Ford Performance NASCAR: Martinsville Post-Race Cup Quotes (FULL PACKAGE)

FORD FINISHING RESULTS

3rd – Ryan Blaney

4th – Brad Keselowski

7th – Joey Logano

10th – Chase Briscoe

12th – Harrison Burton

14th – Todd Gilliland

15th – Cole Custer

16th – Aric Almirola

17th – Kevin Harvick

18th – Michael McDowell

25th – Chris Buescher

27th – Austin Cindric

29th – Cody Ware

31st – JJ Yeley

35th – BJ McLeod

 

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang – “We were solid all day.  We had the spin there early and recovered from that.  We had a good call at the end by Matt McCall to take two tires, but we just weren’t quite strong enough.  We kept locking up the left-front and had a good shot at it.  I was gonna cross over the 14 and he parked it and then everybody ran over me from behind and just never got another shot at it, so that was unfortunate, but, overall, it was a really good race for our team and another day of solid progress.”

 

DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE 1 WAS COMING THAT FAST?  “No.”

 

WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED TO WIN?  “We were that fifth to tenth place car and just needed a little bit more speed out of it to make something happen.”

 

CAN YOU RECAP YOUR DAY?   “We had some ups-and-downs for sure and at the end we rebounded with a nice top five.  I’m proud of our recovery and our effort.  We had a good day on pit road and a good call there at the end to take two tires, but just needed a little bit more speed out of our car to make that count.”


IS RFK GETTING STRONGER?  “It feels like progress.  It’s hard to say it’s not, so we’re happy with that.”

 

THE LAST FOUR RACES HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY GOOD.  “Yeah, it’s just nothing is as fast as you want it to be, but we’re still digging and trying to get all we can get.”

 

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RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “It just wasn’t quite enough.  It was a wild day.  I didn’t think we were great to start.  We kind of faded at the end of that first stage, but we got better throughout the night, which is good, and found ourselves in second on the second-to-last run and kind of ran the 20 down.  I got to him and then you burn your stuff up trying to pass somebody.  There weren’t many passes for the lead tonight and then the last restart I thought I was in a good spot on the bottom.  I thought more pandemonium was gonna happen than that and the 20 got down and he was able to kind of go to work and I couldn’t really get going as good.  It’s unfortunate not to transfer, but proud of the effort.  I didn’t do a great job the last two weeks and put us in a bad spot, but I’m proud of everyone all year and we’ll try to go run well at Phoenix.”

 

YOU WERE REELING IN THE 20 AND THEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT.  HOW DID THAT CHANGE THINGS?  “I ran him down by a little ways and got closer, but I just couldn’t pass him.  You kind of burn your stuff off trying to pass somebody and he kind of drove away from me.  We still had a shot at it there with the last caution and just didn’t get through the traffic as good as he did and once he was able to get the lead.  I’m proud of the effort tonight by everybody, but it just wasn’t quite enough.”

 

DID YOU SEE THE MOVE THE 1 MADE?  WHAT DID YOU THINK?  “I just saw it and I guess I wish I should have done it.  I guess we’ll all start doing it now coming down to the end of the race.”

 

IS THAT GOOD OR BAD?  “I don’t care.  That’s for you all to say.”

 

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CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang – STAYING OUT WAS THE ONLY OPTION.  “Yeah, that was kind of the only play I felt like we really had.  I was honestly surprised nobody else stayed out in front of me.  We couldn’t really pass all day long, so we knew if we restarted eighth, where I think we were running, we probably would have run seventh or eighth.  I thought it was gonna work for a second.  I thought if the race was 10 less laps I was probably gonna win, but I just fell off a cliff really hard there at the end.  It’s unfortunate, but I had a shot.  The penalty early in the race killed us.  Like I said, it was really hard to pass and had to scrap and claw position by position and it took us a really long time to get back up there, but I thought our car was pretty good towards the end.  It would have been nice to be on even tires, for sure.  I felt like we had a car capable of running up front and battling for the win, but that was really the only play we had left.”

 

AFTER THE PENALTY YOU RESTARTED STAGE 2 IN 18TH PLACE AND STAYED THERE FOR THE ENTIRE STAGE AND COULDN’T MAKE UP GROUND.  WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE IN THAT SITUATION?  “It’s frustrating.  It felt like when I was back there I was probably better than the 10 cars in front of me, but you just can’t pass them.  You’re just stuck.  We definitely need to figure out the short track package.  It’s a struggle.  You literally can’t pass.  I’d say maybe the 11 on the long run was good enough.  He could pass, but you had to be almost a half-second better than the guy in front of you to even have a chance, so it was definitely frustrating from that standpoint.  I just wish we didn’t get the penalty.  If we would have stayed in the top four or five, we probably would have ran in the top four or five all day and then at the end you have a chance to do four tires and maybe win the race.  I thought our car was good enough to battle for the win, but the penalty really killed us.”

 

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF CHASTAIN’S MOVE?  “I wish I would have done it the last eight laps.  I would have won the race.  I knew he was almost a point out I thought I heard them say, so I knew down the backstretch he was probably about seven car lengths back from me I knew I was probably gonna get drove through, so I was watching my mirror and I saw how fast he was coming and I gripped the wheel because I thought this is gonna hurt pretty bad, and then luckily I saw him go to the wall.  It was well-executed on his part.  I think all of us have thought about that, just none of us have ever been brave enough to ever try it.  I’m very curious to see what kind of hole that opens up because I think now if it’s the last lap at Martinsville and maybe even Richmond, just go wide-open on the wall.  I think you’ll see the whole field do it.  I mean, it’s that big of an advantage, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens now because now that we all know it’s that big of an advantage, I mean, at the end if you’re running second or third even you’re gonna do that because you’re gonna win the race.  I’m curious to see what plays out after that.”

 

AS STOUT AS YOUR CAR WAS HOW HARD IS THIS TO SWALLOW AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN GETTING THIS FAR?  “It’s frustrating.  The penalty really took us out of it.  You just couldn’t pass.  We were running third or fourth and got the penalty and went back to 18th and literally ran 18th pretty much the rest of the day until we were able to get one spot at a time on restarts, so win as a team, lose as a team.  Those pit crew guys kept me in the playoffs a lot of the time, so it’s unfortunate that I don’t think we really had a pit road penalty all year long and it came at this race, but we’ll go on to Phoenix and try to redeem ourselves.  I felt like in the last six races we’ve had five top 10s, so this is the kind of speed and momentum we need to have going into the start of next year.  I feel like we’re really hitting our stride, so that’s encouraging.  I feel like we’re more than capable of being a top 10 team every week, it’s just a matter of putting it all together and we’ve been doing that a lot better at the end of the year.”

 

WAS ROSS’ MOVE GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP?  “I don’t know.  That’s a great question.  I mean, we could have all done it, so, I mean, I guess it’s fair in that sense.  It’s not like he was the only guy that was able to do it.  I wish that I would have done it now, obviously, looking back on it.  It’s like a 50/50 deal because any of us could have done it, but is it fair to those seven guys he passed?  Probably not, but all seven of us could have done the same thing.  Like I said a second ago, I’m very curious to see how this changes the complexion at the end of these short track races because you could for sure do it here, it’s been proven.  You could do it at Richmond probably.  There are a couple other racetracks – the Coliseum you could do it.  There are a lot of racetracks we could probably do this now every time, so it’ll be interesting to see.  I don’t think they’re gonna penalize him, but maybe it’s something to look at going into next year just with the rulebook.  I think it’s a pretty black and white thing to put in the rules, but kudos to him for doing it.  We could have all done it.  We just didn’t do it.”

 

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JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – “It was interesting.  We were OK.  I thought we were capable of running in the top five for sure.  We had that fire and had to pit to fix the fire and we lost our track position and then it’s just hard to pass.  You get a couple spots here.  You get a couple on a restart.  You get a couple on pit road and then we kind of found ourselves in the spot you don’t want to be in – you are the point person.  If the 11 passes me, he’s in.  If he stays behind me, he’s out.  That’s like the last guy you want to be, so I figured I was gonna get knocked out of the way at some point.  We accomplished our goal.  We did a really good job on pit road.  We needed some good stops and got some momentum there.  We had a solid race car.  I didn’t make any enemies and I still have my crew chief next week.  Those were the goals and we did that.”

 

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