From the Ford Performance website.
It was an overall tough day for the Ford Performance teams at Richmond International Raceway Sunday, the first scheduled afternoon race since 1997 at the track. It was a race that saw lots of passing and tire wear, and a crazy finish as Carl Edwards (Toyota) moved teammate Kyle Busch (Toyota) on the final lap for the win.
Joey Logano paced the Blue Oval, finishing eighth after running as far back as 32nd and a lap down. Teammate Brad Keselowski, who led two laps on pit strategy late in the race, wound up 11th.
Greg Biffle (14th) and Trevor Bayne (17th) were the only other Fusions in the top-20 with Aric Almirola just missing in 21st.
The series heads back to superspeedway racing next Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway.
SPRINT CUP RACE TOP-10 FINISHERS
1st Carl Edwards
2nd Kyle Busch
3rd Jimmie Johnson
4th Kasey Kahne
5th Kevin Harvick
6th Denny Hamlin
7th Matt Kenseth
8th Joey Logano
9th Martin Truex Jr.
10th Kurt Busch
REMAINING FORD FINISHERS
11th Brad Keselowski
14th Greg Biffle
17th Trevor Bayne
21st Aric Almirola
26th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27th Landon Cassill
28th Ryan Blaney
34th Chris Buescher
35th Brian Scott
38th Jeffrey Earnhardt
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Finished 8th) – “I needed to find a different lane. Every lane I found didn’t work. At the end it started to and I felt like maybe a couple of more restarts and good pit-stops we could have track positioned ourselves to be closer to the front and maybe squeak out a top-five at the end. Taking a car from being the 35th place car to a top-five car throughout a race is quite impressive for what my team was able to do today. It was great teamwork. Everyone kept working hard and those are great opportunities to implode internally as a race team and completely throw away a whole race and start yelling and screaming at each other but there was not one moment of that today from my team. Everyone was very methodical about the changes and we tried things that didn’t work so we went the other way and it started to work for us. I am proud of the effort from my team today. We need to make the cars a little faster, but I am proud of the effort.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Thomas Built Buses Ford Fusion (Finished 11th) – “We weren’t where we wanted to be for sure but we were able to get through it. Sometimes that is all you can do.” HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO MOVE UP TOWARD THE END? “We were probably a 5th-10th place car and fell back from the strategy but drove up there into about 11th and honestly we just ran out of time.”
GREG BIFFLE., No. 16 Cheez-It Ford Fusion (Finished 14th) – “We certainly didn’t end up where we were running. We were running mostly around 11th or 12th most of the day and the last couple of restarts we got shuffled back. That happens though. I guess that is racing. I wish we were better than that but we definitely had a better car than 14th which makes you feel good.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Finished 28th) – “It was a struggle all day for us. We weren’t very good in the beginning and got a lap down early and short-pitted and that actually worked out well for us. We still ended up a lap down but kind of gained a few spots. We raced hard for the Lucky Dog all day and at one point I thought we had it but they gave it to somebody else which was unfortunate. That made us kind of be on equal tires the rest of the day as we were taking wave arounds. It was just a big struggle today. The second run I thought we were okay but then we just kind of lost the track a little big. It was tough. We have to go back and I have to do a better job and we all have to figure something out here for the next race. It is a good learning day though and we learned a lot and it is a good character builder for sure.” RAVE REVIEWS FOR THE STYLE OF RACING, DO YOU AGREE? “Yeah, the cars were all over the place. The bottom, middle and top. The top rolled pretty well at the beginning of the race when it was fresh. Then rubber got laid on it and it wasn’t very good. You could roll the middle pretty good. I was best in the middle. I couldn’t run the bottom at all. It looked like the leaders, the guys who won, ran the middle too. That is promising I guess. We can move around the racetrack a lot and I think Goodyear did a decent job with that and bringing a good tire for us. That was fun."
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