMORROW? “Of course. Anytime you can run these things and race up there for the win and stuff like that it feels like the old days again. It’s a nice little confidence builder for me, for our pit crew, for everybody to be up there. I’ve got a good car for tomorrow that we can do something similar with. Just a good day overall to keep the momentum going.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 22 REV/Fleetwood Ford Mustang (Finished 3rd) — WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED OUT THERE? “Probably a little bit everywhere. The Toyota’s had the Fords and Chevy’s out-classed so bad on horsepower and downforce that they can spin out on their own and still win the race. That just goes to show you how big a difference there is. I gave it all I had. Joey and I were racing for best in class and he did a good job. It was a heck of a race there at the end.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 41 FIELDS Ford Mustang (Finished 6th) — “It was an eventful day for sure. We were just way, way, way too loose to start the day. We were able to get it better but restarts weren’t better for us. The longer we ran the better we were. We were just lacking a lot of rear grip out there today and that was our undoing.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang (Finished 12th) — “We started out loose and got tighter as the run went but when we were by ourselves we passed a lot of cars and had top-5 lap times. We just got set back a little there. We were going to have a pretty good day but had a terrible restart there at the end. That was one of my worst ones, probably ever. That is what cost us the most. The very end at that restart.”
JOEY LOGANO & BRAD KESELOWSKI POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCES
JOEY LOGANO, No. 12 Snap-On Ford Mustang — “We were a third place car on the long run and maybe a first place car for the first two laps of every run. It just depended on what type of race we had. We had some issues on pit road with a lugnut getting stuck behind a wheel and lost a lot of track position. Once we got to third I went into cruise control to save my stuff and hope for a late-race restart and boom, we had one. I thought it was my chance but just couldn’t accelerate as good as Kyle (Busch) and wasn’t able to stay with him. Brad (Keselowski) and I had a fun battle to the end. By the time I got by Brad the 18 was just too far in front of me. It was a little too late. Maybe one more restart and one of those green-white-checkered things would have been nice. Overall, to start on the pole and be the runner-up doesn’t always feel good but we did learn some things for tomorrow.”
BRAD KESELOWSKi, No. 22 REV/Fleetwood Ford Mustang — “It was an interesting day. For us to get the first stage win and a bonus point for the owners points and playoffs was good. Just kind of threw all I had at it and the Toyota’s were just way faster than everybody. It was all I could do to just try to keep up. I was pretty happy. We might not have won the race but we were racing for first in class there with Joey and that was fun. All in all a fun day here at Watkins Glen. I enjoy running this race. I really like this track. Wish we could have won it but I don’t think that was possible with the discrepancy in cars.”
WITH THE CUTS IN THE NUMBER OF RACES GOING FORWARD DO YOU ENVISION YOURSELF DOING THIS RACE NEXT YEAR BECAUSE IT IS A ROAD COURSE RACE? —
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — “I hope so. I think it is up in the air after the news came down this last week. I don’t really know what is going to happen and what races we will pick. We will have to be a little more picky about the races we choose to run because we don’t have that many we can run.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED — “I don’t know. I might just go run some local tracks next year where people want me to run.”
IT DIDN’T HAPPEN TODAY BUT CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE MID-SEASON CHANGE TO THE OVERTIME RULE? “I didn’t have any input but I don’t feel bad about it. I think it is a decent rule. There is nothing that will make everyone happy and we will go through the balancing act of having this set of rules and inevitable we will have a race where we have eight green-white-checkers maybe a year or five years from now and then the team owners will get upset and we will go backwards a little bit. The tug and pull and ebb and flow of automobile racing. That is where the ebbs and flows are now and it isn’t really worth a lot of energy to fight it. I don’t think there is a perfect solution.”
