FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR NOTES AND QUOTES
Date: Friday Oct. 20, 2017
Event: Hollywood Casino 400 (MENCS QUALIFYING)
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Kansas Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
2nd Kevin Harvick
3rd Ryan Blaney
10th Clint Bowyer
11th Brad Keselowski
16th Kurt Busch
18th Joey Logano
23rd Danica Patrick
25th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26th Aric Almirola
28th David Ragan
29th Trevor Bayne
31st Matt DiBenedetto
32nd Landon Cassill
KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion) — Qualified 2nd
A GOOD ROUND 3 FOR YOU: “For the most part is was three sketchy laps. The first time out it was really loose and tight on one end. It was really windy on one end. It was hard to keep up with the car but I did a good job adapting to the first run. I got through 1 and 2 okay and as I got into 3 the front end washed out and then the back stepped out and got up a lane. Still a good run considering what was on the line for pit stall selection.”
FRONTROW STARTING SPOT FOR SUNDAY. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SUNDAY? “I think every time that we come here it feels good based on the fact that we’ve run so well here and qualified well and today the same result. Obviously, you always want to qualify first but I knowing everything on the line for pit stall selection for this week and next week is definitely a good day. We can definitely race from there. I think we hopefully have a car that can be capable of staying up there and hopefully having a chance to win the race at the end. It’s a good start to the weekend. That’s half the battle when you’re trying to collect stage points in the first stage and get pit stall selection and try and gain all the advantages that you can on Friday and that’s something that our team did a good job at this year. I feel like our cars are a lot faster from the beginning of the year on the mile-and-a-half race tracks and we’re on the game. It’s been a fun few weeks.”
RYAN BLANEY (No. 21 Omnicraft Auto Parts Ford Fusion) — Qualified 3rd
YOU IMPROVED ROUND TO ROUND. WAS IT MORE ADJUSTMENTS OR DIFFERENT RACING LINES? “”It was adjustments. We got better for each round. I was kind of free the first one and got better. The second round I thought we were pretty good. We just lacked a little speed. We picked up a little more in the last round but we actually got a little tight there. It’s not a bad place to start. We can see the front from there. Hopefully we’ll be able to work on our race car tomorrow and get it good for Sunday.
HOW KEY IS IT TO START UP FRONT, ESPECIALLY DURING THE PLAYOFFS? “It’s huge, obviously. The stage points are what got us to this point at Talladega. Hopefully we can do the same within the stages here and be able to lock ourselves in. Qualifying is not only big for pit selection here but for Martinsville as well. We’re going to pick third there. That just helps for the races.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion) – Qualified 11th
WALK ME THROUGH YOUR QUALIFYING RUN: “We had a good round two in the Miller Lite Ford Fusion. Not a really good Round 1 or 3 and I’m not sure why. We’ll have to look at the video and see what happened. It’s part of how it goes. We’ll have to get better tomorrow for Sunday.”
RICKY STENHOUSE (No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion) – Qualified 25th
WALK US THROUGH YOUR QUALIFYING LAP: “In practice we were a little loose. We made some adjustments and made our Fastenal Ford a little bit better. We were really fighting two things; 3 and 4 I was a little two tight; 1 and 2 I was a little too loose and just didn’t have enough grip in our car to get the job done for what we did earlier here this year when we qualified fourth. We’ll go back to work tomorrow. We know a few things that we have to do different to get us more like we were here in the spring. Man, the times were so tight right there that I thought we were able to get in but we picked up only a little and not enough.”
