Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Hollywood Casino 400 (Kansas Speedway)
NSCS Qualifying Quotes
Friday, October 4, 2013
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
2nd Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4th Brad Keselowski
5th Joey Logano
9th Carl Edwards
20th Aric Almirola
25th Marcos Ambrose
26th Greg Biffle
32nd David Ragan
34th David Gilliland
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Fusion – “So far so good for our EcoBoost Fusion here. I knew if those guys going out early, if I could be somewhere around that group of guys that we would have a decent day for qualifying. Scott and the guys made great changes and it isn’t near as fast as when we qualified here earlier this year. It was definitely on edge and I had a lot of fun doing that. I am proud of the guys for the adjustments that they made. I am not sure it that will hold up or stack up but beating those guys that already went out feels pretty decent.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Farmland Ford Fusion – “Our car has just been off the whole time we have been here. We have worked really hard and changed a lot of stuff we just can’t seem to make it better. We are struggling. We can’t find the front grip that we need to go fast and we still lack in the front grip there in qualifying.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “That wasn’t as good as I wanted to be. Ricky ran a really good lap though. We will go work on race trim. We had a good test and a pretty fast car today so hopefully we are better than that in race trim.”
HOW WILL THE WEATHER AFFECT THINGS? “It will be a big factor and the rain will wash everything off tonight. It will be an interesting track tomorrow and Sunday it will change a lot. Fortunately I have Jimmy on the box and he can adapt to changes.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “Obviously there is a little more out there because Jimmie and Ricky were both faster. It was a decent lap though and should get us a solid starting spot. We will take it and move on.”
STEP BACK A DAY OR TWO, YOUR CONTRACT EXTENSION WAS ANNOUNCED. HOW NICE IS IT TO HAVE THAT OUT OF THE WAY? “It is a great deal for my team. I felt pretty confident things would work out but for my team it gives them the opportunity to not have to worry about those things, whether it is the funding for the car or who will be driving it. Everybody knows and that is good. I am happy for them.”
WHAT ABOUT THIS TIRE? “It isn’t the ideal situation with way the track surface is but it is probably the best we can do given the track and the car.”
YOU WERE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT IT BEFORE ATLANTA. ARE YOU AS OPTIMISTIC AFTER ATLANTA AND WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN HERE? “It was more impactful at Atlanta than what I think it will be here. But I still think it will be helpful. I think here, and Atlanta as well, it was a safety issue as much as anything else. In Atlanta the alternative was to go to an even harder tire which I think would really hurt that facilities quality of racing. That kind of bailed us out. This track, that wasn’t so much the case. It obviously gives some error margin and at the end of the day here we are going to use that error margin back up because of the speed we will be doing whereas Atlanta that wasn’t the case.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “Our qualifying lap wasn’t too bad. We will have to wait and see where it ends up but it is good pickup from where we were. We got four-tenths there but I was shooting for six or seven. The car didn’t drive too bad but those guys up front right now ran really fast laps. It is pretty remarkable actually because my car didn’t drive terrible. I can see maybe a tenth that I left out there so those guys ran really good laps. Hopefully it stays top-10 because qualifying here is really important and we need to get this Shell Pennzoil Ford starting up front as close as we can and it would make our day a lot easier on Sunday.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. PRESS CONFERENCE
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Fusion – “It was just not quite good enough. We were close but our average start here at Kansas is going to be pretty solid now. I thought going out that early that if I could be around some of those guys that went early like the 48 and 24 and 20 and 88, we had some really good cars going early and to jump in front of them I thought we might have a chance at hanging on to the pole. Kevin just barely got us there. It was definitely a good start for us. I think track position is going to be important. We were fast here last time and led laps and go caught by caution on pit road. Hopefully we can keep that fast car continuing on into tomorrow and Sunday. Track conditions will change a whole lot from what we tested yesterday so it will be good to see that tomorrow and see how our Ford EcoBoost Fusion reacts to the temperature changes. I think it will be better for us so that is what we are hoping for.”
DID YOU REALIZE HARVICK HASN’T WON A POLE IN SEVEN YEARS? “I just heard that in his interview. That is a long time. Hopefully we don’t go that long without a pole. I like qualifying, it is fun. I really wish that he still didn’t have a pole so that I could have another one. I am getting kind of greedy. I was joking with him because we went out to eat last night and we went and got some chocolate milkshakes afterward. They must have been pretty fast.”
HOW LONG DO YOU GET TO CELEBRATE BEFORE YOU LOOK TOWARD SUNDAY? “First off, we won’t celebrate anything because nobody likes celebrating second. We have already started. We started today looking at race trim stuff and we started out and switched a lot of things from Thursday to this morning and went out and practiced in race trim and thought we were better. We wanted to back-to-back’it with the same temperatures that we had yesterday. I thought our race package was better than yesterday, so we stuck with that. We moved it over to qualifying trim and kind of kept the same concept that we had going and it paid off. We are excited about tomorrow. The temperatures will be coming down and they were a lot cooler here last time in the spring and I think that played into our favor so we are looking forward to the changes that we can make throughout tomorrow to get better for the race on Sunday.”
YOU’VE HAD RECENT SUCCESS HERE WINNING A NATIONWIDE RACE AND QUALIFYING PRETTY WELL HERE IN THE SPRING. WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL COMING HERE? “I like Kansas a lot. I liked it before they paved it and I’ve liked it since they paved it. We came from two laps down here to get the win last time, that was crazy. Then we had a test here earlier in the year and found a lot of speed and thought we would always be good coming back to Kansas. When we qualified third in the spring and were fastest in some of the practices last time we were here, so it definitely builds a lot of confidence coming back to Kansas this weekend. The race was a bit of a disappointment last time with the caution coming out when we were on pit road after leading and had to take the wave around and work our way back up through the field. But we passed a lot of race cars that day. We passed Matt Kenseth and he won the race and has had really good success this year. We felt really confident coming back and I think today proves that we have a reason to feel good about coming back to Kansas. It is a cool race track to drive on and also for the fans outside the race track I think we have a little bit of everything here. It is a fun race track in general.”
YOU ARE STARTING THE RACE BETWEEN TWO CHASE GUYS. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A NON-CHASE GUY TRYING TO PLAY SPOILER? “It means a lot. We beat all the Chase guys but one. It is kind of what I was talking about earlier. Going out with the 48, 24, 88 and 20 that were right there around us. To jump in front of them was big for us. We are definitely mindful of the championship that they have going. I have been in championship fights and people gave me a lot more respect when I was going for that championship and when things were tight. We are definitely mindful of that and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize anybody’s championship. We will go out and race our own race but still be mindful of everything that is going on and try to stay clear of it. It is a good start to our weekend and hopefully we can continue this momentum we have going.”
