Ford Performance NASCAR: Logano Wins Richmond as Ford Peppers Top-5 Inbox x

LOGANO WINS RICHMOND, FORD’S FOURTH WIN OF THE SEASON

  • Joey Logano’s win today was his first of the 2017 season and the 18th of his career.

  • The win is the 32nd for a Ford at Richmond International Raceway all-time.

  • The win clinches a spot in the 2017 NASCAR Playoffs for Logano, joining fellow Ford drivers Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski as those already clinched.

  • Today’s win is Ford’s 652nd all-time in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition.

  • The win is Fusion’s 83rd Cup Series triumph since becoming Ford’s flagship vehicle in 2006.

  • The victory marks the 57th win all-time for Team Penske with Ford and the 14th for Keselowski

  • Of Team Penske’s 57 MENCS wins with Ford, 30 have come over the past five years.

 

FORD FINISHING RESULTS

1st Joey Logan

2ndBrad Keselowski

4th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

5thKevin Harvick

8thKurt Busch

9thAric Almirola

13thTrevor Bayne

15thClint Bowyer

18thDanica Patrick

19thDavid Ragan

21stLandon Cassill

28thMatt DiBenedetto

36thRyan Blaney

 

JOEY LOGANO (No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion) -- Finished 1st

THE PIT STRATEGY THAT TODD CALLED, HOW BIG WAS THAT IN THE WIN? “I didn’t really discuss it much with Todd. My thought process was, ‘Oh no!’ right after we stayed out. But we were able to maintain the lead. I don’t think we would have been able to win the race and hold off Kyle (Busch) if it had stayed green. The caution came out. The boys had a great stop which gave us good track position to pass the cars that stayed out. We were able to have a good start, work our way past those cars and tried to take off the best I could. I knew the 2 was so much faster than everybody and I had to get out there as quick and as far as I could. He was on his way to catch me. I think he was catching me a couple tenths a lap. That was all I had inside the car and I burned them up early trying to go. I am proud of the effort of the team. We executed under pressure today and brought a car home that was a 5th-10th place car home to victory lane.”

 

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion) -- Finished 2nd

HOT DAY IN RICHMOND. DESCRIBE THE CLOSING LAPS AND PIT STRATEGY: “It was just hoping for another restart or  the race to get extended for another 10 laps. I think we had a ton of long run speed today. That short run at the end...half the field came, half the field didn’t. I just got stuck in a lane of cars that didn’t go. By the time I did, he had a whole straightaway on me. I got it down to a couple of car lengths at the end. All and all I’m happy for Team Penske withe 1-2 finish. We’ll take it and move on.”

 

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. (No. 17 Fifth Third Ford Fusion) -- Finished 4th

YOU HAD A ROUGH START TO YOUR DAY BUT BATTLED BACK. YOU HAD A GREAT BATTLE WITH KEVIN HARVICK FOR ABOUT THE LAST 20 LAPS: “Yeah, I want to thank Kevin for racing me clean. Man, we had to fight hard for this top five. I made a mistake early. I thought we had  cap capable of running in the top five a lot. I just got loose into 3 and got into the fence and had to play catch-up for there. I was on the splitter. I couldn’t run my fastest lap until about la five or six. As soon as that caution came out I was like, ‘We have to stay (out)’. It worked out for us. Our Fifth Third Bank Ford was really fast. I want to thank the fans for coming out. It was a hot one.”

 

KEVIN HARVICK (No. 4 Busch Light Ford Fusion) -- Finished 5th

“We had a good day. This has been a tough race track for us. We ran in the top-five all day and battled up front for the lead off and on. The last three runs we got tight in the center and loose off the corner and couldn’t find anything to make that better. Our Busch Light Ford team did a great job and we just keep knocking off those top-fives and the wins will come.”  WHAT WERE THE LAST 20 LAPS LIKE? “The end of the race was so much different than the beginning of the race. We had all the long green-flag runs and then we are battling on restarts time after time and then wound up battle with Ricky (Stenhouse Jr). It was a lot of fun. That is what we want to be able to do, we want to be able to pass.”

 

KURT BUSCH (No. 41 Mobil 1 Annual Protection Ford Fusion) -- Finished 8th

“We had to drop back and punt. We came down pit road a lap down, in the lucky dog position and just started throwing rubbers and went wholesale on it and made great improvements. We are somehow missing the balance but we were able to make changes today to improve the balance and be competitive enough to get in the mix. We got eighth and that is about as best as we could hope to attain.”

 

ARIC ALMIROLA (No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion) -- Finished 9th

“It was a solid day for us. I am really proud of everybody on the Smithfield Ford Fusion here. We had a good day. We needed that. We typically run well here. This is one of our better tracks. It is great to get a good solid finish here in Richmond, Virginia, Smithfield headquarters aren’t far away and we had a lot of friends and family of employees at the race. It was a solid top-10 and I am really proud of the effort today.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI PRESS CONFERENCE

 

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Detroit Genuine Auto Parts Ford Fusion)

JOEY SAID IN HIS VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW THAT YOU HAD THE FASTEST CAR TODAY AND LED A BUNCH OF LAPS, BUT ONE‑TWO FINISH FROM TEAM PENSKE.  REALLY GOOD EFFORT OUT THERE. “Yeah, it was.  Disappointed not to bring it home, but that's just the way these things fall with double‑file restarts and half the field staying out and half the field not.  You kind of take the good with the bad on those deals Got the outside lane and got behind two or three cars that I'm pretty sure I lapped six times today.  Somehow they're on the lead lap through wave arounds, and when the restart came we just were bottled up.  By the time I cleared those guys, even though we were a little bit faster than Joey, he already had a straightaway on us, and I felt like if I had five or ten more laps, I could have gotten to him and passed him, but there was only a handful of laps left, so that was the way it went. That's part of how this racing deal works, and the fastest car doesn't always win, and it takes some weeks where you're the fastest and you have to try to make the most of it and try and do all you can.  I feel as a team we did that today.  Frustrated to not bring it home, but proud of the effort and the speed we had today and leading laps and getting the stage win and so forth.”

LATE IN THE RACE YOU BLOCKED I THINK IT WAS KYLE BUSCH, AND JOEY SPURTED AHEAD.  YOU WERE GIVEN CREDIT FOR HELPING A TEAMMATE OUT THERE. “Yeah, I don't know who said that, but that's not right, but okay.”

WHAT DID HAPPEN? “We were just racing for the lead and the 18 was a little faster and he got into the back of me, and that's what kept me from being able to hold onto the lead.  There was no blocking.  I'm racing for the lead, so I'm not sure who said blocking.”

IN THE FIRST STAGE OF THE RACE, A LOT OF DRIVERS THAT WERE CLOSER TO THE WALL ALMOST LIKE DARLINGTON, HOW MUCH OF THAT WAS A FACTOR OF THE FACT THAT IT WAS A DAY RACE, OR WAS THERE ANY OTHER THINGS GOING ON THAT THE LINE SEEMED TO CHANGE EARLY ON? “Yeah, the day race changes this track dramatically, and I think it makes it really racy.  I think it's great.  I think some of the best racing here is during the day.  But it's hot, and I know it's hard for some of the fans to be up in the stands and go through all that.  But it's kind of a trade‑off.  The best racing here always seems to be during the day with all those lanes that open up, and that's what you saw today.  It's a lot of fun to be a part of.”

 

WHEN YOU'RE NECK AND NECK WITH JOEY LIKE THAT, DOES HE PUSH YOU BECAUSE YOU WANT TO MAYBE BEAT HIM MORE? “You know, there is obviously going to be a teammate dynamic, and there's things that he does really well and things that I do differently and seem to do well.  But we of course push each other to be the best, but I think it's really healthy.  It is.  And I'm happy to see him win accordingly”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

 

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. (No. 17 Fifth Third Ford Fusion) -- A BATTLE OUT THERE ALL DAY LONG FOR EVERYONE.  CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR TOP 5 FINISH TODAY? ”Yeah, I made it a lot of work for us there getting in the fence later in that first stage and really we were fighting back all day from there.  Had a really good car on the long run, but we bent the splitter bar down.  Was on the splitter for five or six laps, so restarts I was just trying to keep as best track position as I could, and once we got to lap 6 or 7, my car kind of came back around to me.  It was a no‑brainer there to stay out that last caution.  I was glad it came out because I thought we missed the opportunity the run before to stay out.  It worked out perfect.  Our Fifth Third Ford and the guys never gave up, worked hard and like Brad said, this track is a lot of fun in the sun.  It's hot in the car, hot in the stands, so appreciate everybody coming out, and it's nice to have I think four Fords in the top 5, so it was cool.”

YOU'VE HAD SOME STRONG RESULTS ON THE SHORT TRACKS.  HOW BIG IS THAT TOWARDS THE SEASON, AND WHAT WOULD YOU AND THE TEAM LIKE TO DO TO TRANSLATE THAT TO SOME OF THE FASTER TRACKS? “Think we've been a top‑15 car on the mile‑and‑a‑halfs.  I think you could say we've been a 10th‑place car on the short tracks and gambled some and had some good finishes.  I think today we were a top‑5 car before I wrecked it.  Long runs were definitely top 5.  But I like short tracks.  The downforce, the less downforce we have, the more you can kind of play with the brakes, play with the gas and throttle and really kind of maneuver your car around a little bit more instead of it being stuck to the racetrack. You know, I've been finding a lot of success in that even if the car is not perfect, being able to change my adjustments and what I'm doing in the car to get the best out of it.  It's getting that way on mile‑and‑a‑halfs for sure.  Even the newer paved ones, but the old ones definitely is coming into factor, too.  We've just got to keep building better cars and bringing faster cars to the racetrack and putting the whole weekend together, not making mistakes.”

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

Read More on Cup / XFINITY / Truck press releases
Volume 2017, Issue 4, Posted 11:19 PM, 04.30.2017