Ford Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Bass Pro Shops Night Race (Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN)
Saturday, August 18, 2018
KURT BUSCH GIVES FUSION 100TH CUP VICTORY
· Kurt Busch piloted his No. 41 Ford to victory today at Bristol, his first win of the 2018 season.
· The win is the 30th in his NASCAR Monster Energy Cup career.
· Ford has now exceeded its win total from last season with 11 in 2018.
· This marks the 13th win for Stewart-Haas Racing since joining Ford last year.
· The win is Fusion’s 100th Cup Series triumph since becoming Ford’s flagship vehicle in 2006.
· Today’s win is Ford’s 669th all-time in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition.
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “It’s awesome to do it at Bristol. I love this place. We now have won six times here and I have great teams that have always helped me win. This group of guys, Billy Scott, my crew chief, this is his first win and to be able to do it with Ford and Monster and Haas Automation is just what it’s all about is executing as a team and we had good restarts when we had to, and then you’ve got to get clever and start throwing everything at it.”
HOW DID YOU TAKE THE LEAD? “It was up to Bowyer to choose the lane. He chose the outside and we got a perfect start on the inside. I dug it perfect right into turn one and two and the spotter said, ‘Take it. Take it.’ Which meant go to the wall on exit and I didn’t even bother to look in the mirror. He said, ‘Take it,’ and when you trust your team to give you the right stuff setup-wise, you’ve got to trust the spotter the same way. Tony Raines. He’s a racer. That’s why he’s my spotter and it worked out perfect.”
WHEN YOU TOOK THE LEAD DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD THE VICTORY? “You just have to go into the tool chest of restart stuff. You go back to memories on what it takes with the tires, which lane, the way the inside had been wearing out, but yet the high groove was there and plus we were on older tires. We didn’t have the new tires to stick it good on the bottom, so I just went to the old tool box and had a few left.”
THIS SOLIDIFIES A PLAYOFF SPOT. “It just matters to win. It’s all about winning. I’m glad we did. We’ve been the most consistent team this year that hasn’t won. I wasn’t worried about not making the Playoffs, so we could kind of treat these races coming up as free-for-alls, and we’re just gonna keep going after it. The Southern 500 is after this week off and we’ve got Indianapolis and then my hometown kicks off the Playoffs, so we’re all about these next 12.”
A WEEK OFF NOW. “Yeah, I used to win the spring race here a lot and there was an off week after that, so thank you Bristol. I’m loving it.”
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Kurt Busch
4th – Joey Logano
6th – Clint Bowyer
7th – Ryan Blaney
10th – Kevin Harvick
11th – Trevor Bayne
16th – Brad Keselowski
17th – David Ragan
22nd – Matt DiBenedetto
24th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
31st – Aric Almirola
36th – Paul Menard
37th – Michael McDowell
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Fusion – “I just clearly didn’t do a good job on the restarts. When I had the lead I thought I got a good jump and about the time I shifted Kurt hit me in the door and it just lit the tires up. He didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just a product of it. I don’t know. Then when I was on the bottom I spun the tires real bad and they all got around me. It’s disappointing. You get a car that good and you get that close you hate to not come home with it, but, all in all, for as terrible as we started the weekend and as bad as our yesterday was, to lead laps or even be in the top 10 I was pretty surprised to be honest with you. In the grand scheme of things it was a pretty good run for us, but you hate to give them up like that.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 REV Group Ford Fusion – “We just struggled as the track got colder and rubbered in. I was really happy with our car in the first stage, but we just kind of lost it from there. It was a decent comeback for us. We were gonna restart sixth and the 48 pitted and that kind of hurt us, but it was a decent night.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “I wouldn’t say we’ve been in a little slump, but we kind of have been. We’ve been consistent and run in the top 10 and that’s just kind of where we’d run. We had a couple wrecks here recently with Pocono and Watkins Glen and a top 10 last week felt OK. I felt like we had a better car than a top 10 last week and then this week we had a car that could win if circumstances played out right, which it didn’t, but, overall, I’m proud of the speed we had on the short run.” ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH FOURTH? “Yes and no. I’m proud of the stage win we got. That was great. Our car was really good on the short run and really bad on the long run, so we definitely had the extremes figured out. Overall, I thought we fell back to 10th on the long runs and we could drive up to the lead on a short run. We were lucky to have a few short runs there at the end, which we were able to grab some spots and ultimately finish in the top five. I’m proud of the effort everyone put in today and it’s nice to get another top five. We’ve been kind of just struggling to finish 10th lately, so this felt nice to have speed to go up there and lead a lot of laps. It’s not the win that we always shoot for, but it’s progress and we’re proud of that.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Rehydrate Ford Fusion – “Jack asked me in the driver’s meeting how my car was and I told him it was a 10th to 15th-place car and if we could get it to turn we’d be better than that. Early in the race it turned and we drove up into the top 10 and were running about eighth. I had the speeding penalty and kind of overcame that and got back up to seventh or eighth and then that last restart it was all about what lane you were gonna be in. We were gonna be in the top, but Jimmie pitted and I was like, ‘Oh, man.’ So I started on the bottom and cost us a few spot and ended up 11th, but it’s a good finish for our guys but every weekend when I leave the track I just kind of look and say, ‘Did I do everything I could do to get every position,’ whether that was 23rd or 11th, so I felt like I did a good job tonight. I wish I wouldn’t have sped on pit road. I wish I wouldn’t have let the 4 get by me at the end, but I shouldn’t have tried to cross Jimmie over and just got greedy and it cost me a spot. But, all in all, it was a good day and we’ll keep fighting.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 Shriners Hospital For Children Ford Fusion – “I was disappointed when we got spun and went a couple laps down. Bristol is a tough race and you really have to have 500 really clean laps and we had one mistake early and lost a couple of laps, so we were fortunate to get back one lap down and our team did a nice job making adjustments and I feel like we had a top 12 to 15 car, but a top 20 finish. We learned a few things and it was a good night for us. It was a lot of fun representing the Shriners in the car.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – Retired due to accident after 10 laps) WHAT HAPPENED WITH KYLE AND THAT FIRST INCIDENT? “I don’t know about all that. We started pretty far back with our Love’s Ford and really I was stopped and not in it at all, and then about five seconds later got blasted from behind. I’m not really sure. It seemed like a long time before the other cars got slowed down, but it’s so disappointing to be out so early, and not of your own doing. It’s just heartbreaking. Five hundred laps is a long race and I think I did a total of 10 laps between the two races this year in 2018, so I’m just really frustrated, but this is racing and that’s what happens sometimes. I’m not really sure what led to the 18 being spun, but all I know is there is a lot of cars not paying attention and a lot of spotters not paying attention for that to happen like it happened.”
PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Menards/Knauf Ford Fusion – Retired after hitting the wall after 28 laps) WHAT CAUSED YOU TO GO INTO THE WALL? “It’s hard to say. The wheel is broke – broke the center section out of the wheel, which we’ve never seen before, so kind of just disappointed. We had a really fast Ford. We started fourth and felt like if that first caution hadn’t come out we could have been leading the race by lap three, but on the restart I just had a really bad vibration, trying to stay out of everybody’s way up by the fence and finally the wheel broke. We’ve got to figure out why the wheel broke. What came first, the chicken or the egg, hitting the wall or the wheel breaking, but we’re scratching our head about that one.”
