AAA 400 (Dover International Speedway)
Sunday, September 29, 2013Ford Finishing Results:
3rd – Joey Logano
9th – Greg Biffle
16th – Marcos Ambrose
17th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22nd – Aric Almirola
24th – Casey Mears
25th – David Ragan
30th – David Gilliland
35th – Carl Edwards
37th – Brad Keselowski
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED? “I’m not exactly sure,but something in the rear end housing went out and burned itself up. I’m sure everything is screaming hot down there. We leaked oil on the track, so figured we would come in before we ruined everybody else’s day. We definitely weren’t gonna finish it off, so it’s just one of those deals.”
HOW WERE RACING CONDITIONS? “I thought our car was pretty good, but the 48 looks to be heads and tails above the field. I think everybody else is equal, it’s just a matter of where you come off of pit road because once you get out on the race track there’s no passing.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY INDICATION SOMETHING WAS GOING WRONG? “I didn’t have much, but the crew guys had a bunch when they did the last pit stop. They noticed a lot of oil in the wheel well, so we tried to get off the track as fast as we could with the Miller Lite Ford to not bring out a yellow, but obviously wasn’t quite quick enough. We’re getting all of our bad luck out of the way this year, so watch out next year.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “We are concerned about points because we’re in the Chase and we’re not out of it yet. I just saw we’re 66 points back now so we gained a couple, which isn’t many, but these are the days we’ve got to have. We’re back on track. The last three weeks have been a little tougher for us and coming here to Dover, my favorite race track, this Shell/Pennzoil team did everything they had to do to get that Ford up front and get closer. Our biggest issue is we didn’t take off with really good speed, but after 15-16-17 laps it came to me and it was really fast. It just took a little bit too long there on the last restart. I was able to get up to third, I was in the right lane, but by the time my car came to me I was too late. We were the fastest car the last six laps, but it doesn’t really matter when you can barely see the leaders. Unfortunately, that was our day, but, overall, we can’t be too disappointed with a third-place finish. It’s just that you always want to be a little better.”
DOES THIS HELP YOUR TEAM CONFIDENCE? “Like I said a minute ago, that momentum is built back up. Richmond, Chicago and then Loudon weren’t our best races. At Chicago we had a fast car, but we blew up there. Really, if we had that Chicago race back, we’d be in the mix for this championship. Unfortunately, those things happen, but we’re slowly but surely making up from that right now.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Filtrete/3M Ford Fusion – “We’ve just got to keep working at it. We’re learning stuff as we go, so we’ll just keep trying to get better every week. We went back and forth between being too loose and too tight, but I think we learned something today as to why we’ve run so bad here the last two or three years. That’s good for later on, but not good for today. Now we know. We stumbled on to a little bit of grip, so maybe that will help us at other places.”
HOW DID THE LONG GREEN FLAG RUNS WORK FOR YOU? “We were good because we were at our best at the very end of those long runs.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “Overall, we gave it the best effort we could. Greg hung on and got a decent finish, but we’ve really got to step it up now to have a chance. We did not need to have that trouble, but there’s a lot of racing left. We don’t quit. We just have to keep moving.”
YOU HAD A HANDFUL WITH YOUR CAR EVEN BEFORE THE TROUBLE, RIGHT? “We struggled all day. Our plan was to get off-sequence at the end and I thought we might have a shot at making a top-three or four out of it, but something broke in the left-rear. I don’t know what it was, but I don’t think it was any fault of my guys. They did a great job. Jimmy did a great job working hard on it all day, but we just weren’t fast. We needed to hang on for a solid finish and something broke, so that’s tough.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion – “It was a long, hard-fought day for our Taco Bell team. We threw a lot of changes at it from yesterday and the guys kept working on it the whole race. We had a good day on pit road, too. So, we would’ve liked a little bit better finish, but we’ll take it and get ready for the short week before heading to Kansas.”
JOEY LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE – “Starting off from practice yesterday we ended and our car wasn’t very good. We didn’t have much speed in it and Todd Gordon and the whole Shell/Pennzoil team did a good job. They threw everything at this car last night. Three springs, bars, shocks, you name it. There is more that I’m forgetting, but we changed just about everything on this race car – wedge, a whole bunch of stuff – and it was definitely better to start the race. We had to make some adjustments as we got going and as the race went we turned into a top-five car, I think, and just had to get that track position. On the last restart, starting on the outside was a good lane to have and also having four tires was also the right call that Todd made. I was able to capitalize on the restart, get ourselves up to third, but the problem was it just took us too long to get up to speed. Fifteen laps into the run the car took off and the last six or seven laps we were the fastest car on the track, but we were a little too little, too late. I could barely see the leaders and the only shot I had at beating them was if they ran into each other or slipped up a lot and I was able to make something up, but I just couldn’t get there in time. Maybe if the race was another 40 laps I may have gotten there. I didn’t race against the 48 all day, but from what I heard, he was wicked-fast today.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY CONCERN AFTER BRAD WENT OFF TRACK? “I know for me when I talk on the radio I slow down a lot, so I try not to ask any questions and if they don’t tell me, I’m not gonna ask. I guess it was something that wasn’t gonna affect me with my car, so if it was something that they were concerned and I maybe had to drive the car differently to protect something, I still don’t know what happened to Brad. Unfortunately, I don’t even know where he finished, but he had a decent car today too. Both of us were running up there in the top 10 early in the race and making that early pit stop kills your track position quite a bit there. It’s unfortunate. We want Brad to run good. It’s the same thing Dale just said a second ago. You want your teammate to run good because that indirectly helps your team. Unfortunately, he must have had a problem today.”
