UNOFFICIAL FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st – Ryan Blaney
5th – Joey Logano
7th – Brad Keselowski
11th – Chris Buescher
15th – Chase Briscoe
18th – Austin Cindric
20th – Josh Berry
22nd – Justin Haley
24th – Michael McDowell
26th – Cody Ware
30th – Ryan Preece
31st – Harrison Burton
34th – Todd Gilliland
37th – Noah Gragson
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Wabash Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 1st) – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW
“I think things are just kind of falling into place for us. I feel like we have gotten to a great place on speed in the last two months, especially. I feel like we honestly had a couple races slip away from us which I thought we had a good shot at winning. It was nice to stick to the plan today and our plan was to have track position at the end. I knew our car was fast enough. I am super proud of the whole 12 team. The Wabash Ford Mustang was amazing. I appreciate Menards, Body Armour, the Wurth Group, Advance Auto Parts, DEX Imaging and everyone that makes this possible. It is so cool to win here again. I won here seven years ago for my first Cup win. The crowd, you guys were amazing. Thank you for being here all weekend.”
WOULD NINE-YEAR-OLD RYAN BLANEY BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TWO CUP WINS HERE? “
No, at the time I wasn’t thinking about that. I was trying to figure out how I was going to have fun that weekend and how to win that night. It was super special seven years ago to win here with the Wood Brothers and it is a special win here today. You love tracks that have special meaning to you, like your first win, and this place means so much to me. My fiancee and a ton of her family are here. I can’t wait to see them. I am so proud of the effort. I am looking forward to hopefully continuing this momentum to next week at the bosses track up in Indy.”
YOU TURNED IT ON AT THE RIGHT TIME TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP LAST YEAR. AS WE SIT HERE MID-JULY, IS THIS THE BEST THE 12 TEAM HAS BEEN? “I think we are in a better spot at this time this year than where we were last year at this point. I feel like our speed is better. Our execution is great. We are doing everything as a 12 group the best that we can. We have had some other unforeseen circumstances that have hindered some finishes and possible wins. I am so proud of this Team Penske group. All the men and women at the race shop, they work their butts off to try to get better and deal with the drivers when they say we need to get a lot better. I appreciate them and Roush Yates Engines and all the work they do and continue to do. Go U.S.A.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 5th)
“Overall, a top five, you have to be somewhat happy with that. We had speed there toward the end of the race and I think we could have run in the top two. I don’t know if we could have been better than Ryan or not, but it just took us too long to get the balance right. Once we got the track position and the balance close, I about wrecked it on the restart. Those spots there kind of ultimately cost us a chance to win it, but overall I am proud of the speed that we brought to a track like this. It makes me look forward to Indy a little bit more where we have some long straightaways again and it seemed like our car was decent on the straightaways this time.”
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RYAN PREECE, No 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I don’t know what happened. I haven’t seen a replay. All I know is we had a really good car for what started off as a completely bad day. It started to become a good day and then we got put in the back and that was that, so that is what you end up getting.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 C.H. Reed Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Retired due to mechanical failure on lap 115)
WAS THE CAR GIVING YOU ANY INDICATION THERE WAS A PROBLEM?
“We fought with a little bit of brake shake through practice and a little at the beginning of the race. About five laps before that, my brake pedal started getting a little bit long. Then it just blew in the middle of the straightaway. I have never had that before. We have been really lucky. We have had some really well built Ford Mustangs coming out of Front Row Motorsports and haven’t had many mechanical issues the last three years. I thank those guys for giving us great cars. We will keep battling. Definitely not our best day to begin with and we have a lot of work to do but we will try to learn from it.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Retired early due to accident on lap 14)
“I just got loose in turn one. We were battling and just got loose. Nobody got into me. I was all alone. I was just trying to make it until we got to the caution and could tighten it up a little bit but it just took off on me. It is definitely a bummer being out super early in the race but thanks to Overstock.com, and this whole 10 team. It hasn’t really been the weekend we hoped for through practice and qualifying and now into the race being out so early. Thanks to all the fans for their support. We will go on to Indy. Indy will be fun next week.”
“I was all by myself, we started off the race super loose and then it just kept getting worse and worse. I was trying to limp it to the end of the stage but it just took off on me in turn one. It is definitely a bummer. Oh well.”
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