Ford Qualifying Results:
2nd – Joey Logano
7th – Kevin Harvick
10th – Ryan Blaney
11th – Aric Almirola
12th – Brad Keselowski
13th – Clint Bowyer
15th – Daniel Suarez
19th – Paul Menard
20th – Ryan Newman
21st – Michael McDowell
24th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26th – John Hunter Nemecheck
30th – David Ragan
31st – Corey LaJoie
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Mustang – WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT ROGER BUYING IMS? “It came out of left field. I had no idea it was coming. I knew he was working on something big when he wasn’t at Martinsville or Texas. I’ve learned RP and when he’s not at moments like that, something really big is about to go down. I didn’t know what it was, it could have been a number of things, but that was not on my list of things that I thought it could be.”
ARE YOU HOPING TO BE CONSULTED AND TALK TO HIM ABOUT SOME IDEAS? “I think he’s gonna be here this weekend, I’m not entirely sure, but if he is I’m sure he’ll ask us a few of those questions and I’ve got a few ideas to put together, so we’ll see.”
DOES THE BRICKYARD HAVE A FUTURE IN NASCAR? “I don’t see how it’s not, especially knowing that he’s gonna put a lot of money and heart into the track to make it the best it can be.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE DIFFERENT THERE? “I can tell you what you’re not gonna see, I’m not gonna wear a yellow shirt. I might wear a yellow uniform, so I’ve got to be careful, but not a yellow shirt. I imagine you’ll see some of his touches. Every race track he’s built and you go to even to this day you can still see his touches. You go to California and Michigan you see the areas that he worked on and the areas that someone else worked on and you have a pretty big difference, so I’m very confident he’ll put his touches in it. I thought it was interesting in his comments about bringing a Formula 1 race back. I think that would be incredible, but I’m sure there are some other ideas that are even bigger than I can imagine at the moment.”
WILL YOU WEAR A YELLOW UNIFORM IN AN OPEN WHEEL CAR? “No, that ship has sailed. That was a dream from afar.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT THIS RACE GIVEN YOUR QUALIFYING? “The same way I looked at it yesterday for the championship race, trying to get a good start on some of the ground that we feel we need to make up on these style race tracks, so that was a little better than I thought it was gonna be.”
WHEN DID YOU LEARN NOT TO GET INVOLVED IN SOME OF THESE CONTROVERSIES LIKE WHAT’S BEING TALKED ABOUT THIS WEEKEND WITH THE INTENTIONAL CAUTIONS? “I think, for me, the cars are running well. The team is running well. You’re in the championship race. If you need a story or you need something stirred up that’s fine, but for us we need it to be as quiet as possible and just concentrate on our jobs.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Eckrich Ford Mustang – “I think we’re close. We felt pretty good about what we had in race trim, but wasn’t really sure what we would have in qualifying trim. That turned out to be a decent lap for us. It’s close. It’s really, really close here, so I’m proud of all the effort. We’re trying to close out the year here on a strong note and a good start at Phoenix has helped.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 One Cure Ford Mustang – “I was really worried about qualifying. Obviously, there are some fast cars coming, but we were slipping and sliding around pretty bad yesterday in practice in qualifying trim and Mike made some good adjustments there because I felt like our grip level was a lot better, especially with as hot as it is versus what it was yesterday. We’ll see where it holds on and race them hard tomorrow.”
PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Menards/Maytag Ford Mustang – WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT ROGER PENSKE BUYING IMS? “It’s great. Obviously, Indy means the world to Roger. That’s how he got started and in the racing business, so he’s a fan and he’s a great guy to be around and very inspirational and smart. I obviously hate to see the Hulman family go, but I’m sure they’ll still be around to some degree and Roger does it right, so the Hulman family has brought it to this level and maybe Roger can bring it to the next.”
THOUGHTS ON A POSSIBLE INDY CAR/NASCAR WEEKEND? “Indy is not suited for stock cars very well, but I think NASCAR has a place at Indianapolis, just being the premier North American motorsports series. It deserves to go to the premier race track in the world probably, so I’m sure Roger is not gonna bail on the Brickyard 400. He’s gonna improve on it and make it better.”
HOW WAS QUALIYFING? “It was a pick up. It didn’t drive great, but when we did our mock run yesterday it was a little bit hotter out and the track had a little bit more grip. We made some adjustments in the right direction. I wish it drove a little bit better, but we’ll see how it holds on.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – DID YOU GET EVERYTHING OUT OF IT? “Pretty much. I’m still shaking a little bit. It seems to happen during qualifying when you’re trying to get everything you can get. It’s close and we’re doing what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to run up front. We got to start up front and stay up there all day. I’m proud of the effort. It’s not first, but we’re not bad.”
DOES TODD HAVE THE HOMESTEAD CAR READY FOR NEXT WEEK? “I’m sure it’s not ready yet. They usually massage on those things until the last second, so I hope it’s not ready yet. Hopefully, they keep working on the thing as long as possible.”
DO YOU HAVE A WINNING CAR FOR TOMORROW? “Yeah, I do. I’m in the hunt. I feel like my car was pretty good in practice yesterday. I feel like we made some gains on it throughout practice, found some areas we didn’t like, so that’s OK and from there I think we’re close. We know what we’ve got to do. The facts are, and it’s not a surprise, the cars that we’re racing are all up there because they’re there for a reason and this is for everyone involved anything close to that cut line this is the championship race for them, and us in this case, so if you don’t win this championship you don’t win Miami, so that’s why this race is so important.”
DOES HAVING BLANEY IN THE MIX COMPLICATE THINGS? “It doesn’t really complicate things. We kind of know what it is. The best-case scenario is he wins and we finish second and score enough points to knock the 18 out. That’s the best-case scenario and then we have two bullets in the chamber when we get to Miami ready to go to try to win a championship. How great would that be? But it’s one step at a time. That’s a perfect world. The chances of all that coming together is pretty tough, but I’ve also got to worry about what my car is doing and make sure that we get at least one of them in. That’s the goal and I can only control my car.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang – “I was very loose. I thought I got a lot out of it, but when you’re loose you feel like that. You feel like Superman, but a lot of times you’re not going anywhere. I was really happy with our Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang yesterday in first practice. We lost our way a little bit in happy hour. I feel like we got back to where we were, but I don’t know how it will stack up. This is the best I have been at ISM Raceway in practice in a long time.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 Mannington Commercial Ford Mustang – “That’s about what we ran yesterday in practice and the car felt about the same. You always hope to improve from your practice runs and we made some adjustments for race trim. We always shoot for the top 15 to top 20 and that’s not gonna be there, so we’ve just got to hope that the adjustments we made will help some on the long run and we’ll have some cars to pass on Sunday.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 41 Haas Automation Ford Mustang – “I think it was OK. I think I left a little bit on the table, probably a tenth or a half-a-tenth. We’re all there very tight together, so I felt like I left a little on the table, but it wasn’t too bad. I felt like I could have done a little better job, but it’s pretty tight anyway.”
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