FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTO
* Joey Logano won the first Duel race on Thursday night in his No. 22
Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
* Ryan Blaney finished second to give Ford a one-two finish.
* Casey Mears clinched a spot in the Daytona 500 by being the
highest-finishing Open car in his No. 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Joey Logano
2nd – Ryan Blaney
4th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Casey Mears
9th – Ryan Preece
12th – Noah Gragson
16th – Chandler Smith
19th – Corey LaJoie
23rd – Chris Buescher
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY
LANE INTERVIEW – WHAT DID YOU LEARN AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR
MUSTANG? “We definitely learned a lot. It was great teamwork all the
way through. Ryan Blaney was a fantastic teammate there, which is
expected. He’s always been that for us and we try to work together the
best we can and when we’re able to do that correctly, we can see
success together like this. First of all, I’ve got to thank him.
Obviously, Nick Hensley, my gas man, that gave us position off of pit
road to where we could defend and not have to try to move forward, so he
did a great job. And Coleman Pressley up on the roof did a fantastic job
with the info. It’’s all the things you work on over the offseason,
but it’s awesome when it all comes together and you’re able to
actually work out the plan. A lot of times people say there’s a plan
and it goes out the window on lap one, but for us we were able to work
it all the way to the end.” WHAT IS DAYTONA VICTORY LANE LIKE?
“It’s special to bring this Shell/Pennzoil Mustang to Victory Lane
no matter where it is, but the World Center of Speed is pretty much as
good as it gets. It’s nice tonight, but it’s way better on Sunday, I
promise you that.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Peak Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Luckily,
we were just ahead of the chaos. There were a couple close calls. That
one before the green-white-checkered I actually got tagged in the
left-rear by the 24, but it was just very minimal and nothing happened.
I got control of the race with Joey and myself after the pit stop and
that caution happened. Then we were just able to line up and push really
well together and maintain control of the race and run it to the end.
I’m proud of the effort. Good teamwork tonight with a couple of fast
cars and I look forward to going to Sunday. I’m happy the thing is in
one piece.” WHAT CAN YOU DO AS A DRIVER TO NOT PUT YOUR TEAMMATE IN A
BAD SPOT WITH THE PUSHING? “You never want to get bad pushes. I’ve
always tried to take the best care of the guy I’m pushing no matter
who it is. As the pusher, you’re responsible for that guy and it got a
little squirrely a couple of times. The three-car tandem doesn’t work
very good, like when I had the 36 up my bumper. That was when it really
kind of got all over the place, and I think there are some things on our
cars we can work on. I wasn’t super happy taking a push either, so
hopefully we can work on that and figure out how to get that a little
bit better, but it’s just nice. You want to put yourself in spots in
the Duels with what you’re gonna be in for the 500 like pushing
aggressively because you know that’s gonna happen at the end of that
race. We were able to do it, but trying to do it safely to where we
don’t junk two team cars is important. It was squirrely a couple
times, but luckily we came out of it.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 66 SI Yachts/Gracie Foundation Ford Mustang Dark Horse
– “I told the guys on the radio, I said, ‘you just never know what
Daytona is, right?’ I mean, it’s all the way until the last lap. You
never know what’s going to happen. And, thankfully, right there, Jimmy
didn’t have to push. I mean, he could have just got out of the mess and
not be in the wreck, and he pushed me there with a good enough run to
get around the outside. When they all wrecked, I got around everybody
but the 99, and fortunately, I hit him so square that the car didn’t get
too tore up. I was able to get it back. So, just super happy. I can’t
believe we made it. It is just absolutely amazing.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Castrol Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU
FEEL? “Pretty good. I feel like I can run the whole 500, so that’s
the win. The loss here is that we didn’t win the Duel. We had four
really good cars and, for whatever reason, it just got all mixed up
there at the end and a bunch of them got tore up. I hate that for
everybody at RFK. I’m not sure if I finished fourth or fifth. I was in
front of the 42 for a long time there and the yellow was not coming out.
I guess we’ll see when it actually came out, but I guess it was a
reasonable day for the 6 team and I wish we got more for the other
cars.” YOUR FORDS WERE SO FAST AND PREECE LED 38 LAPS? “Yeah, Ryan
had a great race. I don’t know what happened to him at the end, but we
did a lot of things well today, just didn’t finish it off.” DO YOU
FEEL GOOD TO GO? ANY ISSUES WITH THE LEG? “Really good. The race car
feels good.” WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO FINALLY WIN THIS RACE? “It’s
the last crown jewel that I don’t have. I can taste it. We just have
to bring it home.”
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 36 Quick Tie/Matheus Lumber Ford Mustang Dark Horse
– “I kept saying if it’s in the Lord’s Will to be in the 500,
we’re gonna be in. If not, then we’re not. I’m just gonna try to
make sure that I don’t put so much pressure on myself, enjoy it and
make sure to set a culture for our 36 group. Don’t put too much
pressure on everybody. Let’s just go out there and go do our jobs.
I’m just very grateful for Jerry Freeze, Bob Jenkins, Matheus Lumber,
Quick Tie products. Our Ford Mustang Dark Horse was really good tonight,
it just wasn’t in the cards. We were in the right place, but maybe not
the right time I guess.” WHAT ABOUT THOSE FINAL FEW LAPS WHEN YOU WERE
NEXT TO THE 99 FOR THAT SPOT? “Honestly, our Penske alliance teammates
did a phenomenal job. Thank you to Joey and Blaney for helping as much
as you can and staying loyal trying to help get the 36 car in. They had
every opportunity to go to the bottom and they kept dragging that top
lane trying to get me clear. Once we did, we went down. I had the odds
against me. I had two RFK cars right behind me once that happened. Brad
started to juke me out and I knew what was coming. I went to block it
and I felt like he was below the yellow line. I kind of held my ground,
but he never lifted and I was like, ‘Man, it’s big picture right
here. Do I keep him below and probably wreck us, or do I just give him
the lane and live to fight another day.’ That’s what we chose to do
and, honestly, it prevailed. We ended up passing the 99 and those guys
again, it was just very unfortunate circumstances there at the end.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE IN THE WRECK WITH THE 23? “It started with the 23. I
don’t know if it was a bad push from whoever was behind the 23 or
what, but I just saw the 23 start getting squirrely. He caught it, but
once he caught it someone else, I think it was maybe the 17, jacked him
back up and that was it. It just came right up in front of me and there
was nowhere to go. I hate it, but, nevertheless, I’m super proud of
everyone at Front Row Motorsports for the effort we put into this deal.
Hopefully, we can do more this year. I honestly had a blast and I know
my partners had a blast doing this deal. The 36 group had a great
showing as well, so hopefully we can do a few more of these this year
and maybe get the fourth FRM car in one of these races.”
COREY LAJOIE, No. 99 Trimble Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’m just
doing all you can do. I didn’t have great momentum off turn two there. I
knew the line was gonna come to me, and it came to me right at the same
time I picked up the 6 [car] and he hooked me. So… worst case
scenario. We had it all there in front of us, and something out of our
control takes it away, but that’s life, man. Keep on digging, keep your
chin down, and keep taking one step at a time.”