Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Pocono 400 (Pocono Raceway; Long Pond, PA)
Sunday, June 3, 2018
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
4th Kevin Harvick
5th Brad Keselowski
6th Ryan Blaney
7th Aric Almirola
9th Joey Logano
11th Paul Menard
13th Matt Kenseth
14th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16th David Ragan
19th Kurt Busch
20th Clint Bowyer
21st Michael McDowell
26th Cole Custer
37th Matt DiBenedetto
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Fusion – (Finished 6th)
“It was a really hard day. We didn’t start out very good and worked on it really hard. I thought we were about a fourth or fifth place car and we were running fifth there when the caution came out. That jumbled everyone up and we came in and put two on it and my car didn’t really drive that good on two tires. We ended up sixth. I thought we were better than a couple cars that finished in front of us. We worked on it pretty hard all day and to make gains like we did through the day is a positive.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Fusion – (Finished 4th)
“We just lost our track position of being in the lead and lost control of the race. That is what did us in there. We restarted second and then third and lost a spot on each restart as you start on the inside. Our Busch Ford was really fast and the guys did a really great job. When you are racing the 18 and 78 you are splitting hairs and they were just better than us on pit road today.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – (Finished 9th)
“We just didn’t get the gas tank full on the first stop and ended up running out of gas and then we had to pit while the pits were closed and went down a lap and then there just weren’t any cautions to get the lap back. Once we did it was just too late. We finished ninth and at least we got back up there some but I feel like we should have finished top-five with the car we had. We just shot ourselves in the foot a little bit today.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion – (Finished 7th)
“Man, this is a really challenging place and I have run so bad here for six years. I just came here with an open mind and told myself I was going to study up and pay attention to what all three of my teammates did and try to learn and try to improve every practice. Qualifying we had whatever snafu we had with that set of tires and it got us set way behind starting 34th but the guys brought me an incredible race car. I finally figured this place out I feel like. I think the car has a lot to do with it but I started changing some things that I was doing and really picked up a lot. I am really proud of everybody. Another top-10.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 6 Ford Fusion – (Finished 13th)
“It was a struggle all day for us. I felt like we got fortunate at the end with some pit strategy by Matt (Puccia) and some cautions that got us back in position to finish 13th but we didn’t run that well. I feel like we made a small amount of headway today but we still have a bunch of work to do.”
RICKY STENHOUSE Jr., No. 17 Little Hug Fruit Barrels Ford Fusion – (Finished 14th)
“Overall it was a tough weekend. We couldn’t really get a balance on our car. We were loose throughout all the practices and then really tight in the race. We managed to finish a lot better than we ran, which is good, but we have to get the balance better and we struggled with speed all weekend. Never had speed and never had a handle on it, so we have a lot of work to do before we come back.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 MDS Transport Ford Fusion – (Finished 16th)
“I felt like we ran really good the first stage and got off a little on adjustments but the team got the car driving better and a few timely cautions got us back on the lead lap. It was fun to race at the end and we probably finished a few spots higher than we should have finished but it was nice to finish on the lead lap and be close to a top-15.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford Fusion – (Finished 21st)
“That was a long day. I don’t think anything worked, track bar motor, cool box, fire under the dash, got spun out on pit road and pitted the car backwards. A top-20 would have been nice. We got passed at the line there by the 14 but we will just keep plugging away.”
