Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Hollywood Casino 400 (Kansas Speedway)
Sunday, October 21, 2018
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
(bold italic indicates driver advancing in playoffs)
6th Brad Keselowski
7th Ryan Blaney
8th Joey Logano
10th Aric Almirola
12th Kevin Harvick
13th Clint Bowyer
18th Kurt Busch
19th David Ragan
20th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
23rd Matt DiBenedetto
27th Michael Mcdowell
30th Trevor Bayne
32nd Paul Menard
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Wrangler Riggs Workwear Ford Fusion – YOU HIT THE WALL EARLY, HOW MUCH DID THAT IMPACT YOUR DAY? “Obviously it was a mistake I made trying to work hard to catch those guys and I pushed too hard and got in the fence. It is all my fault. Whether it would have worked out for us or not, I don’t know. I don’t think we had the speed the 9 or 4 had. The 9 was super fast. I don’t know. I messed up and cost us a shot. I want to thank Wrangler and Menards and Ford for doing what they do. The whole 12 team deserves better than that. That was unfortunate on my part.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “I will take it, another top-10 finish today. Really proud of my team. We had another fast Ford and the guys did a good job too. Now we advance on to the next round and at this point I just feel like we have nothing to lose almost. I feel like we are playing with house money. We are relaxed and looking forward to these next three weeks, they should be fun for us.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion – “Today wasn’t great from my standpoint. Our Busch Lite Ford was really fast and leading the race there and I got a speeding penalty. That was my fault. I tried to get a little too much and wound up going too fast. We will take it one week at a time. We have had fast cars and whether it is speeding on pit road or flat tires or valve stems or fuel, we haven’t put together a full day except for Richmond. HOpefully we have gotten all that out of our system and we can go to Martinsville and start off good.”
YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NEXT ROUND: “Well, I think Texas is the one that I have circled. I think our car, having won that race last year and should have won there earlier this year finishing second. We just have to be patient and go and race one week at a time.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Fusion – “I would say about the end of that first stage it was pretty obvious that we needed something after I saw some things on the other cars. We needed something to step up but it just wasn’t there. We just weren’t as good today as we were yesterday and I am not sure why. Everyone else seemed to find a little from practice and we were about the same, maybe a little worse than we were in practice.I am proud of what we did down the stretch of the year. We won three races and did all that. I feel like we can go win Martinsville next week so I am excited about that but of course the ultimate goal is to win a championship and we won’t have an opportunity to do that this year.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “We did a great job this round with two top-fives and a top-10. A stage win here today and we finished third in the other stage. We were scoring points which is good enough to get you through these rounds but I feel like this next round we are going to have to get a win to get through. Maybe they will have enough issues that you can build up enough points but I think we need to win. It was a solid weekend with the pole and stage win, I am proud of that, we just have to focus hard on getting more.”
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Fusion – YOUR THOUGHTS ON ADVANCING TO THE NEXT ROUND: “I am really happy. It is exciting for us. It is our goal to win the championship. We are an elite eight team when we started Daytona and here we are, we did it. It was a rough day in the pits and on the track but we had enough points from the Roval and our stage races. It was a rough day and we need to put it quickly behind us. We are back on even ground. We are in the top-8 and Martinsville is the path to the championship down in Homestead.”
YOU’VE BEEN GOOD THERE BEFORE: “Yeah, we have to nail it. We have to qualify well, execute well and have lady luck on our side. We are looking forward to it. This is what we have built up to all year with our Fords. Thanks to Monster and thanks to Haas we are right there.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Dekalb Ford Fusion – “It was enough, barely. We were lucky really. It was ugly. I wanted to be better than that. I don’t know. I don’t know what I am missing here. It isn’t my guys. They are giving me good cars. They are fast. I just can’t figure out how to get around this damn place. I definitely have to be better than that. I knew this was going to be the one and we were lucky enough to get through Talladega and get some points going into this with a little bit of insurance and I am damn glad we did.”
“For whatever reason Kansas isn’t my best track. I am way more comfortable on the short tracks. Going to Martinsville for this next round. If I can put together Martinsville and Phoenix like I am capable of and run Texas like we are capable of, I think we can be in Homestead. Now it is getting down to the nitty-gritty. Now it is eight good teams. There are 16 good teams but there are eight damn good teams. All eight of these teams have found victory lane and things like that. Now you are starting to pick up the pace or go home.”
