Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Can-Am 500 Qualifying (ISM Raceway,
Avondale, AZ.)
Friday, November 9, 2018
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st
– Kevin Harvick
3rd
– Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4th
– Ryan Blaney
9th
– Joey Logano
11th
– Paul Menard
12th
– Brad Keselowski
14th
– Kurt Busch
16th
– Clint Bowyer
17th
– Matt Kenseth
18th
– Aric Almirola
23rd
– Michael McDowell
27th
– Matt DiBenedetto
31st
– David Ragan
39th
– Cody Ware
POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion –
“It’s been a good day for us. All we concentrated on was qualifying and obviously, we had some good adjustments to the car right there at the end and I was actually able to drive the car without screwing it up. It was definitely a good lap for us and came at a good time.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT ADJUSTMENTS YOU MADE?
“No.”
HOW DIFFERENT WAS IT WORKING WITH TONY GIBSON TODAY?
“Everything went smooth. I think as you guys are quickly figuring out it’s more about people than it is about cars, so we’ve got a lot of good people and obviously a lot of experience with Tony and those guys did a great job filling the roles. You can’t drive a slow car fast and you can’t beat good people.”
DO YOU TAKE SOLACE KNOWING YOU’RE AT ISM THIS WEEKEND WHERE YOU’VE HAD SO MUCH SUCCESS?
“No, I just deal with the facts. I know where we are. I know what our plan is and we don’t look
back.”
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT THE PENALTY THIS WEEK? “I just drive. That’s my job.”
DO YOU PERFORM BETTER WHEN YOUR BACK IS AGAINST THE WALL? DO YOU RISE TO THE OCCASION?
“I try to, but it’s been good for us to have challenges, so it’s fun.”
DO YOU REALLY MEAN IT’S FUN? WHAT MAKES YOU STEP UP IN TIMES LIKE THIS?
“Fast cars and good people.”
RODNEY STATED THE ISSUE AND FELT IT WAS AN INSIGNIFICANT TYPE OF ADVANTAGE. PEOPLE STILL SUGGEST THAT WAS A GREAT THING THAT HELPED YOU. IS IT FRUSTRATING OR BOTHERSOME THAT IF IT’S SOMETHING THAT MIGHT BE INSIGNIFICANT OR A MINOR THING THAT PEOPLE ARE NOT GIVING YOU GUYS AS MUCH CREDIT OR PEOPLE ARE LOOKING DOWN UPON YOU GUYS?
“Look I don’t need credit. I don’t care about credit. I don’t care what people think. I don’t build the cars. I couldn’t tell you what’s on the car. What’s good. What’s bad. That’s their job and I drive it. I show up and do the best that I can and obviously you’ve seen the statements and the things from Stewart-Haas Racing and the best thing that shows up are results on the race track. I drive and try to do the best that I can and we go from there.”
ONE OTHER THING IS JOEY LOGANO SAID HE’S THE FAVORITE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP. WHAT’S YOUR FEELING ON THAT?
“I’m just worried about Phoenix.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion –
DESCRIBE YOUR LAP ON THE TRACK.
“We were just off. The car had speed in practice, but the balance was just not quite right. I was definitely looking for a little more and then right there we were just still off in the balance. The times are so close and so tight that you’ve got to be so precise and my car just struggling to get the grip I need out of it to go make lap time there, so we’ll get ready for tomorrow. This is an interesting race. A lot can happen and we can still win coming from 18th.”
DID YOU GET INTO THE WALL ON YOUR LAP?
“I took a little bit of the decal off, that’s all.”
RACE TRIM TOMORROW WILL SET THE STAGE FOR SUNDAY, SO WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE REST OF THE WEEKEND?
“Today is important. You want to qualify up front and give yourself a good pit selection and good opportunity to control the race and start up front and do all the things you need to do to get track position and all those things, but we missed it. We just weren’t as good as we needed to be there, so we’ll have to drive from 18th and try and pass a lot of cars.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 PPG Ford Fusion –
“That’s not bad. We got better each round, which is good, so that was nice, but we just didn’t quite have the speed and obviously not pole speed, but it was good. We got faster each round and played around with a lot of stuff, so hopefully our car is better in race trim tomorrow. We’ll see.”
PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Menards/Cardell Ford Fusion –
“We just have been struggling on entry. It seems like as the grip comes up and you try to charge the corner a little bit harder I just got looser in, so the last round wasn’t our friend. I’m proud of our guys though. We have a decent starting spot and good pit selection and we’ll make a day out of it.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion –
“It was OK. I think we were like 15th in practice and we qualified ninth, so we got our car a little bit better. I was pretty good down in the one and two area, but in three and four I think I lost it all down there. This hasn’t been our strongest track the last couple of years, so I guess that’s a little progress. We’ll see how it is tomorrow in race trim.”
