Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Enjoy Illinois 300 | Sunday, June 4, 2023
Ford Finishing Results:
3rd – Joey Logano
6th – Ryan Blaney
9th – Michael McDowell
10th – Kevin Harvick
12th – Chris Buescher
13th – Austin Cindric
15th – Todd Gilliland
17th – Ryan Preece
19th – Aric Almirola
23rd – Harrison Burton
24th – JJ Yeley
28th – Brad Keselowski
29th – Gray Gaulding
34th – Chase Briscoe
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang (Finished 3rd) – “I’m proud of the fight. We were mediocre – just outside the top-five all day long. There was a group of cars that were a tick better than us. Then we executed at the end and beat a few of them. We tried some new things from last year, and we learned some lessons. But overall: Good. We needed a solid run. We’ve been going through hell here lately. So, it’s nice to get a top-five, third place, and some points there in each stage. Good day.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford Mustang (Finished 6th) – “Yeah, we ran pretty good today. Won the second stage which was good, second in the first stage. Just kind of lost track position, lost the lead. Through a couple stops and restarts, we could just never really get it back. I thought that the No. 8, No. 11 and I were similar. It was just a matter of who was out front. I just got a bad restart at the end and fell to sixth. But overall, it wasn’t a bad day. It was a good points day too, and we’ll keep going.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 FR8Auctions.com Ford Mustang (Finished 9th) – YOU STAYED ON A TWO-TIRE PIT STRATEGY THROUGHOUT THE RACE. DID YOU FEEL LIKE THAT STRATEGY WORKED AT THE END? “We kind of learned last year that track position is super important. Taking two tires was an option last year, so we knew it’d be one this year. We did it early on and got track position, but we got spun out. So, went all the way to the back and then we put four on, and then you’re just buried back there. So, we had to go for it again, put two on and just left two on. We never took four again. There were a lot of laps on the left-side tires, but track position was super important. We had a great FR8 Auctions Ford Mustang, so I knew we could kind of hold our ground. Those last few cautions kind of hurt us a bit, but still came away with a Top-10. So, it was a good day.”
FOUR CARS FELL VICTIM TO BROKEN BRAKE ROTORS THROUGHOUT THE RACE. WAS THAT EVER A CONCERN? “I don’t know exactly what happened to the other cars. Obviously, there were a lot of brake rotor failures, and I didn’t have any issues braking wise. But, this place you have really hard braking and really strong straightaways. So, you’re heating and cooling, and a lot of times that creates fractures – and those cracks sometimes explode. I think that’s what you saw today. I don’t know. I’m not an engineer. But, typically too much tape on the grill will get them hot and then too cold. We had a pretty good balance on brakes – never had any shake. So, there wasn’t any issues or concerns.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang (Finished 12th) – “That was a long day – long race. There were a lot of cautions and red flags. It really started yesterday. I was in a little bit of a hole after qualifying, and I just didn’t do a good job. I had to dig out of that today. We had pretty good speed in our Fastenal Ford Mustang. I was pretty happy with it, and at times, had to move around the track quite a bit. I figured out Gateway really quickly. Not being able to run here last year, I felt a little behind getting going. Definitely found something there at the end. Honestly wish it was a 600-mile race because I felt like we could have kept getting better.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang (Finished 13th) – “Yeah, definitely frustrating having a speeding penalty…I’m a little frustrated with myself with that. You think something at the end of Stage 1 isn’t going to affect your race, but it just put us behind. We tried a bunch of strategy calls to get our Freightliner Ford Mustang up there. Had some good restarts at the end and made the most of it, I feel like. Those restarts got really scrappy. Proud of the team effort, proud of the recovery. Definitely a lot to clean up on my end to maximize what I thought was a Top-10 race car.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang (Finished 17th) – “That was a really long day. I fought a tight race car all day long and every time we came down pit road, my guys made really strong adjustments. It just wasn’t enough to get us to the front and stay there. There were so many cautions there at the end, I was just trying to save the car. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible day for us after qualifying 29th. The fans were out in full force today, too, that was awesome to see. We’ve just got to keep grinding for better finishes.”
