Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
Drive To Stop Diabetes 300 – Bristol Motor Speedway
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Joey Logano
3rd – Chris Buescher
10th – Elliott Sadler
12th – Darrell Wallace Jr.
21st – Ryan Reed
23rd – Dakoda Armstrong
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “I’ve never led every single lap in a race before. What a fast Discount Tire Ford. Gosh, that’s amazing. You’re waiting for something to go wrong. Such a fast car and with late cautions and all that stuff and you’re like, ‘Alright, where am I gonna blow this thing?’ Because those are the ones that you’re just nervous throughout the whole race, but what a fast car. Greg Erwin and all this team here, it was a perfect day. I can’t ask for anything more out of them. I want to say hey to Steve Byrnes back at home. We miss you, and we’ll try to do this again tomorrow.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 EcoBoost Ford Mustang – “It wasn’t a great effort by us. I just couldn’t get through one and two. I played a conservative role in practice and that bit us. I should have done that. I don’t know if I should have done that at all – any of these tracks we go to I’m constantly tuning on what I need in practice, well, this time I was kind of thinking ahead and got us too tight. We never could get on the other side of the fence, so we’ll take this. It’s kind of a bummer. This is a track that you look forward to and to come out of here with an 11th or 12th isn’t good, but my guys continued to work hard all weekend long. The pit stops were great. We’ll get better as a whole.” WHAT PART OF THE TRACK ATE YOU UP? “Yeah, turn one and two. We’d lose five spots. The restart on the bottom killed us.” ANY CONSOLATION TO FINISH THE DAY WITH A CLEAN CAR? “Yeah, it was good. I asked my guys how many laps to go on that last restart and they said about 15 and I said, ‘Alright, I don’t want to hear anything. I’m trying to go for something,’ but we jumped the cushion up there and just lost one spot. That’s Bristol, though. We’ll go to Richmond and have some fun.”
RYAN REED – No. 16 Lilly/Drive to Stop Diabetes Ford Mustang – “First of all, it was really cool to have Drive to Stop Diabetes be the sponsor of the race. It was a lot of fun this weekend raising all that awareness. We did a lot of cool stuff, but on the racing side I just flat out struggled. This is a place that for whatever reason is one of my worst tracks, so I just have to continue to be better. We brought strong equipment this week and had a fast Ford Mustang, I just have to do a better job giving Seth better feedback and just keep learning. I think if we can get better here, this would be a good example of one of our worst tracks, so if we can continue to get better here, we’ll only continue to get better everywhere else. We’ll be alright.”
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 Roush Performance Ford Mustang – “These Roush Performance Parts guys did a great on our Mustang all day long. That was a really fast race car. That’s by far the best we’ve ever been here, so I was extremely proud of them for working as hard as they did to get it to this point. We just needed a little bit more. It was so hard to pass. That high side, I think you see it, you get up there and there’s much you can do on the bottom. We were kind of stuck there at the end. I felt like we could have tried to run with the 22, but I see that he led every lap here today, so it sounds like he was a pretty dominant force.”
BUESCHER PRESS CONFERENCE – “That was a lot of fun. That was the best we’ve run at Bristol since I’ve been doing this the last four or five attempts here, so it was a good day for us. The guys did a good job. It was tough today. The line moved up, especially those last 30 laps. I think it moved up all the way up to the fence and just made it really hard to pass there at the end. It was kind of unfortunate, but track position was a big key here today. We were able to stretch it on a set of tires there somewhere close to the halfway point and really made a good run out of it, so it’s a big gain. We’re tied for the points lead, which is pretty cool. I wish we could have gotten just one more, but it was a really good day. I’m a little wore out now, but looking forward to tomorrow or Tuesday’s Cup race, whenever it may be.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON NOW THAT YOU ARE TIED FOR THE POINTS LEAD OR IS IT BUSINESS AS USUAL? “It’s early. We recognize that we’re in a very, very good spot right now and we’ve worked very hard to get to that point, but it’s early. So we’re gonna keep going at these races and trying to win, and that’s what we did last year once we ended up in that hole after Daytona. If we can keep that mindset that we just need to go run as well as possible and try to win these races, even if it means taking some chances, I think it will pay off better for us in the long run. And if it doesn’t right now, then we do have plenty of time to recover, so I don’t see us slowing down anytime soon. I think we know we’ve made some pretty good gains over the off-season and I’m proud of these guys. They work way too hard not to get the results here, so we worked hard for it today and we’re gonna keep working for it. Richmond will be another hard-fought weekend and we’ll see if we can’t finally get by Ty for the points, but we keep inching up on him and now we’re sharing it, so we’ll see if we can get one better.”
DO YOU FEEL YOUR CUP EXPERIENCE HELPED HERE TODAY? “I don’t know that it was big. I know it hurt my qualifying effort getting right out of the Cup car and trying to adjust back, but they do drive pretty different here and I think that’s the first time in just the couple races I’ve run that there has been a big difference between the two series, so it was good to get the seat time though. I think it definitely helped firing off in practice. We had an idea with the Cup practice being first and it’s been a good opportunity to get that seat time so when we do go Cup racing in the next few years we have some experience at some of these places. I’d say for sure it helps. Any seat time you can get is going to and especially watching the groove move through the practices around it and watching some of the other guys and where they were running. I learned a lot for the race that ended up being true, things that really started working there late and guys moving up a little faster after they saw that Cup practice. So I think it’s good and I think all of the races we’ve run have helped our program and then on top of the fact our cars over at Roush are getting better is leading to some better finishes here lately.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO ON THE XFINITY SIDE TO HELP THE CUP SIDE AS FAR AS PERFORMANCE GOES? “They’re two different race cars so anything we can share we do and vice versa. We’ve gotten a lot of notes from the Cup side that has been helping us as well, so they’re still working. They’ve made gains too. I think Texas was an improvement for them. On our side, things have gotten a lot better. I keep saying it, but where we started the year, this time last year we were running 14th to 20th and now we’re able to bust out a bunch of top fives early on and that’s been really good. It’s by far the best we’ve run at Bristol. It was a really good run for us at Texas, and Daytona obviously not missing that race was a pretty big improvement. It’s been good for us and whatever we can share we will, but we’re focused on our side and our four teams on the XFINITY side are working great together. I think that’s been part of the success on our side.”
JOEY LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE – YOU’RE THE FIRST DRIVER TO LEAD EVERY LAP HERE IN THE XFINITY SERIES. TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN. “It’s not often you get a car that is that good. In practice, I thought that we were OK and last night we were talking about it and he’s like, ‘What do you think? How do we stack up?’ And I was like, ‘Ahhh, I think we’re just OK. I don’t think we’re great.’ I felt like if everything went right, we’d have a shot at winning the race, but I did not think we were gonna have a car like this. Overnight adjustments made it a lot better and maybe I was just asking for the world, but apparently it worked out. It’s not very often you get a car that is that fast. When you have a car like that the whole race you’re just hoping that something doesn’t go wrong and you’re looking for the checkered flag because it’s pretty neat to say you’ve led every single lap. That’s actually a pretty neat little thing. I’ve never done that before in my career and I don’t think in any kind of race cars, so that’s pretty cool to do today.”
GREG ERWIN, Crew Chief – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – DID YOU KNOW WHEN YOU STARTED IT WAS GOING TO BE THIS GOOD? “No, we didn’t. The hard part is what we have is a couple races with Ryan last year and then in 2013 a couple races with Brad, so, again, knowing how Joey was going to adapt to the baseline that we have as the 22 program was sort of a question mark. But so far between Phoenix and here and Atlanta, obviously, we’re doing the right things for him. They build such nice equipment at Penske Racing and our people in particular, our road crew and our shop crew, I’ve got to thank them because the things have been rocket ships off the truck and Andrea there as the team engineer puts in an amazing amount of effort in trying to keep records straight for all three of these drivers and keep me informed with the information that I need to make the decisions. Honestly, we were up pretty late last night trying to get this thing sorted out and an early morning, so it feels good for it to all kind of culminate in an effort like this. This guy is unreal.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – DID YOU EVER FEEL LIKE HARVICK HAD SOMETHING FOR YOU IF HE COULD HAVE GOTTEN BACK UP THERE? “I did for sure. I actually think his car was faster when we had clean race track. He was able to run the wall really well, which is something that I think he’s really good at as a driver also. He’s able to go up there and be aggressive and be able to make lap time. We saw that in Cup practice earlier today, but it didn’t seem like he can come off the wall and have any speed. In this XFINITY Series there are a lot of cars that you’re lapping fairly quick into a run and that’s when we were able to start legging him. At one point I went up there and I was trying really hard and about crashed our car and then after that being able to just kind of pull back away through traffic, and it’s not very often as the leader of a race do you hope there is lap traffic coming to you. Today was one of those days because our car was able to move around the race track really well and that was something that paid off.”
AFTER THE HALFWAY POINT DID YOU HAVE THE FACT YOU HAD LED EVERY LAP IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND? “I was sitting there thinking and I was like, ‘I think we’ve led every lap so far, but I’m not sure.’ And I thought, ‘It would be pretty cool if we did that,’ and then under the red flag Michael Waltrip and Jeff Gordon were in my ear telling me about it so I was like, ‘Oh, alright.’ At that point, obviously winning the race is the ultimate goal no matter what, but you also don’t want to let anyone by for half-a-lap because you want to be able to say you’ve led every lap. That’s something pretty cool to be able to say, so I ran pretty hard the whole race just trying to achieve the goal of leading every lap and ultimately the last one. The last thing I wanted to do was lead every one but the last one. That would be a completely different interview in here right now, so it was a special day for sure. It seems like every time I’ve got in this Discount Tire Ford this year it’s been remarkable, so I’ve got to try to run more races. I’ve got to try to take more from Brad and Blaney. I don’t know how I’m going to do that (laughing).”
ANY ADAPTATION AT THE START OF THE RACE GIVEN YOU HAD PRACTICED TWICE IN THE SPRINT CUP CAR? “You get an idea as a Sprint Cup driver, having happy hour right before the race as quick as this track was changing is a substantial advantage for the first 20 laps, and I think everyone kind of figures it out and it is what it is. But you get to run a whole practice and see where the track is going. As a driver how different you have to drive to make speed up against the wall compared to the bottom, where we pretty much practiced the whole time. So if you didn’t have the opportunity to go up there, the Cup guys have an advantage for that reason, but it seems like after a few laps everyone kind of figures it out and it is what it is. Just like everyone else, we weren’t able to practice our XFINITY car up in that groove, so you’re still kind of wishy-washy on which way your car is gonna go and what’s gonna happen, but as a driver you know what to expect, what the grip level is going to be up there, and maybe move up there a little bit sooner than other drivers.”
