Ford Performance NXS Notes and Quotes
Hisense 300 – Charlotte Motor Speedway
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Ford Finishing Results:
5th – Darrell Wallace Jr.
9th – Elliott Sadler
10th – Ryan Blaney
11th – Chris Buescher
12th – Ryan Reed
16th – Dakoda Armstrong
19th – Aric Almirola
DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 Cheez-It Ford Mustang – “It was a good run. It was a top-five run for us, our first one of the year. I’m just proud to have Cheez-It on board of our Ford Mustang. We just need a little bit more. Our pit stops need some work, but we’ll build off of it and take this top five into Dover and really have some fun next week.”
A GOOD POINTS DAY. “Yeah, points will matter later in the year.” IT WAS TOUGH TO PASS OUT THERE WASN’T IT? “Yeah, it’s tough. The clean air here was a big deal, so that’s the first time I really felt it. That’s the first time I finished a top series race here, so that’s something to be proud of. Clean air is your best friend in these races, so we’ll build off of this. It’s a good top-five, a good momentum boost for our team. We needed this, so sixth, fifth, first sounds good for the next one.”
YOU’RE IN THE DASH 4 CASH AT DOVER. “That’s cool. We’ll go into Dover. It’s extra money, but we still need to race smart, so we’ll see what happens.”
CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 60 Roush Performance Ford Mustang – “It wasn’t a bad day for our Roush Performance Mustang, but we obviously want to be better. Charlotte has not been a good track to me yet, but it will be alright. We’ll brush it off and go on to Dover. I love Dover, so we’ll get them there.”
WAS IT A CASE WHERE EVERYONE RUNS THE SAME SPEED AND PASSING IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT? “Yeah, pretty much. That’s kind of the characteristic of this track, especially in the day. It’s just so hot and slick out there that you’re along for the ride, so the night race here tends to do a lot better but not this race.”
THOUGHTS ON THE POINTS BATTLE. “We’re still leading. We didn’t lose that much, but I hate points racing to begin with. We’ll keep taking it and knowing that we expect to run top-five every week. If we do that, the points will fall just the way we need them to. That will be our plan is to step our game up at these places a little bit because at the short tracks we know we’ve got a really good Ford Mustang when we go back to those places.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “My Discount Tire Mustang just wouldn’t run the top of the race track at all, so I was kind of committed to the bottom. We weren’t very good to begin with. We struggled with being really tight in the beginning and ended up really, really free, so I’m not really sure what our issue is but we’ll take a good, hard look at it and find out why we were that far off. I didn’t think we were like that way in practice, so we’ll have to take a look at it.”
DARRELL WALLACE JR. – No. 6 Cheez-It Ford Mustang – PRESS CONFERENCE – THOUGHTS ON BEING IN THE DASH 4 CASH AT DOVER? “Dover has been a very successful track for me. It would be nice if they paid for the pole there because I’m pretty good at qualifying there. I haven’t got the finishes I wanted, but I’m excited to be in the XFINITY Series and part of the Dash 4 Cash Series, so I’m glad to be one of the four. We just have to keep playing it smart and put ourselves in that position next week to come out on top. It was a good run for us today, though. Our Cheez-It Ford Mustang had a little bit, but the 33 car had us all covered. We were a top-three car, but just need some work done.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT ONE RUN WHEN YOU TOOK FOUR TIRES AND AUSTIN TOOK DID. DID YOU BURN YOUR TIRES OFF OR DID THE TIRES JUST EQUALIZE OUT AFTER THAT RUN WENT THROUGH? “He had us covered. He had clean air so he was winning already. I think I started fourth or fifth there on that run and then got up to second, if we’re talking about the same run. I don’t know what he took or when he took it, but he just had us beat. He could get out in clean air in front of us first and we were just fighting for it, so we were just lacking a little bit.”
WHAT HAVE THESE LAST TWO WEEKS DONE FOR THE 6 TEAM? “This is good. This is a confidence booster for all of my guys. We just have to clean up ourselves on pit road. That’s been a struggle for us these last couple races, but we’ve been able to manage a couple spots on restarts and come away with our first top-five in the series. It feels good to be running up front with these guys. This is where we need to be. We’re setting up ship for late in the season.”
