Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Michigan Qualifying | Saturday, August 6, 2022

Ford Qualifying Results:
4th – Joey Logano
5th – Austin Cindric
14th – Michael McDowell
16th – Kevin Harvick
17th – Cole Custer
18th – Aric Almirola
19th – Chris Buescher
23rd – Chase Briscoe
24th – Ryan Blaney
27th – Harrison Burton
29th – JJ Yeley
33rd – Brad Keselowski
34th – Cody Ware
36th – BJ McLeod
37th – Todd Gilliland

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “It was a solid qualifying session for the 2 car. I felt like we made some decent improvements from practice. I feel like qualifying trim at the same time isn’t exactly super representative as to how well you’re gonna race, but I’m definitely hoping and putting our eggs in the basket of trying to race well. I think today was a good surprise for us and hopefully we can put it together tomorrow and try to get a blue oval in victory lane here at Michigan.”

ANY BIG MOMENTS OUT THERE? “No big moments, just you’re going really fast here and when you hit bumps sometimes they’re really big. When you have small corrections sometimes they’re really sketchy, so that’s just the product of driving here.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – “We made up some time from practice, which was good. We made some solid adjustments to get our balance better. I’m not sure how much better we made our car, but we made our balance better, which is good. We’ll think a lot overnight to make the car better for race trim, so I’d say a successful day from where we were in practice and getting better for qualifying and having a top-five effort is nice, so we’ll fight from there.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Michigan Advance | Saturday, August 6, 2022

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang, visited the infield media center at Michigan International Speedway and talked about a variety of topics before practice and qualifying.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – WHAT WAS HOTTER AFTER THE RACE THE INSIDE OF THE CAR AFTER THE FIRE OR THE DRIVER CHAT? “There was plenty of talking everywhere. It wasn’t just my move. There were plenty of moves out there that was going on. There was lots to talk about from last weekend. Definitely very eventful. A turn one like that on a late-race restart you can kind of see what’s gonna happen and if you’re not the one making the move, the move is gonna be made on you and you kind of get put in a spot, I think, as the whole field kind of gets put in a spot when you have a turn one like that. It’s just an eventful race at the end with everyone seeing opportunity to gain a lot of spots and big moves happen.”

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE FIRE IN YOUR CAR AFTER THE RACE AND CAN SOMETHING BE DONE ABOUT IT? “Yeah, it’s definitely something we need to look into. It seems like the same thing that happened to my car happened to Buescher’s car with the exhaust getting pushed back into the rocker and essentially melting the panels around there and then lighting the foam up inside the door. So, obviously, we need to look into that. Learning curves with the race car. We still have a brand new race car that we’re in our first year still. We haven’t got to the playoffs yet and interesting things are happening as we go along and it’s hard to call what they’re gonna be until it happens sometimes. How many times in racing have we said, ‘Boy, I’ve never seen that before,’ and we’ve been doing this forever. We still say that, so definitely some new things there, considering it happened to a few cars I’d say it probably needs to move up the list of figuring out a fix to that because you don’t really want the cars burning up from the inside. I don’t want a flammable race car, so if we can figure out how to fix that, it would be great.”

HAVE YOU SEEN THAT HAPPEN BEFORE? “It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I don’t believe it’s the first time it’s happened from the group chat. It seems like it may have happened before, maybe one time, but you can see how it happens. Now that it happened you can really kind of dissect it, and I think there’s a fairly easy fix to it – I think – but we just all have to put our heads together and figure out ways to implement the rule and how everyone is gonna move forward with that. It’s not as easy as you may think to fix some of these things. It sounds simple, but when you have to fix 40 cars it’s not like we just have to fix the Penske cars from this. They’re all the same and all built the same way. They’re all gonna move the same way from the exhaust standpoint and into the rocker and all that, so you’ve got to fix it for everybody and it all has to be done the same way, so it’s a little bit more challenging these days than it used to be.”

ANY CONCERNS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED BEFORE WATKINS GLEN AND THE ROVAL? “Those racetracks don’t seem to be as much of a chaotic moment. It still is. There’s still the opportunity to go three-wide at Watkins Glen for sure. I think with Indy what you see is there’s six lanes wide across the racetrack and then it funnels down to three or two by the time you go through one and two. It gets very wide, where like Road America is a similar situation but the track is only paved three lanes wide from grass to grass. That’s all you can fit in the first place, so it kind of keeps everybody somewhat in line, but when you have a track that wide that funnel is big and the opportunity to gain a few spots in the braking zone is there and everyone just kind of goes where somebody isn’t and just gets wider and it turns into a mess when it gets to the funnel part of it. Watkins Glen, three lanes is all you’ve got there, so you have a similar situation as you did at Road America. The Roval, we’ve already seen where that can be a challenging piece there whether it’s on the front row or the 15th row. It’s kind of hard to say, but it gets three, four lanes wide and then funnels down that chute to turn two, so you may have a similar situation there, but I don’t see us doing anything different for those. I think it just is what it is,”

THE DISCUSSION ABOUT AGGRESSIVE DRIVING. IS IT MORE OF AN ISSUE AMONG THE DRIVERS OR IS IT JUST MORE OF A CONCERN? WHERE IS THIS IN THE BIG PICTURE OF THINGS? “It’s one week. It’s one week at a racetrack that’s asking for it. Like I said, turn one is just asking for it. It would be like us going to Sonoma and looking at turn 11 as turn 1. You would go barreling down in there and it would be a mess. Well, at Indy that’s kind of what happened in turn 1 for us. I think it’s more this year than last year because the cars are more durable. Last year, you didn’t want to push a fender in. You had more fender rubs. Everyone is realized at this point that a little bit harder to cut down a tire, bodies are pretty tough, and so contact isn’t that bad. That is the number one thing that we asked for when we built this Next Gen car was a more durable race car to where we could bump and bang more. We’ve got it and now we’re gonna complain? We asked for it. The fans asked for it. Everybody asked for it. Everyone in here thought about it, so it’s just the fact that everyone is just gonna complain, period. That’s it. It doesn’t matter what we do, someone is gonna complain. That’s just life at this point. Everybody has something to complain about, instead of looking at the positives.”

FORD HAS HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS HERE, BUT NOT SO MUCH THIS SEASON. DOES THAT GIVE YOU HOPE HERE AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEW CAR HERE? “We’ll see. It seems like short tracks have been a little bit more of our wheelhouse these days with the Next Gen car, and I can find six different reasons. I know the reasons, but hopefully this racetrack falls into our wheelhouse from an engine perspective. It seems like a lot of times that’s why we’ve seen so much success here is the Roush Yates power, especially on the top end, has been pretty good as this racetrack kind of falls there for us, so I think that’s been a good thing. Hopefully, that’s a big deal when we get out there. This is one of those racetracks where it just takes everything. You’ve got to have power. You’ve got to have the right amount of downforce and right amount of drag out of it. You’ve got to hit that balance just right. You’ve got to call the race just right. Michigan is still MIchigan. I don’t see that being very different than what it’s been in the past. Now, how we get to those points is different, but I think the goals when you’re building the car is still the same. Now, what exactly is the right balance? I don’t know until we race. Even after practice you may not have the perfect car and you won’t know that until the race starts.”

IS THIS A WILDCARD RACE AND IS ANYTHING FROM AUTO CLUB APPLICABLE? “The surface of the track makes them so different. The shape and the size is the same, but once you get past that it’s very different. This track is very smooth. There’s not much tire wear. You don’t have all the seams across. Fontana is its own thing. Michigan is its own track. I don’t think there’s much that really actually crosses over from a setup perspective. You look at the on-throttle time at Fontana compared to Michigan and it’s a lot different, just because there’s more grip here. I don’t if I’d call it quite a wildcard. It has the opportunity to be that. We’ve seen MIchigan turn into fuel mileage before. We’ve seen different strategies work here because the lack of tire fall off, where somebody may take a chance and get themselves up there at the end of the race somehow. We’ve seen wild restarts here. You’re gonna see that again, so I don’t see where it’s different than what it’s been in the past. I guess there’s a possibility for a wildcard winner, possibly, but I don’t think it’s likely. I think probably the same guys you’ve seen that have been fast the past few weeks are gonna be pretty quick.”

IS THERE A SPECIAL BOND WITH THE FORD TEAMS THIS WEEKEND? “It’s the same as it’s always been. There’s a certain level that the teams feel comfortable working together with on certain things. That’s the same every weekend, whether it’s Michigan or wherever the next race is. There’s a certain amount of information that everyone feels comfortable sharing and then there’s also a point that we need to race each other, and everyone kind of knows where those lines are. It doesn’t make it different that we’re at Michigan or any other track because this is Ford’s backyard. It’s the same no matter where we’re at. It just happened to work out to where this track in the past really fell into our wheelhouse to where we were really strong here. I’m not saying it’s not going to this time. It may. There are definitely some things in our cars that, I think, favor this racetrack and there are some thing, I think, may not, so we’ll see how it balances out.”

YOU WERE AT THE HENRY FORD MUSEUM THE OTHER DAY. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT PLACE? “It was fun. A lot of my kids crying is what stood out to me (laughing). It was fun, though. We came up early and went through the Village outside and then went to the Henry Ford Museum. It was a lot of fun, actually. We went for the train ride and did the Model T rides. My son wanted to go on a Model T ride so bad. I said, ‘You know, we can do this at home.’ Like, we’re waiting in line and we can drive the car at home, but he was all about it. He had fun. Jamison likes trains, so he was all about that. Amelia was happy just riding along in the cart, so it was cool. I’ve really enjoyed going there a few times now, just the history that has been preserved there is incredible. I don’t think I’ve been anywhere else that’s like that, where we may not have had a chance to read a lot because we were chasing kids and feeding kids and changing diapers, but in times in the past there it’s been fun to just look at not only the cars, but all the other things that are in there. It’s just nuts to think that all of that is sitting in one place. You look at some of those historic buildings and how they took them apart and rebuilt them there. It’s just incredible and really cool that was able to happen. Someone took the time and dedicated their life to building that thing. That’s pretty spectacular.”

ANY ARTIFACTS THAT REALLY JUMPED OUT TO YOU? “I was hoping my championship car was still there because it has been there, but they just changed it out. I let my son down. I told him, ‘Daddy’s race car is in there.’ No, it wasn’t (laughing). There is so much that it’s hard to pick one thing. You need two full days to do it right is what I think. You really need to take your time and do it. We didn’t get the chance to read everything. We went for all the rides, which was good.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 6, 2022

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE OR DO YOU GUYS HAVE TO TAKE THINGS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS? OR IS THAT JUST RACING WITH FOUR OR FIVES RACES LEFT TO GO BEFORE THE PLAYOFFS?

“I think it’s a little bit of just the way road courses have trended, it’s difficult to pass. If you get a late caution, with these cars, funneling down into a two-wide corner with six lanes on a straightaway is definitely a recipe for carnage. So it’s just the nature of kind of the way that braking zone is there. Our cars take so long to brake, number one. So under green, we’re braking at 700 I would say; and on a restart there, we’re braking at maybe the 400 or the 500.. still a lot of time to position yourself left or right. It’s just the nature of a late caution on a road course and that’s what it breeds, typically, with a wide braking zone like that. If you don’t do it, somebody is going to do it to you. You don’t want to get spun out, so you end up driving in deeper than you want to because of the guy behind you.”

HAVE YOU GOTTEN INTO PLAYOFF MODE YET? IF YOU HAVE, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU GUYS REALLY HAVE TO WORK ON?

“Yeah, I don’t try to get into any sort of mode. I just try to race. We try, at times, to simulate what a playoff race would be like or things like that, but it never seems to work too good. Just try to go out there and race. We’re going to try our best when the playoffs start and we’re trying our best this weekend. Hopefully this weekend goes as we want it to. The only thing right now represents are the strengths or weaknesses at certain tracks. I feel like we’ve gotten the road courses pretty good. We were a top-three or four car last weekend. Now, it’s just focusing on the 1.5-mile and 2-mile tracks.. how good are we at those at this point of the season. And next week with the short track at Richmond, it will kind of represent a Phoenix-type track.”

IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE A CHEVROLET CAR WON THE CUP RACE HERE AT MICHIGAN. OUTSIDE OF GETTING THREE CHEVY’S IN THE TOP-FIVE LAST YEAR, IT’S BEEN REALLY HARD FOR YOU GUYS TO FINISH UP FRONT. WHAT HAS CHEVROLET BEEN MISSING AT MICHIGAN THE LAST FEW YEARS?

“I think we had the speed last year. Gosh, we had them covered.. not only us on the No. 24, but the No. 1 car with Kurt (Busch) and the No. 5 with Kyle (Larson). So it was the three of us that were top-three at the end, I think, to a certain extent. I think Denny (Hamlin) was pretty fast, too. Just got kind of jumbled up there at the end with a late restart. We had lane choice and whoever got push or the shove out to the lead was going to be able to control the race.

So it just didn’t quite go our way, but I thought we had a really good car. I don’t know what to expect this year, but all the Chevy’s have been fast at the other high-speed tracks.”

YOU’VE LED SOME LAPS IN THIS RECENT STRETCH, BUT THE TOP-10S HAVEN’T BEEN THERE. WHAT IS THE CONCERN? IS IT AS MUCH WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE RACE, OR IS QUALIFYING AND NOT BEING IN THE TOP-10 AS OFTEN AND PUTTING YOURSELF IN A GOOD POSITION TO START OFF WITH?

“I would be really concerned if we didn’t have the speed that we’ve had the last few weeks. New Hampshire was a good Saturday for us; first in practice and qualified pretty good. We just made some incorrect adjustments overnight and just kind of put ourselves out of position there.

But then the last two weeks – yeah Saturday’s haven’t been good, but Sunday at Pocono was really good. We were running fourth; had a pit road issue, had a tire get away and there was a penalty. Last week, probably could have handled the restart maybe a little different, but just unfortunately got caught up in a spin there and knocked the toe link out.

I would be concerned if the last two weeks hadn’t been what it is. But both incidents the last two weeks, we were in the top-five when we’ve had issues. I think we just have to continue that.”

JUSTIN HALEY WAS MENTIONING THAT YOU HAD TEXTED HIM FOR THE CONTACT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS. HE SAID WELL IT’S NOT HIS FAULT.. HE GOT HIT FROM FIVE CARS BEHIND. WHY DID YOU NEED TO SEND HIM A NOTE LIKE THAT BECAUSE OF THE CHAOS THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE RACE, BUT OBVIOUSLY WHAT HAPPENED AT THE START?

“It was just early in the race. I was starting way back, so I probably could have used a little bit of judgment there. Plus, Justin (Haley) is a good friend. We train together, so I think that’s part of it, too. I admire him and appreciate him as a person and a driver, so I wanted to reach out. He’s somebody that I like in the garage. That’s that deal.

But as far as the restarts go, like I talked about with Bob (Pockrass), it was kind of just hit or be hit.. kind of demo go-karts out there. I’ve been in a lot of races like that at GoPro. If you lift for somebody, then somebody runs over you from behind.”

USUALLY WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT A ROAD COURSE RACE THE WEEK AFTER, YOU THINK ABOUT PUTTING MONEY INTO REPAIRING CARS. I’M CURIOUS ABOUT THE HAULER SITUATION FROM LAST WEEK. WAS THAT SOMETHING THAT RICK HENDRICK WAS ABLE TO GET REPAIRED OR DID THEY HAVE TO GO WITH A WHOLE NEW HAULER FOR YOU?

“Yeah, so we have the test hauler we typically use. We’ve been to Watkins Glen with this hauler and a few different tests this year. We will use that for at least the time being; put a design on it, make it look nice and things like that. A little bit different rhythm for the guys I’m sure to kind of know where everything is, but for me it’s the same, really. I don’t use the hauler much. Most of my work is outside the hauler.”

SPEAKING OF SIM RACING, HOW WELL DO YOU THINK THAT IRACING OVERALL HAS BEEN ABLE TO INTEGRATE PARTICULARLY THIS TRACK, AS WELL AS THE NEXT GEN CAR? HOW COMFORTABLE DO YOU FEEL FROM GETTING EXPERIENCE FROM THAT AND CARRYING IT OVER TO REAL ON-TRACK RACING?

“Yeah, I know they’re working super hard on those things. I get on there every couple of months when I’m home; see where it is, see what’s different and what’s new. They’re always working on how realistic the tracks are and how realistic the tires are. The tire is the biggest factor in everything. Obviously we change the tire all of the time based on the track and it’s a lot to keep up with. I feel like they do a good job with all of that stuff. I really just enjoy the community on there, as well.”

YOU’RE SIGNED UP TO RUN THE LATE MODEL AT BERLIN ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT. YOU WON THERE EARLIER THIS SEASON AND YOU’VE BEEN DOING GREAT IN THE LATE MODEL. HOW DOES THAT HELP YOU ON SUNDAY? DOES IT HELP YOU ON SUNDAY?

“Yeah, it certainly helps me on Sunday I feel like. Number one, just enjoying racing. But the more racing I can do, the better I feel like I get as a driver.. how much better my feedback is and all those things. It gives confidence.

I raced the late model last week. Unfortunately didn’t win that one, but it was still a fun race with Erik (Jones). That was a good race track. IRP is awesome. We saw it in the truck race, it was really exciting. I enjoyed that and I’m excited for Berlin.

Berlin was a really hard track the first time I went there a couple months ago. I’m sure it will take something a little different this time with a little bit hotter temperatures and things like that. I’m looking forward to it.”

IN YOUR PREPARTION FOR THIS WEEKEND’S RACE, HOW MUCH OF WHAT YOU LEARNED AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY WITH THIS CAR DO YOU THINK WILL APPLY TO THIS WEEKEND AT MICHIGAN?

“I don’t know – I don’t think Auto Club is very similar now with the age of that surface compared to this one. I think just the speed is probably the biggest thing that’s similar, but there’s a lot more throttle time here.. a lot faster speeds. I don’t see a ton that will be transferable between the two, other than just the downforce, speed and grip are going to be your biggest factors in success.”

WHAT KIND OF RACE ARE WE GOING TO SEE TOMORROW? IS IT GOING TO BE STRESSFUL, NOT STRESSFUL?

“It’s always stressful this year. I don’t think I ever wake up before a race and know what to expect. Last week, I thought I was going to run 25th. The race started and I was up into like the top-five. So you really just roll the dice and just hope that everything works out in your favor. But there’s really not a lot of consistency, as we’ve seen, with performances. There’s not a lot to lean on, in terms of what to expect. Especially coming here for the first time, I don’t know. I hope we’re fast and hope it’s less chaotic at the front.”

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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