Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead-Miami Speedway)
Sunday, November 17, 2013Ford Finishing Order:
6th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Joey Logano
12th – Carl Edwards
16th – Aric Almirola
22nd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24th – Greg Biffle
26th – Marcos Ambrose
27th – David Gilliland
28th – Casey Mears
29th – David Ragan
40th – Trevor Bayne
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “We definitely had the car on the short runs, but just weren’t close on the long runs. I guess that was kind of the trade off. We had a lot long runs here at Homestead, which is normally the case. If we could have got the long run speed to go with the short run speed we would have killed them tonight, but we just didn’t have that.” YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE END OF YOUR TITLE REIGN? “A champion is forever. It might not be reigning, but you’re still a champion forever. I’m proud of that. I’m looking forward to the opportunities in the future to become a two-time champion. It didn’t’ happen this year, but there’s a long road in front of us and in the meantime Jimmie is the champion and congratulations to him and his team.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “It was hard-fought evening to say the least. It’s such a difficult race track, especially when you’re loose all night. We made a lot of adjustments all night on this Shell/Pennzoil Ford and it just wasn’t getting any better. It was like we were barely keeping up with the track. We put like six rounds in the left-rear and took four or five out of the right-rear, track bar, rubbers, air-pressure, we did everything we could do and it would just get loose no matter what. No matter what we’d do it gets loose. We would fight ahead and maintain a little bit and finished eighth, so overall it was a solid day. I’m more impressed with our year. We did a good job this year and learned a lot about each other, and learned a lot about where we could have done a better job in races and where we need to improve next year and where to work on our cars during the off-season. It’s been a pleasure to work with Todd Gordon and all these guys on this team. I had a lot of fun this year and this was my best season personally. I’d still call it a good season, not a great season. We were just talking about the opportunities we had to win and we feel like we had the chance to win five races and we capitalized on one of them, so that’s a good area we can learn from and figure out how to limit our mistakes. I gave up a couple and we had some other mistakes that gave up a few too, so we’ve got areas we need to improve and we’ll do it.” HOW CRAZY WERE THE RESTARTS TONIGHT? “It was awesome. I wish we raced here more than once a year, that’s for sure. It’s such a cool race track and such a fun track to race at and the way you run up against the wall. It’s such a grueling race because you’ve got to be focused in so much and you don’t want to hit the wall, but the closer you get to it the faster you go. It’s wore out, tire management is big. We were out of tires. If a caution came out we were gonna be in trouble because we were out of tires, so that’s pretty cool. That hasn’t happened this year, so it’s fun to be a part of races like that.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “That was a lot of improvement from what we’ve been running in the past, so I was really proud of my guys for that. We came with something a lot different than what we’ve normally been running, and we see some positives there, so I’m looking forward to the off-season and building off of this and getting ready for the Daytona 500.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “It was a frustrating race because we never really had any speed. I had a blast there at the end racing right on the fence, but it wasn’t enough. This is the first time we’ve run that poorly in this race. This track is usually our bread and butter, so this style of track and this track particularly has been really good, so it’s tough. That’s the way it is.” WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THE 48? “Those guys are amazing. They just prove year-in and year-out that you’ve got to work really, really hard in this sport. They work as hard as anyone, so they deserve this championship. They put the work in.”
