Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Truck Series
CRC Brakleen 150 | Saturday, July 22, 2023
Ford Finishing Results:
6th – Ty Majeski
9th – Ben Rhodes
13th – Hailie Deegan
14th – Matt Crafton
23rd – Cory Roper
24th – Stephen Mallozzi
26th – Josh Reaume
34th – Zane Smith
TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Farm Paint/Curb Records Ford F-150 – “Not bad. We obviously got set behind a little bit in qualifying, but thought we did a good job of getting track position. It wasn’t a high stage point day, but we salvaged a pretty good finish. After a little bit of a rough stretch in May and June, we’re starting to get our season turned around. We had a really good race at Mid-Ohio and had a chance to win, and then came back from an unfortunate circumstance with Ben and finished seventh, and then sixth here today from starting in the back. Now we start a stretch of really good racetracks for us. I’m excited for this last regular season race and then the playoffs.”
YOU CLINCHED A PLAYOFF SPOT TODAY. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? “It feels good. We felt like we were in good position all season from a points perspective. We just weren’t getting the results. We’ve had the speed all season, but just haven’t put the races together. Whether it’s wreck or mechanical failures we’ve just had a tough last six or seven races, so it feels good to get seventh last week and sixth this week. We can build on this going to the playoffs.”
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Kubota Ford F-150 – “I feel like we had a truck that was capable of maybe finishing a spot or two higher, but in the scheme of things I’ll take ninth. It was an exciting day at Pocono. It always is. This track breeds so much excitement and cautions and drama on the restarts. It’s so hard to pass and you get such big runs here that you’ve got to take them, but be smart. The name of the game today was keeping this 99 Kubota F-150 up front and in one piece. Thankfully, I had really good pit stops today. My pit crew has been awesome all year. We kind of joked on the radio that they were carrying us today and they did a fantastic job. All in all, everybody works really hard and I’m proud of the effort. If a ninth-place is our bad day, I know we’re gonna have a strong finish to this season.”
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Ideal Door/Menards Ford F-150 – “We made lemonade out of today because we were just off and I didn’t help at all today by being impatient. The truck would handle good through the corners and then I would be too impatient and I would pull out and try to get inside of somebody and no one would go with me. It’s become plate racing. At the end of the day, it’s just all like plate racing because if you don’t have a line that will go with you, you’re just done. Zane was the dominant truck for a while and he got back there and couldn’t go anywhere.”
HAILIE DEEGAN, No. 13 Ford Performance/KittyKatCoin Ford F-150 – “It was hard from the start because we got a lot of damage on the front end on the initial green. One of the trucks in front of me locked it up and we all just kind of piled in, so I knew we had heavy damage on the front. It wasn’t enough to really hurt anything, but just enough to hurt the body and kind of kill our straightaway speed, so I looked super slow on the straightaway. I felt slow and felt like I was getting freight trained by a lot of people, but, overall, I think that we were able to manage to stay in it until the end and just be there. We pitted with 10 to go, which was the right call because they wrecked on that restart, and we had fresh tires, got rid of a few people in there, and we were able to salvage a 13th after having a lot of damage. I’m just happy to finish one. I haven’t done that in like five races.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Birch Gold Group Ford F-150 – WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t really know who wrecked in front of me. It was obviously just a matter of time with those weapons, but it’s just unfortunate. I got hit right into it and it just caught on fire. Our First Gold Ford was really fast. We won both stages, so fortunately we had that. It’s just a bummer we got put back there with those guys where we don’t belong.”
THE STRATEGY WAS TO GO FOR STAGE POINTS AND PLAYOFF POINTS? “Yeah, unfortunately this race is really weird. It makes no sense to me why the ARCA race is supposed to be longer than the Truck race, so you pit once and you decide when that’s gonna be – and once you get back there in dirty air it’s near impossible to pass, especially with all the squirrels we have in this series. It’s just a bummer. Fortunately, I did get those two playoff points, so that’s the positive for today. We had a fast truck, just nothing to show for it.”
