Ford Performance NSCS Notes & Quotes:
2015 Daytona 500 – Speedweeks
Daytona 500 Qualifying
Sunday, February 15, 2015
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
** No Fords Qualified in the Top-12 **
ROUND TWO RESULTS
14th GREG BIFFLE
15th TREVOR BAYNE
16th SAM HORNISH JR.
17th ARIC ALMIROLA
18th RICKY STENHOUSE JR
19th BRAD KESELOWSKI
20th RYAN BLANEY
21st JOEY LOGANO
24th BOBBY LABONTE
ROUND ONE RESULTS
38th DAVID GILLILAND
39th MICHAEL MCDOWELL
44th DAVID RAGAN
45th COLE WHITT
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “That sucked. Our strategy didn’t work. Our strategy backfired in our face really bad. We will learn from our mistakes. All we can do is study it and try to understand just a little better. We haven’t really done a good job at it yet.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “I don’t know if we learned anything. We were going over what we could have done differently. I don’t know if there was anything. You lose kind of your last two or three laps that might be the fastest, so no one was able to get back out because you couldn’t get enough speed. Just all part of the game. We did a good job controlling what we could control. All three cars are close to making it to the next round, but I wouldn’t put any guarantees on it.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “You form a plan, you kind of want to stick to that. When I left pit road I had a really bad feeling about our position in the pack. We weren’t close enough to the Penske cars to get a good tow off of them. All the cars were in a place to draft off of us. My gut was telling me to bail off that plan. I would have been the bad guy stranding all my teammates out there. My car was really fast. The Ford Fusion is really good. We’ll race really good in the Duels on Thursday and we’ll get a better starting spot than 17th. I really thought I had a shot at a pole, and that’s what I’m most disappointed about.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “I’m not sure we knew exactly what we were doing. We had a plan. I was one of the last cars. I couldn’t get out if I wanted to. There was really no way around it. The Roush Fenway guys brought some fast Fords down. This Ford has been at the top of the board any drafting practice. It’s just about timing it right. We got in that group that timed it right. Like you said, Jamie and Aric and I were all talking about what we wanted to do. There was a whole other line of cars we wanted to get together. It’s crazy how it just doesn’t work out sometimes. You got a plan and it always changes. We’ll see if we can do it again. I think we got the first part of our job done that we wanted to, to get to the second round, but also put a fast lap up. The top six speeds are locked into the race. After Talladega last year, we definitely feel good to make it out of the first round.”
SAM HORNISH JR., No. 9 Twisted Tea Ford Fusion – “We had a plan and it just didn’t work out the way that it needed to for us. We felt like everything was really good as far as the car and the handling but we just went a little bit quick and when you are the first half of the field it allows everybody else to pull up behind you. I am not the guy leading so I don’t have the responsibility of it but then again I feel like Greg (Biffle) did a really good job getting us through the first one. You think that you can go hard enough to get away from those guys but it just put us in the right spot for everybody to pull up on us. I feel like our Ford will be really good when it comes to race time, it is just getting to that point. We would have liked to have been a little higher up than where we are.”
DAVID GILLILAND, No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – “That was insane out there. It is crazy for sure. The fans probably like watching it but it isn’t very fun to do for sure. It is definitely a different kind of qualifying and it is just too circumstantial to really be effective in my opinion on this style of race track. Overall, we are not where we want to be but we are excited for the Duels and feel really good about our car. It drove good and sucked up good. First and foremost I am thankful it is in one piece.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 34 Kentucky Fried Chicken Ford Fusion – “This session is real gimmicky and it all depends on who you get paired up with and a lot of it is luck and chance. That is just the way it is though. There are some really good cars that didn’t have good speed and some really bad cars that did have good speed just because of situations. All of that goes out the window on Thursday. We have a good KFC Ford and I feel like I am a good plate racer. We still control our own destiny. Thursday’s Duels are very important. I would be very frustrated if this was it. I am not a fan of this format but it is what it is. It is the same for everybody. We will go out there on Thursday and see what happens.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “We didn’t get a great run there in the last session. We didn’t time it right. It is just one of those deals. We have the Duel on Thursday and hopefully we will have a good run there and be able to make the race that way. I think our car has good speed it is just a matter of getting runs now. Qualifying is hard to do and guys lay back and some guys don’t. It is hard to time it right and we just missed it a little bit in that session right there. We are looking forward to the Duels though.”
