Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
AdvoCare 500 (Phoenix International Raceway)
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Ford Finishing Results:
9th—Joey Logano
11th – Brad Keselowski
12th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
13th – Greg Biffle
19th – Aric Almirola
21st – Carl Edwards
24th – David Gilliland
26th – Marcos Ambrose
27th – Casey Mears
35th – David Ragan
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “We played the strategy very well. We did a really good job, but we just needed a little more fuel. We just miscalculated. I thought we were a lap to the good. I was saving just a little bit of fuel, but obviously not enough. I don’t know if I could have saved a lap and kept Kevin behind me in hindsight, but that’s a tough way to lose one there. We haven’t run out of fuel in a long time.”
YOU TALKED TO JIMMIE ON PIT ROAD AFTER THE RACE. WAS IT ABOUT THE CONTACT BETWEEN YOU TWO DURING THE RACE? “Yeah, I definitely did not mean to hit him. He did a heckuva job saving it and I’m just glad he saved it. I did not want to be part of the championship in that manner.”
IT SEEMED HARD TO PASS OUT THERE. “I actually had some fun. I could pass some people. My car was pretty good, so I think as this track ages a little bit and Goodyear can bring us softer tires that will get better and better.”
WERE YOU TOLD TO SAVE FUEL SOON ENOUGH? “Yeah, Jimmy (Fennig) told me to save a little bit. I should have saved more. It’s tough. It was about a lap-and-a-half or a little more. I don’t know if we could have saved that much, but I’d like to have it over again to try.”
ANY INDICATION YOU WERE THAT CLOSE ON FUEL? “No, I did not think we were that close. I saved just a little bit, but Kevin was catching me just a little bit too much and I thought I better just keep going. In hindsight, I definitely should have tried to save more, but we thought we were a lap to the good. I’ve just got to thank all the fans for coming out here. It’s really cool to see a sold-out crowd, especially with so much that’s going on in NASCAR right now. It’s really neat that the fans are enjoying this championship battle and I’m sure glad I didn’t wreck Jimmie Johnson down there when we went three-wide into one. It was a fun race. I had a really good time. It’s gonna take me a little while to get over this one. We did everything right, we just didn’t calculate the fuel correctly and I’m as big a part of that as anyone. We’re all in this together, so we’ll just go to Homestead and win it.”
ANY INDICATION? “I had no clue we were gonna run out of fuel. That was a surprise to me. Jimmy talked to me about saving a little bit to have some extra, and I did that a couple of laps, but Kevin closed in and was obviously not saving fuel. There at the end we were a lap-and-a-half short or so and that’s tough, but we had an awesome car. Fastenal and everybody that was here, we thought we were gonna win for them. We did everything right, we just miscalculated that one part and that’s NASCAR. You’ve got to be perfect.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “There was a lot of strategy and it confused the heck out of me. At times we were leading the race and at times we were 24th. It’s hard to say where we were. I felt like we were maybe a fifth-place car, which is kind of what we thought we were going into the race. We stayed out one time and then we had to pit under green and then coming to the end of the race I had to start saving fuel to make it. At that point it looked like we were in really bad shape because we really needed a caution. I started saving fuel and gave up about five or six spots, and then the caution came out and we restarted 14th and got up to ninth. We just needed the cautions to get going again, so we had a decent car. We didn’t really lose much in points, but, overall, it was a weird race because you don’t know where you’re at and you just pass the cars in front of you. I didn’t know what place I was in, I just kept running because it was too confusing for me.”
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE START WITH THE 48? “I kind of thought he was gonna give. I was on the bottom three-wide and I thought he was gonna give because I was a little bit ahead, and then I was kind of committed to driving in there. He also had the same thing thinking I was gonna give and that’s usually when things go bad, so I was doing everything I could to stay off of him and I’m just happy we both got through there and nothing bad happened.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion – “That was probably the best car we had all year. Frank and the guys did a great job. We had some brake issues at one point, but overall it was a great car and a good points day.”
