Ford Performance Results:
2nd – Ryan Blaney
5th – Noah Gragson
7th – Chase Briscoe
8th – Michael McDowell
11th – Austin Cindric
12th – Josh Berry
13th – Joey Logano
18th – Chris Buescher
24th – Brad Keselowski
26th – Harrison Burton
28th – Ryan Preece
30th – Todd GIlliland
35th – Kaz Grala
36th – Justin Haley
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 The Pete Store Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I lost a lot of grip that second run, more than I anticipated. I just got into one and when I landed just started to walk up the track a little bit. I was just a little bit too tight that second round. I probably needed to back it up just a little bit and maybe it would have landed better, but it was close. You’re just hoping you get the changes right for that second round not really knowing what it was gonna do, but I feel good about it. I feel good about our speed. Tomorrow is gonna be a hot race and will be a lot different than today, so I’m not reading too much into practice. We had good pace, so that’s what we needed.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We were close. I thought we had enough of a car for the pole and it was hard to tell how much the track was gonna slow down the second run. I made two laps the first round and I think that kind of hurt us. I think most guys in the top handful only made one lap and that helped them out, but I’m proud of the effort. I wish I could do my first lap over again. I think I could have hit it a little better, but we have a good car and we’ll see what we have tomorrow.”
TOMORROW WILL BE MUCH WARMER THAN TODAY, SO HOW WILL THOSE CONDITIONS CHANGE THINGS?. “You’ve got to look at past notes of what the races have done when it’s gotten hotter. This is similar to last year from practice to the race when it was sunny and warm, so I think we’ve got some good notes to focus on when it comes to that and hopefully we hit it right.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DID YOU HAVE ANY TIRE CORDING IN PRACTICE? “My tires looked really good. I don’t know what it will be for everybody else tomorrow, but we’re looking like we’re in a good spot.”
JONES GETS HURT AND WE’VE SEEN GUYS IN THE TRUCK SERIES WITH THAT TYPE OF INJURY. DO YOU JUST SAY RACING IS DANGEROUS AND YOU’RE OK WITH THE CAR, OR IS THERE STILL SOME ANGST ABOUT IT? “It is a dangerous sport, but you hate to settle for that as the answer. If you settle for that for the answer, the cars would still look like they did in the fifties and sixties, so you want to continue to evolve, but I think you have to have some amount of discipline to respect that the cars are never gonna be perfectly safe.”
Kaz Grala, driver of the No. 18 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RIck Ware Racing, was involved in an accident in practice and will be forced to a backup for tomorrow’s race.
KAZ GRALA, No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “That was so quick. I didn’t even feel like I had time to react to catch it. I’m not really sure because I felt like we had a really good practice. Our car was really close. I thought our race pace was pretty darn good, and I felt like that might have been our best practice session of the year and then it was out from under me before I knew what happened. It’s super unfortunate for everyone at Rick Ware Racing. To go to a backup car is not ideal for us, so I feel bad for everybody having to work overtime here and make the most of tomorrow.”
Ford Performance PR
