RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Fusion – (Qualified 1st)
“We just kept getting better each round and everybody did a great job of realizing what we had to do to get better and pick out of spots where to get better and the car had the speed in it, we just needed to handle good and I needed to hit a good lap. I was kind of messing up the first two runs. We were able to figure out where we needed to get better and it was good. I can’t thank everyone on this Menards/Duracell Ford Fusion team enough. They put in hard work and it is nice to start up front on Sunday.”
DID YOU CONSERVE IN THE FIRST TWO ROUND AT ALL? “I didn’t conserve at all. I don’t feel like you can in this deal. You have to figure out what your car is doing so you can get better the next round. They just did a good job of realizing what we needed to adjust and applying those changes. They did a fantastic job.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Fusion – (Qualified 2nd)
“I thought we did a really good job of trying to pick a pace and trying not to be a hero on every lap and we were able to pick up a tenth in each round. We got a little loose there in three and I didn’t want to tug on the wheel any more just because of the fact I didn’t want it to get any looser so I just let it slide to the center and had to wait and gave up a good solid tenth there. It was still a great lap for our Busch Beer Ford and starting up front is a big deal here.”
YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO FAST AND SO GOOD LATELY BUT YOU’VE YET TO WIN HERE. HOW OPTIMISTIC ARE YOU FOR SUNDAY? “When we qualify this good at these tracks that I have notoriously struggled at in the past and knowing how well we have run here since I have been at SHR we are looking to win the race. Hopefully we can do that this week.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – (Qualified 7th)
“You are never happy unless you are first, so that is really cool for Blaney. It was good improvement for us from practice where we were 15th or 16th and we got faster every round. Everyone else did too. We closed the gap, but not quite enough. First run we were half a second off, then three-tenths and now two-tenths. We made good adjustments and got our car closer. I feel like there was good potential in our car if we just made the right adjustments. We got closer. I am not sure we got all the right adjustments quite yet but we have more time to work on it to get it better. We will fight from there, as Todd Gordon always says.”
KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion – (Qualified 6th)
“I thought we had a really good day. We picked up two tenths in the final round of qualifying and that’s good for us. We haven’t been able to do that in awhile. That gives you a shot at a top-five and the pole. We’re sixth and right on that threshold. We’re still trying to figure out how to break through. We’re real close on a lot of adjustments and today was solid with the way adjusted well through the three rounds.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion – (Qualified 34th)
“Our issues started way before we ran out of time. We had a tire issue. One of our tires equalized they told me so my car was just out of control. We tried to take a bit stab at it to go back and try to salvage something out of it but we missed it by one second. I don’t think it matters though because when I drove down into turn one it still drove really awkward. It is disappointing but you just have to move on. What else can you do?”
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st Ryan Blaney
2nd Kevin Harvick
6th Kurt Busch
7th Joey Logano
9th Clint Bowyer
17th Brad Keselowski
20th Paul Menard
21st David Ragan
23rd Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26th Matt Kenseth
28th Cole Custer
30th Michael McDowell
32nd Matt DiBenedetto
34th Aric Almirola
Campbell Marketing & Communications for Ford Performance/Photo Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
