Pure Michigan 400 – Michigan International Speedway
NSCS Post Race
Sunday, August 16, 2015FORD FINISHING RESULTS
7th Joey Logano
9th Brad Keselowski
14th Aric Almirola
19th Sam Hornish Jr.
22nd Trevor Bayne
23rd Greg Biffle
24th Ryan Blaney
26th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27th Cole Whitt
32nd David Gilliland
34th Brett Moffitt
37th Josh Wise
JOEY LOGANO, No. 21 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Qualified 10th – Finished 7th)
“My team did a good job and we executed fairly well. We had a couple bad restarts but a good one there at the end to make up for it. I would say we finished about where we deserved. I feel like we were anywhere from a fourth to 10th place car, somewhere in that area and it depended on the adjustments.” HOW HARD WAS THE PASSING OUT THERE WITH THIS PACKAGE? “It was hard. Really, really, really hard.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (Qualified 14th – Finished 9th)
“It was an okay day. Nothing spectacular. We just never had the speed like the 20 car had. We made the most of our day in every way we could though. We just needed to be faster, for sure, especially down the straightaways.” EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS HIGH DRAG PACKAGE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS? “It doesn’t matter what my thoughts and observations are, it is what NASCAR wants. Whatever they want to do.” HOW HARD WAS IT TO PASS? “It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t the worst I have ever seen but this package increasingly rewards the car over the driver and I am not a fan of that.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Armour Ford Fusion (Qualified 30th – Finished 14th)
“We may have finished 14th today, but it felt like a win after the weekend we had. Everyone worked really hard to get the car where we needed it. Thanks to Matt Crafton for helping us out on Friday. Today is what we needed to do. We made the best out of our situation and made up some good ground in points. We started the year with a goal to be consistent and just scored our 12th Top-15.”
SAM HORNISH JR., No. 9 Transportation Impact Ford Fusion (Qualified 15th – Finished 19th) –
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END THAT GOT YOU INTO THE WALL? “We took two tires on that last stop and apparently one of them was bad because we got into the wall there right before the last lap. We were able to get it far enough without losing too many spots. If I hadn’t hit the wall, we might have been 18th, I don’t know. I think we only lost one spot really.” TALK ABOUT PIT STRATEGY OUT THERE TODAY. “We only pitted that strategy because we started getting a vibration on the front tire. We were in our window and some of the leaders started pitting and I didn’t want to take a chance of blowing out a tire trying to make it somewhere we needed to be. We pitted a little early and that didn’t hurt us at all. The strategy, we took the wave around once, if we didn’t have to start at the back because of the lucky dog then we probably would have been able to stay on the lead lap all day. As it was we had to take the wave around once and our Transportation Impact Ford Fusion was pretty good on the long run. That is where we really seemed to shine.” YOUR THOUGHTS OF THIS AERO PACKAGE IN THIS RACE? “I don’t know. Did the 20 lead every lap? He led a lot of them didn’t he? You don’t really see that at Michigan all the time. Back in the pack, it probably allowed me to complete some passes that I wouldn’t have normally but it also kept me from completing some that I definitely had all the run in the world to get it done. It is a 50-50 deal as far as how it affects the car. The restarts were nuts and I was just really surprised there weren’t more yellows with the amount of cars that were sliding all over the place.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Qualified 19th – Finished 24th)
“I thought we went forward OK at the beginning and got put in a bad spot and lost a bunch of spots when Stewart spun out.” HE TALKED ON THE RADIO ABOUT A VIBRATION, DID THEY EVER FIGURE OUT WHAT IT WAS? “I thought we had a loose wheel. We had it every pit stop. I don’t know what it was. We’ll have to go back and look at it. We came it to pit to WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE STEWART SPIN PUT YOU IN THE WALL? “When he went sideways he took all the air off our car, every last bit of it, and we got loose and hit the wall. It put us behind all day and we never got it back.”
