Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
NSCS Hollywood Casino 400
Sunday Oct. 5, 2014
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st JOEY LOGANO
5th CARL EDWARDS
15th GREG BIFFLE
19th RICKY STENHOUSE JR.
20th MARCOS AMBROSE
27th DAVID RAGAN
30th DAVID GILLILAND
31st ARIC ALMIROLA
36th BRAD KESELOWSKI
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW
YOU HAVE A FREE PASS INTO THE ELIMINATOR ROUND “I think my fiancée just took the Ice Bucket Challenge right here in victory lane. What a crazy race. We had such a fast Shell Pennzoil Ford again. It is so much fun to race these cars lately. Everyone at Team Penske has given me great stuff to work with. It is awesome to be back in victory lane again. I felt we had a good car all weekend but I wasn’t 100-percent sure but once that top opened up it just took off and there were a couple cars that could run up there and it was me and the 42 that were the fastest up there. The 88 was early in the race but had an issue. We were able to capitalize and do what we needed to do. It was fun.”
IT LOOKED LIKE THE 42 WAS CHASING YOU DOWN NEAR THE END. “I took off tight and it was kind of a cat and mouse game. He was a little faster at certain points in the run and I was faster late in the run and toward the end he was hitting his stride. I had to take his air away. I was running that top and that was also the lane for him which is what held him up from getting to us. I worked the traffic perfectly and didn’t lose momentum to give up the lead.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE THAT FREE PASS INTO THE ELIMINATOR ROUND THIS EARLY? “It makes Talladega a lot easier, that is for sure. To know we are onto the next round we can focus on a few more races coming up and we will keep trying to capitalize like we are doing.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (Finished 36th)
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE RIGHT FRONT? “We blew the right front tire. I am not sure why. We didn’t have an aggressive setup or anything, we just blew the tire.”
ANY IDEA BEFOREHAND? “No, it was just Russian roulette and it was our turn.”
DID YOU GUYS MAKE ANY ADJUSTMENTS THAT MIGHT HAVE CHANGED THE TIRE WEAR? “No. That would make it feel good if we did because then you know what is up but no, we didn’t do anything. Like I said, it was a game of Russian Roulette and it was our turn at the gun. It was Dale Jr.’s turn at the gun earlier.”
IS THIS WHY YOU TESTED CHARLOTTE? “Yeah, the easiest approach is to go to Charlotte and win. The bad side of this Chase is we took a big points lead in here and gave it all back to zero. The good side of it is that you can still win your way out of it and we have two really good tracks for us ahead. If we can just win at one of them we will be fine. Maybe if we have two really good finishes we will be fine. That is the good side.”
SO MANY OTHER CONTENDERS HAD TROUBLE TODAY, IS THERE ANY RELIEF IN THAT? “I don’t enjoy seeing anyone have to go through what we did and it looked like there were a handful that did. I feel like the losers are the people that want to see us race 100-percent and when you try to race 100-percent you blow a tire. Those are the people that lost today.”
DID YOU SEE ANY SIGNS DURING THE WEEKEND OF THIS? “We’ve seen signs of this for three seasons of racing here. There are no margins. The car with the aero has gotten out of control and the specs for the tires aren’t designed to handle that and you can point fingers at that either way. There is just no margin. Small variables, when you have no margin small variables are going to get someone and it was our day at the gun today.”
WHAT WAS GAINED BY GETTING BACK OUT THERE? “Three points. Hopefully we can win one of the next two races and those three points don’t matter but it could come down to one point at Talladega and if it does my guys deserve a lot of credit for getting us back out.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion (Finished 5th)
A TWO TIRE CALL AT THE END GAVE YOU GOOD POSITION. “That was an awesome finish for us. I appreciate everyone coming out here and supporting this 99 team, it mean the world. We did not run very well all day but that was awesome at the end, a lot of fun. We put it on the top and ran around and it was a lot of fun. You and bag man had us out early and it is looking good right now. You keep saying we are going to fall out of this and we will keep doing what we are doing. I am so proud of my guys, they did great o pit road. Everyone on the Fastenal crew did a great job and Jimmy Fennig made the right calls and we came home with a top-five, so it was a good day.”
