Ford Performance NCTS Atlanta 1 Post-Race Quotes

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In: NASCAR Truck Series News

Ford FInishing Results:

5th – Ben Rhodes

9th – Matt Crafton

11th – Ty Majeski

12th – Hailie Deegan

20th – Zane Smith

23rd – Josh Reaume

29th – Mason Massey

33rd – Kaden Honeycutt

36th – Keith McGee

 

MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Great Lakes Flooring/Menards Ford F-150 – “I didn’t want to take the bat off my shoulder until I had to go to the bottom and try to see if I could make something work because we kept picking the top and the top would go, but then the bottom would slow as soon as we got all of those yellows in that quick spurt and we kept losing track position. So, as soon as I did it we ran a lot longer green, and I sank big time. All in all, this Menards Ford F-150 was good. It handled great and we just made very minor adjustments. We’re already up front. We led laps and did everything we needed to do today, but we just made that one mistake.”

 

 

BEN RHODES, No. 99 Farm Paint Ford F-150 – WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ON THE FINAL RESTART? “I thought we were in really good shape. The 2 and the 19, although they’re Chevy’s, I don’t think wanted to really work together. The 19 and I, Christian, we get along really good off the track. We worked really well together at Daytona and he’s kind of become my satellite teammate, I guess, and just comes from his time at ThorSport of being real teammates there. Congrats to Christian on winning it. I pushed him as hard as I could down the backstretch, but, again, I had a big run and I tried to take it. I lost my momentum getting loose like that, but there was no need for the whole truck to be destroyed for sixth place. I think right now it should be a top five and a fairly clean truck.”

 

YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATES WERE 1-2-3 IN STAGE 2 AND OBVIOUSLY STRONG. “That’s right, but the racing changed a lot at the end of the race. The track got rubbered up. It got a little locked down on the bottom. You had the ability to push a lot harder and side force and aero became less of a thing. Mechanical grip started to reign supreme at the end and with that came a lot more aggressive racing, so I’m disappointed with the finish. When you go for a shot for the win going into turn three and four, and then you wind up with a sixth place finish and a destroyed truck, that’s not good, especially going into the five-race run we have here. We’ve got some work to do back at the shop and not a lot of time to fix it.”

 

 

HAILIE DEEGAN, No. 13 Advent Health F-150 – “I think it was a great day. I think our goal going into this race was to hang back until it really means something. It means something at the end in the third stage, so we just hung back and waited, and I think it worked because there were a few times where I’d be in a good position to keep going forward and I’d tell myself, ‘This doesn’t feel good. Something is gonna happen.’ And then like a lap later all of a sudden something would happen, so I think we put ourselves in a good position to bring home a clean truck and be able to have it for Texas. That’s great because we have something to build off of and we’re not repairing something.”

 

HOW DID YOU ATTACK THE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKER RESTART? “We took the bottom because every wreck here ends up at the top before it comes back down, so I think you’re guaranteed to at least if you get past it when it goes up that you’ll be pretty good. We were just gonna try to be on the bottom and go from there.”

 

 

TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Curb Records F-150 – “We just got behind. Our pit crew couldn’t get the gas engaged and we lost a lot of track position on that fuel only pit stop. We just never could recover. I tried the top and tried the bottom, but couldn’t really recover to get over that hump. All in all it was a solid points day. We wanted a top 10, but have to settle for 11th.”

 

Ford Performance PR

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