Toyota and Ford Notes and Quotes from Richmond 2

TOYOTA

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
> Finishing Position: 1st
> How does it feel to advance in the Xfinity Series playoffs?
> “I’ll tell you what buddy, that’s pretty cool. It’s not very often that you get to win with a car that’s not a winning car so we’ll take it. Just thank you to my pit crew for the awesome pit stops tonight. Jason Ratcliff (crew chief) did a great job making this thing better each and every time we hit the pit road. Man, I'm just pumped. To be able to sweep Richmond and to get five wins on top of that just couldn’t be happier.”
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> What kind of a statement does it make to come out and win the first race of the Xfinity playoffs?
> “That’s just really cool man. To be able to come out here and to win on a restart like that is really special. Just really proud of Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief). He’s done such an excellent job of taking care of me. I don’t have a ton of experience in the world and he does such a good job of making sure I've got what I need in the race. Each pit stop we kept getting closer and closer. We weren’t the best car, that’s for sure. On the long run those guys would just drive away from me. He kind of knew what we needed for a 10 to 15 lap run there at the end and gave me what I needed. The pit crew did an awesome job keeping me out front. Got to restart on the front row and that was key.”
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> What enabled you to get by Matt Tifft and take the lead in the final restart?
> “Just a couple restarts and a couple practice attempts. I restarted on the top a couple of times and kind of knew what I needed to do. Luckily, I got to start in the middle of the race track instead of the top of the race track and that really helped. I don’t know if the 2 (Matt Tifft) car was getting pressure to the inside or not but I took the lead leaving (turn) two.”
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> What was the difference in your Camry at the end of the race to get you out to the front?
> “It was all track position. Track position and then it was just a short run. If it was a long run at the end I don’t know if we had the best long run car, but whenever we came in we had really good pit stops so was able to get out and get position and then restarting on the front row there and was able to take the lead.”
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> How big is this not to have to worry about where you finish at the new road course at Charlotte next weekend?
> “Now we can go to the Roval and race to win so I'm excited about that. We don’t have to go to the Roval and try to finish the race because we’re going to try and win that sucker.”
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FORD

FORD FINISHING RESULTS

10thRyan Reed

13thAustin Cindric

15thCole Custer

34thTy Majeski

Ryan Reed, No. 16 Drive Down A1C Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang - Finished 10th

“Obviously our practice sessions weren’t very good and then for the first round of qualifying I thought we were better than the second round and it turns out one of the track bar bolts came loose. So we had to start in the back because we had to fix that before the race. We fought all night. The balance was up and down. There were points where we felt real good. We got a good break there on the second to last restart and got some good track position and held on to it right there. We definitely recovered and got the car better but we need to bring more speed. I think a top-10 makes us somewhat of a contender but if we are going to make any kind of a deep run we need to do better than that.”

Austin Cindric, No. 22 MoneyLion Ford Mustang - Finished 13th

“If we were running the Cup race we would have been the best thing out there but the race was just too short for us and cautions at the wrong time. We had an amazing long run car. I think I passed more cars than anybody has the last two races here. It just came down to not executing on the one stop in Stage 1 and having to come from the back. It is frustrating because we were in a position to probably drive to the top-five but that is racing and how it goes. On those restarts when you don't have short-run speed and there are 10 to go, you get eaten up and we got eaten up. We were still able to get stage points ever round, so all in all it is a solid day but still frustrating because I know what we were capable of. We just move on and go to the Roval and it is a big challenge ahead for everybody. I think we will be on top of our game there too.”

Cole Custer, No. 00 Go Bowling Ford Mustang - Finished 15th

“We just didn’t have any long run speed tonight. We had good short run speed to be able to pick off five or six cars on every restart. That one restart we just got together with the 22. I don't know what he was doing. It put us way back there and that is just how it is. We will just have to go to the Roval and try to win in.”

Ron Fleshman

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

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Volume 2018, Issue 9, Posted 1:12 AM, 09.22.2018