Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Kansas Qualifying | Saturday, May 14, 2022
Ford Qualifying Results:
4th – Austin Cindric
7th – Aric Almirola
10th – Ryan Blaney
12th – Chase Briscoe
16th – Cole Custer
23rd – Kevin Harvick
25th – Michael McDowell
26th – Harrison Burton
27th – JJ Yeley
29th – Cody Ware
30th – Brad Keselowski
31st – Todd Gilliland
32nd – BJ McLeod
34th – Joey Logano
35th – Chris Buescher
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Monster Ford Mustang – “It was pretty decent and fun to kind of follow the track around and see where grip goes. It’s kind of what makes this place unique, especially this part of the weekend. Tomorrow, we’ll definitely be wrapping the fence for sure. If we were doing it in qualifying, we’ll be doing it in the race. Obviously, I’m glad to have some speed in our Menards/Monster Ford Mustang. I want the pole, but it’s a good starting spot.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “This place is fun. I always enjoy coming to Kansas. It’s been a good track for me over the years. I’ve always run up front and qualified up front. I think we’re in good shape. I felt pretty good about our car in race trim. We needed a few tweaks on it, but we’ll see. I think the race is gonna be a lot different than what we had today in practice. It was hot and sunny and tomorrow it looks like it’s gonna be a lot cooler.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Wabash Ford Mustang – “It was nice to make it to the final round. I just didn’t quite have the speed that the other guys got. It was kind of tight in the first round and got too free in the second. Hopefully, we can find a middle ground.,”
Chris Buescher and Joey Logano both had left rear tires go down at different times during today’s practice session and did not make a qualifying attempt.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Castrol GTX Ford Mustang – “We just blew a left-rear. We’re not really sure of the cause yet. There’s a handful of us wondering what exactly, but the track here is pretty smooth. We were pretty good with our Castrol GTX Mustang and was just running laps and caught us off guard into one. Unfortunately, we’re gonna be going to a backup. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Everybody on our team did a really nice job ahead of time bringing a good race car. It looks fantastic. The backup is gonna look just as good and be just as good. I’m confident in that, but we’ve got a lot of work to do tonight.”
HOW MUCH OF A SETBACK IS THIS? “It’s not good. I think we’re in a position now where we’re not sitting here worried about if we have enough parts, not that we’re in a great spot there, but we’ve got a race car in the garage. It’s pretty close, so we just have to kind of tweak some of our stuff in. Brad and I, a lot of our interior stuff stays very similar, so it’s not gonna be a major undertaking. I think it could be for some teams. It’s a big project and it’s gonna be a long night for everybody.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Verizon Ford Mustang – HOW MUCH INDICATION DID YOU HAVE THAT SOMETHING WAS GOING WRONG? “Not enough. As soon as I turned down off into the corner I could feel it shaking and I knew it was bad, but it just swaps ends so fast when that left-rear blows out. We’ve seen that happen a few times today unfortunately, so it’s unfortunate for us. The old Verizon Mustang will have to come from the rear, but we’ll be all right and we’ll fight through it, I’m sure. I think we were pretty decent on lap times before that on the long haul at least, so if we keep the tires on it I guess we’ll be all right.”
PAUL WOLFE, Crew Chief, No. 22 Verizon Ford Mustang – ANY THOUGHTS ON WHAT IS CAUSING THIS ISSUE? “It’s just hard to tell. Obviously, we saw a lot of cars have issues in the first practice. I put a little air in it just trying to be conservative, but obviously maybe there’s something else in the setup. We’ll have to look at all that and see if we need to adjust for Sunday. It’s unfortunate. The guys brought a good car again after last week, but this is the ups and downs of the sport and all the guys will work hard today, tonight and whatever we’ve got to do and be ready for tomorrow.”
