Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Bristol Night Race Qualifying – Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, August 18, 2017
Ford Qualifying Results:
8th – Joey Logano
9th – Clint Bowyer
10th – Ryan Blaney
14th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – Brad Keselowski
19th – David Ragan
20th – Trevor Bayne
24th – Danica Patrick
25th – Kurt Busch
28th – Aric Almirola
29th – Kevin Harvick
34th – Matt DiBenedetto
33rd – Landon Cassill
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “I was loose. We fought that all day. I was just really loose on the bottom. My car is really good up top. I thought in race trim we were a top-10 car actually, but we switched over to qualifying and we just can’t get qualified. The car is just out of the track and really loose. I don’t know. We’ve got to do some homework to get qualified better. It’s certainly not ideal to be starting the race that far back, but I’m pretty happy with our Smithfield Ford Fusion in race trim and I’ve got a lot of cars to pass.”
CLINT BOWYER – No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion – “It’s a hell of a lot better than we were. It wasn’t looking very good after all of my teammates and everybody kind of went by the wayside. I was kind of thinking, ‘Oh man, we’ve got to do something here,’ but we made a couple of adjustments there and made it a little bit better and got us in that last round. It was a conversation right there before we went and I’m glad we did it. I was kind of trying to talk ourselves out of doing it, to be honest with you because I was afraid it wasn’t gonna be the answer, but it really was and a top 10 starting spot will be just fine.” DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR CAR? “As we went through today there were times on the race track we were right where we need to be. Balance-wise the car felt great and consistent, and then all of a sudden that stuff started wearing off and you’re like, ‘Now I don’t feel all of this,’ and you start adjusting to all the conditions and that’s when you just have to hit ‘timeout’ and say, ‘Hey, listen, that stuff is gonna come and go. It’s gonna wear off.’ You have to be good. You’ve got to have some adjustability built into it just like the spring race. You started off really loose down in there and then all of a sudden you move up and you’re really tight, and then you’re freeing up the rest of the race once that wore out. So just kind of having a good set of notes from the spring race and then leaning on them, being smart about disciplining yourself until that stuff wears out, free up a little bit so you run the outside and then just go from there.”
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “I’d like to be nine spots better, but I think our car was pretty decent today. We lost a little bit of speed going into qualifying, which kind of stinks, but we still got a pretty decent starting spot for the race. We can see the front and I think our race car was fairly decent today. Hopefully, we’ll make some good changes and we’ll see where this XFINITY race goes in terms of the line and stuff, and then go from there.” WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK CONDITIONS TODAY COMPARED TO WHAT THEY MAY BE LIKE TOMORROW? “They’ll probably re-spray it tonight or in the morning and have a fresh coat on it for our race tomorrow. I think it will be like at the beginning of practice today, so they’ll have to re-apply it just to try to make it more even. Eventually, I think it’s going to move up, but we’ll be all over the place.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “We’re getting closer. We started off pretty bad, so we’re making a little bit more speed here and that’s a good improvement from where we were in practice. We’ll learn some stuff tonight and win tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll win tonight.” YOU PRETTY MUCH HAVE TO WIN. IS IT HARD TO PREPARE WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE TRACK IS GOING TO BE LIKE FOR 500 LAPS TOMORROW? “I think we have a general idea what’s gonna happen. I think as a race team we’ve raced here enough and have seen what happens to the top and what happens to the bottom. I know the bottom is kind of an unknown, but we’ll be ready for anything.” JUST LIKE LAST WEEK. SECOND DOESN’T HELP YOU. “Second is unacceptable.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion – WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET A TOP-5 OR A WIN TOMORROW? “We’re looking at a win. We’ve always circled Bristol over the last few years coming here and trying to put ourselves in position for a win. We’ve had a couple seconds and feel really good. We always seem to be a little bit better in the fall race than we are in the spring race here. We had a decent car in the spring, so, for us, this is a plus in qualifying. Normally, we’re around 23rd, so I feel like we’re about 10 spots better from where we normally qualify. For whatever reason we can put down good laps in practice and in the race in race trim, but when it goes to qualifying trim we just can’t seem to hit our mark and be as good. We didn’t miss the third round by much, but definitely happy with being 14th. Our qualifying run in practice, we were faster in race trim than we were in qualifying trim in practice, so it was a huge pickup for us. It’s disappointing. We wanted to make the third round and get a shot at a top-10 qualifying spot, but we definitely helped our average out on that.” WHAT DOES THE VHT DO FOR YOU AND HOW DOES IT CHANGE DURING THE RACE? “It will change a lot during the race. I’m sure they’ll reapply some. It’s already less than what it was at the beginning of the day. It is nice them not running the tire dragon and stuff over it. There are less marbles. We were able to run the top in today during practice and my car felt really good both top and bottom. That’s where I was pretty good in the fall race. I could run the bottom when I needed to. I could run the top when I need to and to be good here you’ve got to be good in lap traffic. Everybody can be about the same speed running the top, but you can make a lot of moves and pin people behind other cars in lap traffic. The cars that are the best can get around the bottom, so we ran a lot on the bottom to see if we could make our car work down there. The Fastenal Ford felt really good. I don’t know if everybody remembers, but the last time we were here we were rebuilding the rear clip on our Sunny D Ford after crashing in practice. We didn’t get much practice, but still came out with a strong run and we’re looking forward to tomorrow night.”
