Notes and Quotes from Bristol Cup Race 1

FORD:

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang -- VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW -- RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME.  “I think everybody on this Discount Tire Ford Mustang team is gonna go to Vegas.  Is it open yet?  Because things have been going our way from the luck of the draw on the qualifying to the last few laps there.  We couldn’t get anything to go our way at the start of the race with cars staying out and I kept getting the bottom lane on restarts and nothing was working out and then right at the end we came in and put two tires on the left and drove up to,  I guess fourth or sixth, I don’t know, something like that and put ourselves in position.  I could see Joey and Chase were getting really racy there and I didn’t know what was gonna happen, but I knew if I kept my eye open something good might happen and, sure enough, it did.  An incredible day.  I’m so happy for the team.  This was a never-give-up effort.  That’s what we’re becoming as a team.”

UNEXPECTED FINISH, BUT IT’S IN YOUR FAVOR.  WHAT HAPPENED?  “We kind of got a Christmas present here in Bristol.  We’ll take it.  We’re in position and able to strike when it counted with the Discount Tire Ford Mustang.  Joey and Chase got together there.  I don’t know what all caused it, but we were just in position to strike and here we are in victory lane.”

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN TODAY AT BRISTOL?  “It’s great.  Bristol is a tremendous track.  I wish there were all these fans here to see it, but that’s how it goes.”

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CELEBRATE?  “I’m gonna go home and see my wife and daughter.  I think she’s got some arts and crafts I’m supposed to play with her, and maybe some brownies to eat.  I wish I could celebrate with my team, but you know how everything is right now.  There’s so much going on in the world I’m just so thankful to get to be a race car driver and get to do this.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Autotraderl Ford Mustang -- WHAT WAS YOUR TAKE?  “He wrecked me.  He got loose underneath me.  The part that’s frustrating is that afterwards a simple apology -- like be a man and come up to someone and say, ‘Hey, my bad.’  But I had to force an apology, which, to me, is childish.  Anyways, man, we had a good recovery with our Autotrader Mustang and had a shot to win.  That’s all you can hope for.  I passed him clean.  It’s hard racing at the end, I get that.  It’s hard racing, but, golly, man, be a man and take the hit when you’re done with it.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Built Ford Proud Ford Mustang -- HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?  YOU WERE ALL OVER THE TRACK, BUT WAS THERE WHEN IT COUNTED.  “We actually struggled pretty bad with our setup.  I don’t know, it was floating the nose really bad up off the corner all day long.  I could gain and make some ground up in the center of the corner in, and in the middle, but if I had to pass somebody and turn underneath of them I didn’t have the real estate.  The outside was no man’s land for me.  I couldn’t get my front end to turn at all.  The 2 car hit the 6 car into me and clobbered my whole left side.  I was needing that 2 car to be a little bit closer.  I wasn’t gonna feel bad about moving him, but it just didn’t materialize.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Water Heaters  Ford Mustang -- WHAT HAPPENED?  “I was running up there for a little bit.  I didn’t think I was that high and all of a sudden I hit a slick spot.  I was way high and that’s obviously not where I wanted to be, but I didn’t think I was that high getting in there.  It might have just been trying to get too much and got in the marbles and spun out.  I thought we were gonna be okay and then we got destroyed about six seconds later, so that’s just Bristol and a part of Bristol.  I probably shouldn’t have been pushing that hard, but trying to get back to the lead.  I thought we found some speed up there, just a mistake on my part.  I hate it for Menards and Richmond and everybody on this 12 team.  After having two strong weeks, you go and you wreck not even halfway, so that’s just a bummer.  We’ll go to Atlanta and see what we can do.”

WHAT DID TY DILLON SAY TO YOU?  “Just how he was trying to get slowed up.  It’s just one of them things at Bristol. Things happen fast and just couldn’t get slowed up enough and turn and miss me.  I think we’re both out of it, but I shouldn’t have been sitting there sideways on the track anyway.  That stinks, but I thought we were gonna be okay and just can’t seem to avoid things here.  It’s hard to do, but I hate it for everybody on our crew.  We had a good car and I just kind of overstepped it and cost us.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang -- “Well, that stinks. We were getting our car a lot better and then caught up in the wreck. Just so little time to react so you get caught up in them pretty easily here at Bristol. That’s just how it is here. I thought our HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang was getting a lot better. I felt like we could’ve run in the top-10. We were a lot better than where we were running. We were going forward but our pit stall wasn’t helping us either. We were getting blocked in about every time and that hurt us too. We’ll move on to the next one, but man, I thought we were going to have a good day here.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang -- “Man. We had such a good car today. We would have had a shot at a top-three finish. That’s Bristol. I felt like I had a tire going down at one point, so we pitted and even came back to the top-10 from that pretty quickly. We had a loose-wheel later and had to pit under caution that put us 10th. We were definitely making our way back towards the front and had a promising finish if we didn’t get caught up there. It looked like the 19 got into me. The car just took off towards the wall and we were done. I hate it for this Smithfield Ford team. We’re flirting on the edge of some really good runs. The good news is we came to Bristol with a setup that can win, so we’ll have confidence coming back.”

TOYOTA

TOYOTA QUOTES

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 5th

Solid race today at Bristol, but you had to battle back late due to an incident not of your own making. How was your race today overall?

“It was solid. We had a pretty good Stanley Camry. At times, I thought we were better than others. We got a good finish out of it, which was nice. I got caught up in a wreck with the 4 (Kevin Harvick) car. He blew a right front, and we got some damage on the left front at the end. It slowed us down for sure. We just never really got the track position all day, never got where we needed to. We were fast enough during some of the runs that I felt like we could have maintained if we had been up in the top three, we just never got up there. Good day, good finish. Top-five is always rewarding, but you always want more.”

 

With the track being so green, how long did it take to settle in and find some grip and a rhythm? 

“It took a long time. We’ve never started at Bristol with a track green, and that slick. It really felt like it took all of that first 60 laps to get the bottom cleaned up and rubbered in. It took a good 250-300 to really get the top rolling, comfortably, and not even really to its full potential. I don’t think the top ever got to where it was truly the best it could be. It took a long time. It was really odd starting like that. We really had to make a lot of changes to try to keep up with the track.”

 

How different was this race without practice or qualifying?

“I think it was more of an effect today than what it had been at the mile-and-a-halves. Short tracks, you really seem to tune on your car a lot more through practice. Splitter heights are harder to gauge and hit correctly when you come to these places with just your sim. That was all a little farther off than what we had at the mile-and-a-halves. It took us a little longer to get it. Bristol, we are usually pretty good by time the race starts, and we really didn’t have that today. It definitely affected us more today than the other tracks.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 95 JBL Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing

Finishing Position: 9th

Talk about your day. You were solidly in the top-10 for most of the second half of the race and overcame a late pit road penalty.

“We struggled a little bit early, but we continued to make progress on the JBL Camry. I felt like for a time there we had a contending car, which was good.”

 

Christopher, second top-10 in the last three races, what does it mean to you to be getting these finishes?

“We battled back and have begun to see some results, which is good. It’s nice to be getting some results after the start of the season we had. We are continuing to build and get better, which is the goal.”

 

What do you believe you and your team needs to do to keep the momentum going?

“Just keep learning. I’m a rookie and I’m learning more every race. Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) is new with this Cup Series package, and as we continue to go back to the tracks we are continuing to grow and learn as a team.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Skittles Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 4th

How was your race at Bristol overall?

“Our race was okay. We were trying to exit pit road two-wide with (Martin) Truex (Jr.) there running my lights and running on the inside, it’s a shorter distance and we got pegged for speeding. That ruined our first stage results. We were able to get back up there a little bit for the second stage, got some decent second stage points and then we were able to drive to the lead. I led for a little bit and thought we had a pretty good Skittles Camry out front. It was a little bit of a struggle in traffic until we caught lapped traffic and it kind of started to mix up the leaders a little bit. I felt like we could make ground back up in that after 30 or 35 laps of a run. We didn’t get those runs at the end of the race. My pit crew always does a great job and unfortunately we came down leading and then we came out third and losing control of the race lost us the race. They’re normally really, really good at getting us spots and today we just didn’t have one of those days on pit road. We got the result we got and those guys all crashed in front of us. Denny (Hamlin) got a flat after he crashed. The 9 (Chase Elliott) and the 22 (Joey Logano) got together when the 2 (Brad Keselowski) had just got by me so he was already in the lead and I had to check up for those guys wrecking. We fell to fourth and that’s all we had.”

 

Which lane performed better for you during the race?

“I was pretty good in both just as long as there wasn’t anybody in front of me. It did seem like the bottom groove certainly was the more beneficial groove to fire off for say 30 laps and then it would definitely equal out and the top groove would kind of come in. I could run both. I felt like my car was pretty good in both and I made time in both of them. There at the end, it was just everybody around the bottom and my car would not fire off on restarts. We struggled on restarts and I just had no speed there to be able to run hard with those guys at the end.”

 

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 5th

Solid race today at Bristol, but you had to battle back late due to an incident not of your own making. How was your race today overall?

“It was solid. We had a pretty good Stanley Camry. At times, I thought we were better than others. We got a good finish out of it, which was nice. I got caught up in a wreck with the 4 (Kevin Harvick) car. He blew a right front, and we got some damage on the left front at the end. It slowed us down for sure. We just never really got the track position all day, never got where we needed to. We were fast enough during some of the runs that I felt like we could have maintained if we had been up in the top three, we just never got up there. Good day, good finish. Top-five is always rewarding, but you always want more.”

 

CHEVROLET

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 3rd

The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and two-time winner (2010 & ‘17) at Bristol Motor Speedway, posted his 2nd top-10 finish in 37 races at the historic venue.

 

POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

 

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by seven‑time champion Jimmie Johnson.

           Jimmie, walk us through the wild and crazy race from your perspective.

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, wild and crazy night for sure. Very strong performance for us. Really proud of the guys keeping our chins up through the last four weeks. We've had fast cars, really haven't had the results to show for it.

           To put together a solid race, start to finish, great pit stops, fast car, be a threat. We need more long runs. There's only one long race in the whole race. We were battling for the lead with Kyle. I wish there were more long runs because our car didn't have the short run speed in it. But we still salvaged a great day out of it with the Ally Chevy.

            THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

 

           Q. When you take stock of how you ran as a company today, do you feel decent about your short track package at this point in the season?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, we haven't had many short track races. Bristol is pretty unique. When I think of Phoenix, we didn't have a race‑winning car in Phoenix. That race is so important at the end of the year. I feel like we still have some work to do.

           Great showing here. Then obviously our mile‑and‑a‑half stuff, the 550 package, in general we're much more competitive this year. A lot of optimism, but I think we need to refine our package a bit more through the bulk of the year and set up well for the Playoffs.

 

           Q. There's been a lot of talk about why the Hendrick cars have been so fast this year, the Chevrolet cars as a whole. Denny Hamlin said he thought it was the redesigned Camaro. Is that the key to why Chevrolet has been so strong this year?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, without a doubt. That new Camaro has been a huge help for us. I think through last year's events, and NASCAR taking the three makes, taking those cars after the race is over, blowing them in the wind tunnel, they saw the situation and they allowed Chevrolet to build a new Camaro and bring it out to get us up on par with the Toyotas and the Fords.

           This year we feel like we are much more in the ballpark and much more on an equal with them with the 550 package.

 

           Q. What kind of advantage does it give you with one year of this rules package, tweaking the car to fit the rules package?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: I mean, with the low horsepower, it's really about efficiencies. It kind of tells a story that back when we didn't have these restricted engines, the Chevrolets were creating downforce kind of in an inefficient manner, but it didn't matter because we had the horsepower to pull us through it.

           Last year it was pretty obvious when we raced the 550 package we had trouble. We couldn't trim the car out to the lengths of the other manufacturers. After NASCAR studied it hard, they realized they needed to do something. They let us have a new car this year.

           Between that and I think a new engine block that they approved for the year, the engine block is a lot lighter and helps on days like today. It's their job to keep the quality and they allowed us to make those changes and bring us up to par with the other two makes.

 

           Q. All things considered in the two weeks, how satisfied are you with the progress that you and Cliff have done, especially with the long layoff to now, a victory is all that's missing?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: We're excited. I felt like when the lockdown and quarantine started, we had momentum on our side. I was really bummed that we couldn't see that through. Then to sit on ice for eight, nine weeks, whatever it ended up being, then come back and really actually be stronger than we were before the lockdown happened is really a testament to everybody at Hendrick, the leadership on Cliff's side, what he's doing with these crew guys.

           I felt like we would be good, but we definitely stepped it up after the lockdown lifted, now that we're back racing.

 

           Q. In Darlington you made a mistake in the first race. Kyle Busch made a mistake in the third race. Chase Elliott took the blame for the late wreck today. Is there more pressure on you guys? Is there a reason why we're seeing all the great drivers make a mistake or have an issue?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: No. I just think we do a nice job of making it look easy. When you cross the line, stuff goes wrong. We walk that tightrope day in and day out. 100% is really all the car can take. You step over it and create situations that take you out if you try too hard.

           I think it's more impressive that we fooled you guys for so long making it look easy on track, and our true colors finally showed through (laughter).

 

           Q. You have obviously shown speed this season. As a collective group you won 10 stages already, two more than all of last year. You also have two wins together. The absence of wins is more circumstances regarding the racing or do you think there's still some gains left to be made as an organization?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: We always want to be stronger. There's no doubt. I feel like there's probably two races that I could have been in contention to win, three including tonight, today. I think Chase could be sitting here with five in a row if things go his way, four or five in a row.

           I do think HMS is very strong. I do think we have left some wins on the table as a group, unfortunately.

 

           Q. You've had a lot of success at Atlanta. You get a week off, almost like normal. You haven't had a lead lap finish since 2017. What are your expectations? What have you worked with as a team collectively trying to get HMS back to the front in Atlanta?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, you know, Atlanta last year was really an eye‑opening experience for HMS. When I look back at the year, that track is so hard on tires, really tells you what kind of aero balance you have, setup that you have to go with. We should have known then we needed to make some big changes.

           When I look at this year and going to California Speedway, that surface is a lot like Atlanta. I feel like Darlington, Fontana, Atlanta, those tracks kind of all act the same. They're not identical, but pretty good comparison between them all.

           I'm really excited to go back to Atlanta. It's one of my favorite racetracks to compete at. Been able to win there over the years. Of late it's been tough for us. I really expect us to have a strong performance there.

 

           Q. The headlines the last few days have been dominated by protests, including in Charlotte, against police brutality and people demanding justice for George Floyd. What is your reaction to that?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, I've watched it all. The circumstances are just crazy and unacceptable. I am for protesting, peaceful protesting. I hope there's more of that tonight. I know there are concerns, especially in the Charlotte area, near my home, that they will be protesting tonight.

           The message needs to be clear, but I think being peaceful is really the right way to send the message here. I hope everybody stays safe.

 

           Q. Talking about crossing the line because of not having any practice and no qualifying, has that narrowed the line as far as crossing it? Has that made it more difficult as far as knowing where that line is?

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: I don't think so. I mean, I think if it's an incident in the opening laps, you could chalk it up to not having practice or something there. But I honestly think it's a product of what NASCAR is today.

           When you back up to stages, the way that we race for stages, we now have championship points awarded or points being paid out in the stages.

           We know that cautions breed cautions. Track position is more important than it's ever been with this 550 downforce package and the big spoiler on the back of the car. You just keep stacking things up that make you drive as hard as you can every single lap. When you live that close to the edge, you're going to step over. Just that simple.

 

            THE MODERATOR: Jimmie, thanks for taking the time. Enjoy a couple days off. We'll see you at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

 

            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Thank you. Take care everybody.

RICKY STENHOUSE, JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined in multi-car accident on Lap 230. Finished 29th

WHAT HAPPENED?

“We just got crashed. Our Kroger Camaro was just so good. Two weeks in a row, I feel like, we had one of the best cars I’ve had at that given race track. We were just racing hard. The No. 42 (Matt Kenseth) had to check-up and the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) just ran into our left rear and spun us. But, it was a bummer. I felt like we had a really good shot at racing them for the win. We were getting it dialed-in there. Starting on the inside was a little tricky on re-starts in trying to get yourself up, and we were starting to get some momentum back to the top five there and just got crashed. He about got us last week. He got us this week. But, it’s just part of it. It’s short-track racing. Hopefully our guys bring another good car to Atlanta next weekend, and we’ll go get ‘em.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by crash on lap 228

 

ALEX, WALK US THROUGH WHAT TOOK PLACE FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT?

“It looked like the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) crashed and I just couldn’t get stopped in time. I was hoping they would stay low and as they all came up, I got on the brake pedal, just locked the fronts up and couldn’t turn. Bummer – hate it for our ChevyGoods.com Adam’s Polishes guys. The first race for having Adam’s Polishes on the car; bummed for them. We had a really good car, just had some weird stuff happen today. We cross-threaded a lug nut, had to come back down and change that out. The clutch pedal fell off inside the race car, so that wasn’t good for pit stops by any means. So, we struggled with that the last pit stop and lost some more track position. And then, just wrong place wrong time. Hate it, but it looks like the 9 (Chase Elliott) is running really well, so hopefully a HMS car can park it in victory lane. It was one of those days that everything was going wrong and finished it off.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by crash on lap 228

 

"Well, unfortunately we had an early end to my NASCAR Cup Series debut at Bristol Motor Speedway. We had a handful with the balance of our Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet today and weren't quite where we needed to be to start the race. We worked really hard though and got it to where I thought it needed to be. We were even able to start clicking off some top-five lap times, just needed some track position to get up there and start contending. We had started to weed away at that, and I'm confident we would have gotten up there. I could run the top lane pretty well, which was helping a lot. It's unfortunate, but it's a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time at Bristol. I saw the No. 47 get spun, and I saw him go down but then I couldn't see him anymore. I was worried if I checked up too much I'd get caught up in it, but it didn't matter and I got caught up in it anyway. Just a tough situation and a tough way to end our day."

 

 

 

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2020, Issue 5, Posted 9:05 PM, 05.31.2020