Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 Qualifying – Pocono Raceway
Friday, June 5, 2015
Ford Qualifying Results
7th – Brad Keselowski
11th – Joey Logano
17th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24th – Sam Hornish Jr.
25th – Aric Almirola
27th – Greg Biffle
33rd – Trevor Bayne
35th – David Gilliland
36th – Brett Moffitt
39th – Cole Whitt
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – DO YOU FEEL YOU GOT EVERYTHING YOU COULD OUT OF THAT QUALIFYING SESSION? “Yeah, I was just disappointed that we didn’t have great speed. I’m not really sure why, but that’s just part of it.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT SUNDAY? “We’ve been OK. We’re pretty consistent right there in that fifth to 10th-place range, so we just have to find some more.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – JUST BAD TIMING WITH BEING ON THE TRACK WHEN THE 11 CAR SPUN TO BRING OUT THE CAUTION? “I guess. I don’t know. You wait to try to get the best opportunity to go out there and lay down a nice lap and be fair to the field. I don’t know. Because a car spins out and they throw a red flag for it and then you don’t get an opportunity to go out and make a lap I don’t understand it. It makes me mad. I don’t get it. We didn’t even have a chance to try to put our car up front.” DO YOU FEEL YOUR FUSION COULD CHALLENGE FOR A TOP FIVE OR TOP THREE SPOT? “Yeah. We were sixth in the last round and were only getting better, so maybe. Maybe we had something better than that. Who knows?”
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 9 Medallion Bank Ford Fusion – “We had a multitude of things happen in that second round, all the way from it didn’t feel like I had enough gap coming to the line, so I was trying to back up and give myself plenty of room off the car ahead of me, and then I was just a little bit late on my shift at the start-finish line to go to fourth and hit off the limiter and I knew I was gonna carry that all the way down the straightaway, so it kind of compounded from there but, all in all, we had a good first lap. I felt like we made gains throughout the day and I feel like there is some more in the car if I would have gotten everything right on my end of it. I think our Medallion Bank Ford Fusion would have been a fair bit better, but sometimes you have to take smaller steps. We’re definitely not as far us as we want to be, but compared to where we were at in practice we moved forward, so I’m happy with that.” WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR SLIDE IN PRACTICE? “Ours was totally unrelated to the bumps and it’s partially due to driver stubbornness thinking that I was gonna be able to change what I was doing to make the car better. I should have just come in and let them adjust on the car, but I haven’t been here in almost three years, so getting that opportunity to get some laps in I thought, ‘Even if it’s not perfect here, I’ll make some laps and find a direction that the car is headed.’ Sometimes you pull down pit road and you wish you would have stayed out and ran a couple more laps and other times you should have just pulled down pit road, and today was one of those where I should have just come down pit road and let them adjust on it. But without having that experience of being here for the last five races they’ve run here, I was trying to figure out exactly where I needed to be at.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Nathan’s Famous Ford Fusion – “I just got too loose. We’ve been struggling trying to get the right balance today and that was just too loose right there. It was hard to keep the throttle down. With big straightaways like this you’ve got to be wide-open as long as possible and we just weren’t able to do that with the car being as free as it was.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SUNDAY? “We’ve got some work to do.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion – “It’s a lot better than I’ve been here. We unloaded our Zest Ford Fusion and it’s been a lot better and a lot closer. I think we only missed the third round by a tenth, which is pretty good for us compared to previous times here with the Cup car. I’m pretty excited about that. Obviously, we want to make it to the third round like we did last week, but I can tell you that it’s a big improvement for us in qualifying the last couple weeks. I think if we keep going the right direction, we’ll hopefully keep making it to those third rounds, but I’m happy with how qualifying went.” ANYTHING UNEXPECTED TODAY? “No, we made some adjustments from practice to qualifying there and I think the car was better and it showed that, but, for me, you just miss a little bit in all three corners and it all adds up. I know two big things that I messed up that may have been able to get to that third round, but, all in all, a really good day for us today. I’m looking forward to making a lot more laps tomorrow.”
