BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW? “I don’t really have any emotions right now. We weren’t good enough to make it and we didn’t. That is the reality.” TAKE US THROUGH HOW YOUR RACE UNFOLDED TONIGHT. “We were pretty good at the start and led a lot of laps. I think we led the most laps but we just weren’t strong enough to really stay up there. We needed clean air to really run well and once we lost that we just weren’t strong enough.” WE HEARD YOU ON THE RADIO TALKING TO YOUR GUYS AND SAYING YOU NEEDED TO SWING FOR THE FENCES. WHAT IS THAT LIKE IN THE MOMENT WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A CAR THAT IS CAPABLE OF WINNING THE RACE AND IT STARTS TO WANE ON YOU A BIT? “Yeah, that is just the way our cars have been this year. They haven’t been good enough and we haven’t executed as well as we neeced to. We have work to do. At the end of the day, the thing about points is it is the best measuring stick in sports. You know who deserves to be where because the results speak for themselves. We didn’t have enough results to get where we needed to be.” HOW CLOSE WERE YOU AT THE END OF THAT RACE TO THE 15? THERE WAS SOME QUESTION AS TO IF CLINT MIGHT HAVE SPUN HIMSELF ON PURPOSE. “No, I couldn’t tell you that. I didn’t see it.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “Well, we are in. If feels great. Man, what a terrible race though. We were hanging on the whole time. I didn’t know where we were and everytime I asked where we stood and they didn’t answer me. I thought that wasn’t good if they weren’t answering me. It feels good to put one of these Chase hats on and we can regroup and go for a championship now. It feels good. It has been a lot of years I have been trying to get into the Chase. It is a big accomplishment. Once you are in doesn’t mean you are done. I want to try to go for it. I have 100-percent confidence in this team to make it happen. We are going to forget about tonights finish and make the most of this Chase.” YOU ARE ONE OF THE SEXY PICKS TO WIN THIS THING. DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE A PICK TO WIN THIS THING? “Oh yeah. We can win this thing. We just have to run better than what we did tonight.” THE FLIP SIDE IS YOUR TEAMMATE BRAD KESELOWSKI FINDS HIMSELF NOT IN THE CHASE. “Yeah, that is tough. Brad has had fast cars. It is so hard to make this Chase. We both went through a lot this season of having bad finishes and fast race cars. It feels good to get in it but I know what he is going through right now and it is tough. He is a champion though and he will get through it. If anyone things he is going to run over and die they are crazy. He will win some races for sure.” HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET IN? “It feels really good after having such a rough night. The car was really struggling all night. I kept asking Todd where we were, if we were good or bad and he never really answered me, so I was thinking, ‘I don’t think that’s good.’ Thank God for that last caution, I guess. I think we were out before that, so we’ve got to forget this finish tonight and reset our goals for the championship and try to get this Shell/Pennzoil Ford a championship. This team is capable of doing it. Thank God we’re not ever coming back to Richmond until next year and we’ve got to score some points and score some wins now.” OVER THE LAST 6 OR 7 WEEKS YOU HAVE BEEN STRONG. HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU FOR THE CHASE? “I’m encouraged for sure. All of our finishes leading up to this race were really, really good. I feel like we were the hottest team in NASCAR coming into this race, so we’re not gonna let this kill our momentum. We’re gonna take this momentum we have getting into the Chase and let ‘er rip and have some fun.”
ROGER PENSKE, OWNER, No. 22 Shell Penzoil Ford Fusion – YOUR THOUGHTS ON JOEY MAKING THE CHASE. “First I have to thank Carl Edwards for winning that race. That made a huge difference there at the end because if Newman would have won we would have been out. Joey persevered all season and I guess when he had those couple DNF’s that tonight was something in our favor. We just thank the Dear Lord and everyone for taking care of us tonight and giving us a safe race. We are in the Chase. That is what we came here for. Now we start all over again.” THE FLIP SIDE IS BRAD DOES NOT MAKE THE CHASE. “Brad has done such a great job and as I told him today before the race, I said that we might not get in but it is like business, you will have some good months and bad months but we have a great company. He has done a great job for us with what he is doing on the Nationwide side as well. He deserved better than he got and I think we let him down a couple of times but overall he is a class guy and a great guy to have on the team and I need to thank him for getting us Joey Logano.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 Scotchgard Ford Fusion – “I feel really good right now. I gave up there at the end. Those guys were going crazy. I wish I would have gotten a top-five finish out of that. I don’t even know where I finished. I am happy for Carl and we worked hard all night. We had a great car. I just couldn’t get it right getting into one and as the speed started picking up I started getting worse. I just could never get it right getting into one down there.” IT’S BEEN AN UP AND DOWN YEAR FOR YOU. NOW THAT YOU ARE IN THE CHASE, HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING FORWARD? “We feel good. Look at how we ran here tonight. Man, if our Chase looks like that, we are right where we need to be. I am happy about that.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Kellogg’s/Cheeze-It Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “That’s my pit crew that won this race for us. It was just an awesome job by them. It’s so cool to put Kellogg’s in Victory Lane – Kellogg’s, Fastenal, Ford, Subway, Aflac, The Geek Squad, UPS, Sprint – all the fans, Wiley X, everybody who has been behind us all year, especially my fans. It was up at the beginning with Jimmy and our new team, and then we struggled for a little while, but the last three weeks have been great. We’ve led a bunch of laps and have had fast race cars and we’re having fun. Thanks to Jack Roush. We got Greg Biffle in the Chase. We got Ford to Victory Lane and I’ve just got to thank New Holland and Cesna also. They give me a lot of support through the year, but this is really cool. I’m sure I haven’t won a race here in the Cup car, so it’s a big night for us.” HOW STRONG CAN YOU BE IN THE CHASE? “We’re gonna win the championship. That’s our mission. That seemed like a crazy idea about a month-and-a-half ago, but Jimmy and these guys have buckled down. Everybody back at the shop, all the guys building these race cars, all of our Ford teammates – Brad, Joey and all the Penske guys – everybody has rallied together. I can’t say enough about Robbie Reiser, Bob Osborne, Chip Bolin, all the guys at the shop. We’ve got two guys in the Chase. We’ve got Ricky Stenhouse, who had an awesome night tonight, but this championship would mean the world to me. The next 10 weeks, we’re gonna be on them hard. They’re gonna know we’re here.”
Ford Racing PR
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