Team Penske Clinches Third in NASCAR at Charlotte Motor Speedway
Ford Performance interviews Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski for their top 19 finishes.
Ryan Blaney came home third for Team Penske, one of four Mustangs to crack the top-10 last Thursday night at Charlotte in the rain-delayed Alsco Uniforms 500.
Kevin Harvick looked poised to give Ford yet another Cup Series victory last Thursday night, but lost the handling late on his No. 4 Ford Mustang on his way to a 10th place finish.
Blaney’s Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski were the other two Mustangs with top-19 finishes. Logano came won Stage 2 and finished sixth while Keselowski finished seventh, four days after winning the Coca-Cola 600 on the same race track.
Ford peppered the top-20 of of the leaderboard with John Hunter Nemecheck 13th, Matt DiBenedetto 15th, Clint Bowyer 16th, Ryan Newman 17th, Cole Custer 18th, Corey LaJoie 19th and Aric Almirola 20th.
The NASCAR Cup Series returned Sunday afternoon, May 31, at Bristol Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM).
MENCS RACE TOP-10 FINISHERS
1st – Chase Elliott
2nd – Denny Hamlin
3rd – Ryan Blaney (Team Penske)
4th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5th – Kurt Busch
6th – Joey Logano (Team Penske)
7th – Brad Keselowski (Team Penske)
8th – Austin Dillon
9th – Martin Truex Jr.
10th – Kevin Harvick
REMAINING FORD FINISHERS
13th — John Hunter Nemechek
15th – Matt DiBenedetto
16th – Clint Bowyer
17th – Ryan Newman
18th – Cole Custer
19th – Corey LaJoie
20th – Aric Almirola
22nd – Chris Buescher
25th – Michael McDowell
30th – Gray Gaulding
35th – BJ McLeod
39th – Joey Gase
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang
“It just falls off after lap 30. We knew that’s what we had with our Busch Light Ford and it went straight 60-some laps. They did a really good job turning the car around. It was the total opposite of what we raced last Sunday, so it was a good test session for us. We just didn’t need a long run.”
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 BODYARMOR Ford Mustang (Team Penske)
“We got to second and the 4 was really fast getting going and the 9 got by me. I kind of messed up three and four and allowed him to get by me. I kind of thought I was equal with him when we were both running the 4 down and I just got tight. I was a little bit free all night and we tightened it up just a touch for that last run, and it was the longest run we had, and we just kind of burned the right-front off of it and couldn’t stay with the 9 there late in the run, and then the 11 got by me. Overall, not a bad day for our BODYARMOR Ford Mustang. We had two solid races here at Charlotte. We just need to find a little bit more speed, but we’re right there. I’m really proud of this team.”
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang (Team Penske)
“It wasn’t our prettiest day, but, all in all, we were decent. We had a lot of speed in our car, not as much as maybe the 9 car. He was lights-out fast today, but we had enough to, I think, run in the top three or four. We had a little bit of contact early on and got a flat tire that did a lot of damage to the car, and we recovered and I got contact again and had a lot of damage to the car, but came back in to fix it. There at the end we started to recover. I think we drove up to seventh to finish the race, but it’s kind of not my strongest day. I was pushing a little bit too hard starting in the back and got us behind with damage a little bit early and had to kind of fight through it in a short race. We did the best we could to recover, but didn’t have enough laps and I put us in too big of a hole.”
COMPARING TONIGHT TO THE COCA-COLA 600 IS THERE A PHYSICAL STRAIN THAT’S DIFFERENT FROM THIS RACE COMPARED TO SUNDAY?
“It feels like I just played one half of a game, rather than a full game. It’s a lot easier, for sure, but I also kind of like this format a lot. I think it makes sense. I think it makes sense to have long races on weekends and kind of shorter races, disregarding the weather, during the week. I really like the format NASCAR has here. It’s a good give-and-take. It doesn’t just completely destroy your body, so I think NASCAR has really hit something here. I couldn’t see the front, but it seemed like it was pretty racy there at the end for the win, and I think that’s always a good thing as well.”
YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT MIDWEEK RACES FOR SOME TIME. DO YOU THINK THIS EXPERIENCE CAN LAY A BLUEPRINT FOR NASCAR AND HOW THEY SCHEDULE FROM NOW?
“Oh yeah, I think absolutely. NASCAR, in my opinion, has hit gold with this format. The limited practice, show up and race, and the time window that benefits both the east and west coast. No qualifying. Inversion from the week before is really good because it mixes the field up and creates some good storylines there. I think it’s fair. It’s compelling and it’s at a time where, quite frankly, the sports world, even if it wasn’t for COVID, midweek races in the summer, when you’re generally not having a lot of competition, is in a time period where everybody is hungry for content. I think they’ve got gold here. COVID or not, I hope we keep this for years to come. I think this is a great little format that’s good for the sport and good for the fans and good for everybody all around, so kudos to them.”
WHEN YOU SAY KEEP THE FORMAT DO YOU MEAN KEEP LIMITED PRACTICE AND NO QUALIFYING AS OPPOSED TO DOING A TRADITIONAL RACE WEEKEND?
“Yeah, absolutely. We don’t need a whole bunch of practice and qualifying for midweek races. I think maybe one short practice and that’s about it. I would be really cool with that and I think it would be great for our sport.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang (Team Penske)
“We had a solid to okay day. Solid to start and okay to finish. We started off with some good track position on the initial start and then had the opportunity to stay out, which we were able to grab a stage win and get another playoff point for the second week in a row, which is nice. We had a decent second stage and finished third, and then had two mediocre restarts that kind of put me back in the sixth or seventh place range. It was just impossible to pass. It’s so hard to pass. I rode behind the 1, which I was better than, but could not get to him. I was waiting for him to make a mistake, but he’s too good to make a mistake, so I rode around and waited and waited and waited. I needed a caution to have the opportunity to have a restart and a pit stop, but in this racing you just run hard, you try to get everything you can on restarts. Details mean so much. We’re detail racing for sure and after that you hope that maybe there’s a car like the 4 that is fast and falls off, and there might be one or two cars that you might get on the long haul, possibly, but it’s tough at a track that’s just not wide enough.”
Photos: Ford Performance/NASCAR