Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Sylvania 300 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Sunday, September 21, 2014
FUSION WINS THIRD STRAIGHT AS LOGANO ADVANCES WITH FIRST CHASE VICTORY
· Joey Logano’s win is his fifth with Ford Racing and seventh of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career.
· In addition, it’s the first Chase victory of his career and second overall at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
· Ford Racing’s 12 wins this season is the most for the manufacturer since 2005 (16).
· The win is Ford’s 26th Chase win and 630th all-time series victory.
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – DID YOU KNOW THAT FOUR TIRES WOULD BE THE CALL OF THE DAY? “No, I thought we gave it away at that point, but four tires were good and we had some good restarts and were able to get ourselves back up there. We worked hard. This is my home race track, the coolest place to win for me. I could never pick a better race track to win. I watched my first Cup race here when I was five and I won that other Cup race here, but I just felt like I had to win one the right way here, and this means so much. I’ve got to thank all the boys at Team Penske. We’re doing what we’ve got to do to win this thing right now – both teams are – and I’m proud of that. This is my home track so it means so much to me.”
WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT WITH FOUR TO GO? “I had a lot of things I can’t say right now that came to my mind, but we were able to have some good restarts. The guys did a good job setting this thing up and gave me something to win with today. I went to sleep last night hoping for a top five. That would be good for me at this track because it’s not one of my key places, and that’s why it means so much to win here.”
HOW DOES IT SOUND TO BE GOING TO THE NEXT ROUND? “It feels good to go into the next one. We’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing though. We’ve got to keep our eye on the prize and think about the big trophy at the end.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE THE LAST FEW RESTARTS? “I don’t know. We had a lot of adversity. I made a few mistakes that got us behind, but Paul Wolfe and the crew did a great job of getting us back in position. I was kind of an up-and-down day and I guess we ended on an OK note. We finished seventh, but I was definitely looking for more than that. We fought hard and it was a good, solid day.”
THAT ONE RESTART WHERE YOU WERE THE LEADER AND LOST IT. WHAT HAPPENED THERE? “I got ran into. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory, but I don’t know if I was the fastest car.”
TWO PENSKE CARS ARE IN THE NEXT ROUND. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? “It’s great for everyone at Team Penske. We certainly have a lot to be proud of, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “We cut it down to a realistic possibility going to Dover. I think were nine or 10 points out of 12th, so that’s manageable. If we went to Dover 28 points out, we might as well go ahead and just throw in the towel, but that’s exactly what we needed. I said all week the best thing we can do if we can’t win, we need to go and try to run top five. We ran sixth and we’ve got to try and put pressure on those other guys. We’re down but we’re not out. I said that after Chicago. We’ll go to Loudon and Dover and give them everything we’ve got and wherever it shakes out it shakes out. We can only control what we can control and today we did that and did a good job and finished sixth. We’ll do the same thing at Dover and we’ll see what happens.”
YOU WERE RUNNING IN THE TOP 10 AND THEN LOST TRACK POSITION LATE. HOW DID YOU GET IT BACK? “A couple cars spun and I missed some wrecks and got one good restart. I think on that one restart I gained seven or eight spots. That was probably the biggest difference, but everything worked in our favor once we lost that track position. We had a few yellows, so it worked out. Last week it didn’t work out in our favor, but this week it did.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “It was a pretty tough day. We’re still eighth in points, which is good. Now we’ve just got to go to Dover and survive and do a good job to make it to the next round while still working on our cars. My crew did a good job. Jimmy did a good job. It was a tough race and just one little mistake you wreck, so it’s pretty crazy.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 EcoPower Ford Fusion – “I blew a left-front. We were all just racing really, really hard on that restart. Everybody was bouncing off each other. I don’t know who hit my left-front, but it got a fender rub and just blew the left-front going down the front straightaway. I was trying to get it slowed down as much as I could, but it wasn’t gonna turn so I just hit the wall.”
ANY IDEA IT WOULD GO DOWN? “Every now and then it would quit smoking, so I thought we were getting it cleared out, and then it was obviously still rubbing and it blew, so it didn’t get cleared enough.”
IS THIS RASH OF CAUTIONS LATE IN THE RACE A PRODUCT OF THE CHASE AND EVERYONE IS GETTING ALL THEY CAN? “No, I think it’s a product of New Hampshire. It’s really tough to restart on the inside, so the cars that are restarting on the inside are trying to put people three-wide, four-wide, so it makes the outside at a disadvantage. They’re doing a good job at it. I was up in the fourth lane when I restarted in the second lane, so it’s difficult on the restarts. It’s just like the Truck race yesterday and typical for here.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion – “It was unfortunate. We made our car a little bit better and it looked like the 51 and 78 were both mad and they were running over each other. They kind of shot up the race track and I ran over Martin with my left-front and that just kind of shot me up, so it’s unfortunate but that’s the way things go sometimes.”
