Sprint All-Star Showdown
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion – HOW MUCH WERE YOU ABLE TO LEARN IN 40 LAPS? “We learned lot. We thought we were gonna be a lot better there, but the first segment we couldn’t keep up and Scott made some great changes to our Best Buy Ford Fusion and made it come to life. We got a good restart there and I was just trying to not lift and go where they weren’t. I hope that was exciting for the fans because it was exciting from my seat, so now we’ll go to work on it and make some more changes with what we’re allowed to make and go back out there.
It’s gonna be tough. Obviously, these guys have won races and that’s why they’re in the All-Star Race, but we’ve accomplished the first things we set out to do and that’s get in the race. Now we can keep working on it and see if we can’t learn some things for next week and just try to go after that million if we’ve got the opportunity at it.” HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE IN THE ALL-STAR RACE? “That’s really cool. Hopefully, we can be in the All-Star Race every year. Hopefully, we don’t have to keep coming through these Showdowns, but if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. I’m definitely excited about it. We’re ready to go.”
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – WHAT WAS THE THOUGHT PROCESS IN NOT PITTING AFTER 20 LAPS? “We made a substantial change before qualifying being an impound race. It worked out well for qualifying, but it was hitting the track way too hard. The splitter was hitting the track so hard that I couldn’t even get into turn one. We knew we would like to come in and put on fresh rubber, but we knew we were gonna hit the track and not have a chance, so we figured we’d do all we could and that was to start up front and give it a shot. We knew if we came in and took tires we’d finish where we were or worse because it was hitting the ground so hard, and we just figured with high air pressures maybe we could smoke off a few laps and kind of hang in there, but, obviously, it fell off pretty bad. I wish we could have raced because I feel like we’ve got a good race car. We were one change away from being pretty close and that gives us good direction for the 600, but I really wanted to go down swinging there and, instead, we were just hanging on.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. PRESS CONFERENCE – TALK ABOUT MOVING ON TO THE ALL-STAR RACE. “That’s gonna be tough. That was really cool getting in through the Showdown. We wanted to win that thing. I thought we had a car yesterday that was gonna be capable of running up front for the lead, but we’ll take second and give ourselves an opportunity to keep working on it and see if we can’t figure out some things for next week. The more laps the better for me in a Cup car, so we’re definitely excited about it. We couldn’t keep up that first segment and Scott and the guys made some great changes to the car and we were able to get it freed up and get it turning a lot better for us and were able to hold on to second. The restart was a lot of fun and I’m sure we’re gonna have a lot more of that in a minute.”
YOU SEEMED CONFIDENT BEFORE THE RACE. HOW COME? WERE YOU THAT CONFIDENT IN THE CAR? “Yeah, I enjoy mile-and-a-half race tracks and it seems like we’ve been better on short runs this year than what we have throughout the whole race, so I felt like we had a better car than what we had there. I was a little disappointed once we went green to start, but definitely it was a lot better that second run. I was a lot more confident in the car than when we started after the first three laps of that first segment. I was a little disappointed.”
WHO DID YOU VOTE FOR IN THE FAN VOTE? “No one.”
Sprint All-Star Race
Ford Finishing Order:
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED? “Something just broke in the back half of the drive train, either the transmission or drive shaft gear – I’m not sure which one – but it’s one of those deals, unfortunately. We’ll try to learn from it and move on.” WHAT PUT YOU IN THE GARAGE? “Something broke in the drive train and it did a lot of damage and we can’t get it fixed, so it’s just one of those deals.” YOU LIKE THESE KINDS OF RACES. HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT FOR YOU? “That’s just the way it is. You can be mad about it or move on and get ready for next week. We’ll do the latter.” HOW DISAPPOINTING IS IT NOT TO RUN MORE LAPS AND LEARN FOR NEXT WEEK? “You’d like to learn a little bit more about the track and the race, but I’ve got a teammate out there in Joey Logano and hopefully he can learn something.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – PIT ROAD INTERVIEW – “The 22 guys did a great job with great pit stops. They got us that last spot before the 10 to go and that put us in the second row. That was important. I had a good restart, pushed the 5 out there and then the 48 was fast. The only shot I had is to get a caution and get our Pennzoil Ford up against him, but that was my only shot to have a restart and have to really pin him or do something to try to win this thing, but it was a lot of fun. It was really close. Second is awesome, but then it sucks at the same time because you’re like, ‘Oh, that was so close.’ But the guys did a great job. They made this car continually better all day, got our track position at the end. I just wish we had another caution. We weren’t the winning car, but I wish we had another caution to at least give him a run for his money.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – YOU STAYED OUT THE FIRST THREE SEGMENTS AND THAT SET THE TONE FOR YOUR NIGHT. “Yeah, it was going well and then we stayed out and obviously we should have pitted. Clint did the same thing. I think we gambled on the air being a little more important than it was. We thought we could hold them off and it just wasn’t meant to be. We learned a big lesson, though, so we can apply that to the 600. If we would have come in, we would have wondered what it was like if we had stayed out, so you learn lessons. That’s how it goes.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion – HOW VALUABLE WAS IT TO TRANSFER INTO THIS RACE FOR NEXT WEEK? “I think it was very valuable. I think we weren’t very good in the first Showdown segment. We were better the second and we got it better throughout the race there and felt like we had a 10th-15th place car, which I would say is good for us right now. We made a lot of adjustments under that red flag that I think gave us a direction to go for next week, so it was very, very valuable. I learned a few things myself out there running an extra 90 laps, which is huge. All in all, it was a great night for our Best Buy team and we’ll try to take everything we learned and be better next weekend.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 CSX “Play It Safe” Ford Fusion – “It was a good effort by our CSX team. We never really had the grip we needed all night, though. But I’m proud of this team for making the All-Star Race based on our Talladega win. The guys did a good job on pit road and we learned some things that will definitely help us out next week. And thanks to CSX. It was great having them aboard for such a big event."
JOEY LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE – HOW DID THINGS GO FOR YOU TONIGHT? “It was entertaining to say the least. I thought all my guys did a great job calling the race and keeping that average finish up. I felt like we were a fifth to sixth-place car in the beginning of the race, and then we just needed track position and I felt like if we got our track position we could run decent. So we averaged fifth and then we came down pit road, beat one car out, which put us in the second row and in the back of my mind, before the race started, I felt like you needed to be in the second row with 10 to go to at least have a shot at this thing, so my guys got me what I needed there and then it was up to me to make the most of what I had. I gave it everything I had, but the 48 was really, really fast. Once he got that clean air he was gone. We gave it all we had. All I could really do was hope for a caution and try to stack everything up and give it one more shot, but second is nothing to hang our heads down about. It doesn’t mean much when there are no points. It’s all about the million bucks tonight.” WILL WE SEE THE SAME CONTENDERS WE SAW TONIGHT IN THE 600? “Everyone is gonna come back and try to be better, including ourselves, but I would assume you’re gonna have similar hitters up there just like you do every other week.”
