FORD PERFORMANCE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
2nd – Brad Keselowski
3rd – Noah Gragson
8th – Todd Gilliland
10th – Harrison Burton
12th – Chase Briscoe
14th – Ryan Preece
16th – Josh Berry
19th – Joey Logano
20th – Ryan Blaney
23rd – Austin Cindric
24th – Cody Ware
25th – Chris Buescher
31st – Michael McDowell
34th – Justin Haley
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DESCRIBE THE LAST LAP. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE FRONT? “It’s hard. I need to see a replay to tell you everything perfectly, but we did a good job getting out front and controlling the race and putting ourselves in position. Brad is so good at this place and he drug back and I drug back as quick as I could and was able to block that first run that he made, but then when I came down for the second one he was just to my bumper. I mean barely, barely got me so it’s unfortunate. I hate it for him and I hate it for everybody that was behind that. It’s the last lap at Talladega. We’re all going for it, but we really needed to get a Ford Mustang Dark Horse in Victory Lane and we had a shot at doing it there. Unfortunately, I just made a bad move there to put us in that spot.”
DO YOU WALK AWAY MOTIVATED OR FRUSTRATED? “I’m frustrated right now. I’m motivated by our ability to run up there and manage the lanes and do all the things that we did. Our car drove really well and took a push well and had a lot of speed, so those are good things, but it’s wadded up in a pile of rubble right now. It’s just unfortunate. It’s been a tough stretch here, but we’ve had speed and we’ve run up front and if we keep doing that, we’ll win a race.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Catrol Edge Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “The Fords were really working well together. We cleared the Toyotas on the bottom lane and it was pretty clear it was gonna come down to the three of us. I backed up. Noah gave me a great push and I went to make a move on Michael and he covered it, and I went back the other way and got another push from Noah and there was nowhere to go when Michael came back down. I hate that for him. He’s a good guy. I hope he’s alright. That’s just kind of the way this stuff goes, but, all in all it was a really solid day for us, for Ford and Castrol. It’s another second. It’s a solid day, but not the win we wanted.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE RUNNING WELL AND GET FINISHES LIKE THIS? “Good finishes are important, but we want wins. I could really taste it today, but it just didn’t happen.”
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY? “We just ran a really solid race, really good execution, strategy, put ourselves in position and ran up front at the end when it mattered. I just wish we could have got the win. It was kind of a wild finish there. I got a great push from Noah Gragson and had a chance to make a move on Michael and in all the swerves back and forth all three of us ran into each other and Michael got the worst end of it. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the win, but still a really solid day and something to be proud of.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 10 Overstock Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We were definitely working together as Fords on the bottom. McDowell, Brad Keselowski and myself. All the Fords worked great all race. It’s coming to the end and the 6 and the 34 were blocking coming to the checkers and unfortunately the 45 squeaked by. I really wanted to see a Ford in Victory Lane, but the Overstock team at Stewart-Haas did a great job all day. We had clean pit stops, fast pit stops, a lot of horsepower under the hood. The Mustang Dark Horses and racing with these other Ford guys has been a lot of fun. I haven’t been up here very much in the Cup Series on these superspeedways, but I’m extremely grateful. It’s a privilege to race with guys like Keselowski and McDowell. I mean, they’ve won really big races on speedways, so, overall, I’m really thankful for everyone at Stewart-Haas and this Overstock team and we’ll keep the momentum going.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was kind of an up and down day. We did a really good job on the first pit cycle to get us out front and we did a great job of managing the track position versus saving. The second stage didn’t quite go our way and the caution fell at a weird time for us. We came down and topped off and just didn’t end up getting track position until the last lap when everyone wrecked. It’s good to be up front, good to help the 2 get a stage win there. Obviously, I’d like to win one of these, but 10th is good, especially for how our year has been so far.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 4 Overstock Ford Mustang Dark Horse – IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HIT PRETTY HARD. “So far, so good. Thankfully, everybody knocked me across the finish line so I was able to finish the race because that’s what’s most important in these deals. We just ride around and save gas and then wreck at the end and thankfully we finished. That’s a positive.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’m definitely not surprised. The whole last lap you just know it’s coming if we got that far, so, overall, it just was not a very good day for us. We went a lap down early because of flat spotting the tires. It seemed like we honestly just rode around 30th all day. I don’t know where we ended up. Someone said 12th somehow, so I guess that’s better than where we should have finished with how the day went, so we’ll just go on to Dover next week and try to just continue running good.”
CODY WARE, No. 15 Jacob Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I think our 15 Jacob Companies Ford Mustang was a super fast car. I think we showed our speed multiple times throughout the race. I just wanted to play it smart and be there at the end, which is what we did. Unfortunately, the last 20-25 laps we didn’t have a whole lot of help behind us to get a pack going towards the front, but I’ll take the wins with the losses. I’m still happy for our first race back. I’ll take the positives from it and know that we’ve got good, fast cars here at the superspeedways and looking forward to Daytona, Atlanta and the second Talladega later on in the year.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 gener8tor Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I think we had a really fast Generator Skills Ford Mustang. It’s just part of the racing. I didn’t do a great job on the last pit stop. It’s always really hectic and the 17 was kind of coming around me and I waited just a split second and we lost a bunch of spots there, but that’s part of it. We got in that big wreck and were able to stay straight and keep going. Hat’s off to Ford, to Front Row Motorsports for bringing us two cars that were really capable of winning today.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 41 United Rentals Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Ultimately, we put ourselves in that position. I was trying to help Ryan and work with my other Ford teammates, but it’s tough when everybody isn’t on the same page. When you lose track position like that it is what it is, but moving forward I’d like to talk to Blaney and figure out what I can do better to help him. That way we can just not worry about anybody else.”
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