Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, July 12, 2019
Quaker State 400 Cup Series Qualifying Results/Quotes
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Daniel Suarez
2nd – Aric Almirola
3rd – Brad Keselowski
5th – Kevin Harvick
7th – Clint Bowyer
11th – Joey Logano
14th – Paul Menard
15th – Ryan Blaney
16th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – Michael McDowell
23rd – Ryan Newman
25th – David Ragan
29th – Corey LaJoie
31st – Matt Tifft
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang – Qualified 1st
“My car has been very fast the entire day. I feel that we had probably the fastest car in the last practice and the fastest car in qualifying again. I am very proud of my guys and Ford Performance and Stewart-Haas Racing and everyone that makes this program go. We have been working very hard.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU STARTING UP FRONT HERE TOMORROW NIGHT AT A TRICKY TRACK TO PASS? “I really want to win so bad. I haven’t been in victory lane for awhile. The last time was in Brazil in a go-kart race. I am looking forward to bringing a trophy home for awhile and we have a very fast car so now it is up to me to make it happen tomorrow night.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Valley Tech Learning Ford Mustang – Qualified 2nd
“It is a great day for us. Everybody has been doing a good job of trying to figure out how to bring more speed and more driveability in our cars. I feel like this weekend so far we are off to a good start and the cars are fast and driving good. We have part one done, we have qualified up front and got ourselves good track position and pit stall selection and good clean air. Now we just have to go put a race together.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – Qualified 3rd
“That wasn’t bad. That was our best qualifying effort on a mile and a half this year I think. That is something to be proud of. I didn’t quite have the speed to get the pole. I would have liked a later draw. I think there would have been some speed there. Danile was a tenth-and-a-half ahead. All in all a decent run for our Discount Tire Ford Mustang and I am happy for DOug Yates and all of the Ford guys to have all three of our cars up front with the Fords. We will see what we have tomorrow.”
THAT IS A GOOD MORALE BOOSTER FOR THE WHOLE FORD CAMP ISN’T IT? “Yeah it is. Ford has done an excellent job with this Mustang and it is really paying off.”
Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, July 12, 2019
Page 9
Quaker State 400 Cup Series Qualifying Results/Quotes
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang — Qualified 5th
“The car was good, I just didn’t get all that I needed to get driving it into the corner. I definitely left a little bit out there but overall it was a pretty good lap. I think today is probably as important of a qualifying day as we have had with the way that things went in practice. The car drivers fairly good and we just have to do the right things and make the right calls and not make any mistakes and keep it all in one piece.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang – Qualified 11th
“We weren’t fast enough. Hopefully she races well. It seems like when you go watch qualifying that has been the tell all of what direction teams have gone. Do they want to be good in the race or qualifying. Sometimes you have those special weekends where you have both. Hopefully our car races well. I think we will. It seems like we have the handling well and that is a big piece. We kind of have to wait and see how this all plays out. Somewhere there is a compromise between handling and speed and hopefully we have nailed that. Sometimes you just don’t know. We have no idea when we show up to these race tracks with this new rules package and then this traction compound you don’t really know until you get here. Really you don’t know until the race itself. We can talk about practice all we want but the sun is going to go down and does the traction compound wear off? There are a lot of questions we don’t have answers to until we race.”
