Ford Performance MENCS Notes and Quotes
Federated Auto Parts 400 – Richmond Raceway
Friday, September 8, 2017
Cup Qualifying
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
3rd Kurt Busch
6th Kevin Harvick
8th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12th Joey Logano
13th Clint Bowyer
14th Ryan Blaney
15th Brad Keselowski
18th Trevor Bayne
19th Danica Patrick
23rd Aric Almirola
25th Matt DiBenedetto
28th David Ragan
30th Landon Cassill
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion (Qualified 3rd)
“I thought we hit it pretty close in all three rounds. In practice we were a little loose and then made adjustments for qualifying. We ended up a little snug in all three runs. I ran a 90 and then that 08 popped in there. I was hoping to run another 90, that would have been good enough for pole. It is good to say the word pole on a qualifying day. We were close with our Ford and we will keep chipping away at it.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 6th)
“We didn’t spend a lot of time in qualifying trim today with our Jimmy John’s Ford. We wanted to make sure we ran a lot of laps in the second session to know where the car was going to go so we knew what to work on tonight. We did our qualifying run in the first session and it wasn’t very good. They made it a tremendous amount better form the first practice session to the second. It wasn’t a pole but it is a good starting spot for us. We can race from there.”
“I think with the position we are in compared to the performance of the Toyota’s, I think we have to be really smart with how we race. It will be a good night to practice that. Dot every I, cross every T, not make mistakes. Those are the things we will have to do every week to get ourselves where we need to be to get to Homestead. That is our mindset right now and that is the way we want to race. Those cars are the best cars. I feel like we are close to them here but I don’t know what is going to happen from lap 30 to 90. That is where they beat us up really bad last week at Darlington. We have to concentrate on being very thorough with everything we do because that is how we will have to race the next 10 weeks.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil/Red Cross Ford Fusion (Qualified 12th)
“We just had too much fall off. The first run was almost the fastest car, within a couple hundredths and then the next run we were a tenth-and-a-half off and then next run three-tenths off. Too much fall off from run to run. I don’t know that I completely understand why but that is where we will start so it doesn’t much matter now.”
DO YOU HAVE THE PIECE YOU NEED FOR TOMORROW? “I am cautiously optimistic. I think we are okay. Our long run speed looked to be okay. I don’t think we are lights-out fast but I think we are close enough that we can certainly make it interesting on everyone.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion (Qualified 13th)
“My damn teammate got me. That wasn’t very nice of him at all. We were just really loose that lap. The Rush Truck Centers Ford has been good all day long. We ran some long runs and have done a little bit of everything today. Had a 30-minute penalty, so I was in jail for a little today. We had that going for us. This is a fun race track. Here is the craziest thing about this. You pick up a half second in qualifying versus what we had in practice. It places a toll on the engineers and crew chiefs trying to decide on the setup and how much to adjust for those conditions. We were a little off with ours but I am really happy with our car in the long run and I think that is what you get paid for anyway.
