Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Pennzoil 400 | Saturday, March 4, 2023
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Joey Logano
3rd – Ryan Blaney
7th – Brad Keselowski
9th – Austin Cindric
14th – Kevin Harvick
17th – Michael McDowell
18th – Chris Buescher
20th – Chase Briscoe
21st – Aric Almirola
28th – Todd Gilliland
29th – JJ Yeley
30th – Cody Ware
31st – Ryan Preece
35th – Harrison Burton
Joey Logano, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang (Qualified 1st) – TELL US HOW THAT LAP WAS? “The car was wicked good. It really just handled well and obviously has really good speed which is what you hope for when you get here. You hope you make the right changes and adjustments from the fall when we were here last. Obviously, we were pretty good then but you have to keep evolving and trying things. It gets a little nerve-wracking when you try to make these changes that you are married to for the most part when practice starts. I think Paul (Wolfe) made some great changes there. Some good decisions. Gave me a really fast Pennzoil Mustang today that has good speed in it. Hopefully that transfers to the race tomorrow. I think it will. We have some fine-tuning to do in race trim which we will talk about tonight and try to make some adjustments tomorrow morning.”
AS QUALIFYING WAS PROGRESSING HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU THAT YOU WOULD SIT ON THE POLE? “Well, we felt like we had a pretty good first round but there are a lot of cars that went quicker in the second round as the track was still cleaning up from practice and the temp actually went down a little bit. I felt like I had a little bit more in me and if we could tune the car a little maybe there is a little more there and maybe a little more with the track temp going down. You add those things up in your mind and you think you will be pretty close. I had my mind made up when I went out there that I was going to keep it pinned and whatever happens, happens. That was the mindset and Paul gave me a car that could do that. It worked out.”
YOU HAD YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE WIND OUT THERE. WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING FOR TOMORROW AND HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THAT? “The wind is always a challenge every time we come here. It is always windy here and Texas seems like it is always windy too for whatever reason. The steady-state wind is tough enough as it is. If you get a 20 mph constant wind, you can kind of at least know what is coming but it does separate end to end quite a bit, one and two to three and four. It is the gusts that get you in trouble. When you get a big gust of wind as you are turning down into the corner, into the center of the corner, it just blows you up the race track. It is like if you get a big gust of wind when you are driving your car down the highway. Your car may move a little bit, but we are going really fast and it moves us a little more and it isn’t real comfortable. It gets sketchy. There is no other way of saying it other than you can’t predict it and don’t know when it is coming. One lap you are good and the next you are blowing up the race track. Where it gets tricky is if you are two-wide with somebody. You can imagine how that can go bad quickly. Usually it is down in the middle of three and four and it is blowing at your left side door. That is not where you want wind. It affects the cars a lot. There is not much we can do about it other than just deal with it and have a good enough handling car that you don’t crash when the wind blows.”
