RYAN BLANEY RACING PHOTO
Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford Mustang Dark Horse
– “I never gave up hope, that’s for sure. We’ve had great speed all
year, just hasn’t been the best year for us as far as good fortune. The
12 boys are awesome; they stick with it no matter how it goes, and it
was great to finish one out tonight.”
Q. How much did the game change for you on the 12 team when Hassler made
the call for the two-tire stop at the end of Stage 1 and you got all
that track position?
“Yeah, I thought it was a good call. We drove up to seventh there in
the first stage, and I thought two tires were great. I thought my car
was really good, and that really set us up for the rest of the race, so
great job by him, as always, all the 12 boys, appreciate what they do
pit crew was great. Appreciate Menard’s, Cardell, Ford, Ford Motor
Company, Roush Yates Engines, Discount Tire, Wabash, Worth, Snap-on, DEX
Imaging, Body Armour, Advance Auto Parts, everything what they do. It’s
nice that it’s finally happening, so I’m ready to go celebrate.”
Q. You don’t normally do burnouts after a win, but Corey LaJoie loves to
grade burnouts. So, I’m sure he’s very happy you gave him one?
“I didn’t think it was very good, but did the crowd like the burnout
or not? They liked it so that’s all that matters.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I
gave him a whole two lanes off the bottom and he just trekked me. It
annihilated us. It was so early in the race and that was a hard hit. It
is just sort of the story of our year so far. We’ve been running good,
running better, then we get taken out by things not of our doing. We
just have to go faster to get away from it all. We have been building
good cars. We ran good at Charlotte. I feel like we have good speed at
some of these tracks. I am really proud of everyone at Front Row
Motorsports. It just sucks to be annihilated like that.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/OIKOS Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“Incredibly aero sensitive race. We just didn’t get the details
right. We had decent speed, but we didn’t perform at the level we are
capable of. On to Michigan. We should be really good there. I am excited
for it. It has been a really good one for us. We had a good tire test
there. We will see what the new tire does, but the speed was there.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I
thought our car was pretty solid. We had worked our way into the top ten
at the end of the second stage. Unfortunately, had a penalty on pit road
and got mired in the back and just couldn’t get back up there. All in
all, I was pretty happy with our Ford Mustang, and we will get them next
week.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We
just took too long to get going. That pretty much was our day. Proud of
Team Penske and proud of Ford. The car wasn’t fast in the first 30
laps.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Our
guys did a great job tonight and have been working their tails off to
get better and better. We ran a good number of laps inside the top 15
and brought home a solid top 20 finish, but this race showed we can go
out there and compete.”
CODY WARE, No. 51 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Just a really
frustrating night. I felt like we had a decent Arby’s Ford Mustang
Dark Horse tonight, but the night kind of fell apart after we had an
issue with a wheel at the start of the final stage. It’s a tough,
tough way to have a swing like that in what would have been a decent day
for the team. So, we’re just going to reset, re-rack it for Michigan
and just keep building on the progress we’re making as a race team.”