Ford Finishing Results:

1^st – Brad Keselowski

7^th – Joey Logano

11^th – Aric Almirola

15^th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

20^th – Chris Buescher

24^th – Cole Whitt

29^th – Trevor Bayne

32^nd – Greg Biffle

35^th – David Gilliland

43^rd – Sam Hornish Jr.

·         Brad Keselowski’s win today is his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season and 17^th of his career.

·         For the second straight year both NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers at Team Penske have won a race early in the season.  In 2014, Keselowski won the third race at Las Vegas while Joey Logano took the seventh event at Texas.  They’re ahead of that pace in 2015 as both have wins (Logano in the Daytona 500 and Keselowski today) in the first five events.

·         This marks the third time Team Penske has won a NSCS race at Auto Club Speedway with Ford.  The first two came in back-to-back seasons when Jeremy Mayfield (2000) and Rusty Wallace (2001) went to victory lane.

·         The win is Fusion’s 66^th NSCS triumph since becoming Ford’s flagship vehicle in 2006.

·         Ford now has 634 all-time NSCS victories.

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion – “It was really an up and down day, for sure, but as a team and Paul and the guys on pit road kept fighting.  At the end, we caught some breaks and made the most of the breaks we caught, and that was kind of the story of our race.  It looked like we were probably gonna finish sixth or seventh there and then that yellow came out.  We came in and pitted and drove up a little bit.  And then caught another yellow and thought, ‘Now what do we do?’  So Paul made the call to come down pit road and put four tires on and when he said that I said, ‘This could either go really good or really bad.’  I didn’t know which one it was gonna be.  Some guys stayed out.  Some guys took two tires and all kinds of different strategies and on the restart we were able to find our way through the lanes and get to the front there and somehow end up in victory lane leading the last lap.  That’s kind of a race car driver’s dream and this is one we’re gonna sit back and go ‘wow’ for a while on.”

PAUL WOLFE, Crew Chief – No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE LOCKED IN THE CHASE AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON?  “Obviously, it was a big win for us today and I think as you look at the new format and how you win and you’re into the Chase, that was partly on my mind when I made the call today.  To Brad’s point, we were a sixth, seventh-place car it seemed like there.  We had runs where we were maybe a little better and runs where we weren’t, but when I heard guys were going for two tires I told Brad over the radio.  I said, ‘Well, if we’re gonna win this thing I think we’re gonna need to do four.’  I didn’t feel like we were gonna be able to pass those guys on equal tires, so at that point it was like, ‘Let’s go for the win,’ and we did four tires.  It’s one thing to have the four tires and have the grip, but Brad did an excellent job executing the passes and making the holes and taking the opportunities to make use of the tires.  It was a great day.  It means a lot to us.  We’ve been off a little bit on speed this year.  We know we need to be better, so to get this win this early is huge for us and now it gives us a little opportunity to maybe do some things outside of our comfort zone and see if we can find a little more speed and be able to lead more laps and run up front like we want to do.”

ROGER PENSKE, Car Owner – No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE MOMENTUM TEAM PENSKE HAS NOW?  “To have both cars in the Chase is exceptional.  I think last year we had that opportunity to get in early and it certainly paid off as we got through the season as we could do other things as we try to explore some of the outer boundaries.  But today was also special for me.  This is a track we built, I think back in ’97 was the first time we had a race here, and we haven’t won a race here with a NASCAR car since I think it was 2002 with Rusty and it was in the 2 car, so 2 is special here and the drive that Brad did was amazing.  To see him.  He was cool all day.  We made some changes on the car.  We were up.  We were down as Paul said, but at the end of the day at one point I thought he was gonna take the lead a little earlier, but knowing at the he had a short-run, speed car there that he could get around the 27 and it was all over then.  To me, Paul, it was a great call.  A great run in the pits today.  It kept us up front, which you need to be today because of the competition, but still we’re chasing that 4 car as you know.  He’s been awful hot and, to me, two cars in the Chase at this time I think we’re going in the right direction.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – DID YOU SEE THE DEBRIS ON THE LAP 200 CAUTION?  “I don’t remember how the race finished let alone debris.  There are a lot of things being thrown at me here, I’m sorry.  My short-term memory is not that strong.  Which yellow?  Lap 200?  I can’t remember those things.  I was focused on do we pit or not pit.  Paul was saying this and the engine temperatures and how to make the car turn.  When the yellow comes out in these races as a driver you can’t sit and fret about what the yellow is for, you’ve got to make a real-time decision that’s really gonna dictate your fate to win or lose a race.  So I’m sorry I don’t waste any brain space on trying to figure that out because it kind of is what it is, but I honestly don’t remember.”

PAUL WOLFE CONTINUED – DID YOU HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT DEBRIS?  “We hear them talking about it on the radio, but I personally didn’t see it and don’t know, but they call it when we’re listening on the scanners we can hear guys looking for debris, but I didn’t see it.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – DO YOU EVER SHAKE YOUR HEAD ABOUT THE TWISTS THIS SPORT CAN TAKE?  “Yeah, I kind of am right now.  That’s what I was trying to say to Tom.  There’s a lot going on to try and put it all in perspective.  When you win today you temper that with the knowledge you’re gonna lose one like this and you’re gonna have a dominant car one day and there’s gonna come a sequence of fluke events that’s gonna cost you a win and you’re gonna look around and go, ‘How did I lose?’  And you’re gonna be really angry, so the only thing you can do is just be really happy when you win like today to kind of offset that.  That’s how racing goes.”

YOU WERE 17^TH ON THAT RESTART AT LAP 200.  DO YOU WONDER HOW YOU WON?  “Absolutely, we went from 17^th to sixth in one turn.  When the yellow came out, was that the bumper?  I was kind of mad because I felt like I had a big run and felt like I could get up to maybe second or third, and I really hadn’t kind of reset and Paul said it to me probably a lap later, ‘No, this is actually really good to get you back up and maybe win the race.’  And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.’  But he kept me calm on that one, but I knew we had a shot of a better day than what we were going to have when we cleared all those cars in one and two on the first restart, so you don’t know how these things are gonna work out.  Sometimes you can restart fifth or sixth with four tires and get caught up behind someone who doesn’t have tires and end up 10^th.  You just don’t know.  It’s picking the right lane and hoping it comes together and for us it did at the end.”

PAUL WOLFE CONTINUED -- CAN YOU ELABORATE ON HOW YOUR STRATEGY MAY CHANGE THE REST OF THE SEASON NOW THAT YOU’VE WON?  “Sure.  As you look at history we always keep a good log of different setups or things we’ve done in the past at different tracks and that’s kind of how we base how we unload each weekend, and work from there from a setup standpoint.  There are times when you feel like you may have tried something in practice that might be faster, but you know you need to just have a good, solid day, so you’re afraid sometimes to maybe veer off from your comfort zone to try a setup or something like that that may be different for you.  So with that being said, there is less risk, I guess, with trying something like that from a setup standpoint and then even from the engine side.  I know Roush Yates is working very hard to continue to push to find us more power and things like that.  Obviously, we don’t want to have engine troubles or drop out of a race because of it, but if that happens because we’re trying to be better and make our stuff better so when it gets down to the Chase where it really counts, we’re willing to take that risk.  So we’ll continue to push and getting this win early will allow us to do some of those things we maybe wouldn’t have done if we didn’t get that win today.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – DOES IT CHANGE THE WAY YOU APPROACH YOUR JOB?  “Yeah.  I don’t have to answer the questions from everybody about being nervous about making the Chase for the next few months.  I think that puts you in a great spot mentally to focus on the task at hand, which is still going out there and try to win each and every week, even though you are locked in the Chase.  But I think it eliminates a lot of outside distractions and allows you to put your most aggressive foot forward.”

PAUL WOLFE CONTINUED – ON THE FOUR TIRES AND HOW LONG DOES A TIRE NEED TO BUILD UP PERFECT GRIP AND TEMPERATURE?  “The surface here was repaved in ’97 or something, so it’s one of the oldest surfaces on the circuit now and once you get one heat cycle on the tires in one lap new tires are worth quite a bit.  I knew at that point it had like 10 laps, I think, on the tires, which is quite a way – it’s a quarter of the way through a run here at this track – and the other part that goes into the decision to take four is just knowing how many lanes and how much of the race track you can use.  It’s one thing if it’s a narrow track and there’s not multiple lanes to move from 18^th or wherever we were to sixth in one lap shows that, so all those things went into the decision that was made to do four as well as not being afraid to do something different than what the rest of the field is.  Tires are worth a lot here and once you’ve put one lap or one heat cycle on them, you pretty much look into putting new tires on and pick up quite a bit of grip.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – WHAT DID YOU SEE TO PASS KURT?  “It’s hard for me to really run you through it.  I almost need to see the replay because I feel like when you are in moments like the end of a race as a race car driver and you have the goal so clearly in front of you that you become so focused that, and I’ve said this before in saying it to Tom, that you kind of turn the memory function part of your brain off and you use every bit of brain power you have to focus on the task ahead.  And for me that was knowing I had a car with newer tires, that was stronger and faster, and then if I picked the right lanes and if I read the cars in front of me just right, that I would pass them and win the race for our team.  So I think when you hit that spot mentally that you can’t remember those things.  I still don’t remember the end of the race and I won’t really jog my mind until I watch it on replay because I was so focused on the task at hand and trying to win the race and knowing the car and the opportunity that I had in front of me, and wanting to make the most of it.”

ROGER PENSKE CONTINUED – COULD THIS BE THE GREATEST START TO A ROGER PENSKE SEASON EVER?  “I think we have to look at what’s ahead of us.  Certainly, the goals are to win races.  I think we have a team and sponsors and the question was asked ‘how important is it to win early?’ And for our sponsors it’s dynamic, really, when you think about the support that they get when we have success, and also what it does for the team.  But, to me, winning Daytona was a great kickoff for Team Penske overall and certainly this race, before we start at St. Pete next week, is gonna be critical.  When I looked at the race here today the fastest lap of the race was run by Brad on the last lap.  So we had speed in the car and I saw how good he was on one of the restarts and I think at the end of the day this is a game of knowing how to use your clubs and there’s no question Brad knows how to do that.  He’s delivered for us before and we know the competition is tough and to know we have this kind of a kickoff for the team is a tremendous opportunity.  I don’t know how many more races I’ve got to go to – probably 40 – and then we’ll find out what the answer is.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – HOW DO YOU KEEP GRINDING ALONG WITH A 10^TH-PLACE CAR AT ONE POINT IN THE RACE?  “I think, first of all, this is a team that’s done this before, won races, and we’ve won a championship together.  With that comes a lot of confidence and a lot of trust that you know these races are 400 miles, not 200 miles, and you want to make the most of that, so that means you can’t give up and you’ve got to keep working on your car and you’ve got to keep working on your day to make the most of it.  With that knowledge in mind, I think you can find a spot mentally to keep going and to keep working and you just hope for a little bit of a break along with that and we did both today.  That’s what got us to victory lane.”

YOU’VE HAD MISERABLE LUCK HERE IN THE PAST.  DID YOU EVER THINK IT WOULD TURN AROUND?  “Didn’t I tell you Paul we were due for some good luck here?  We’ve had some really bad luck here and today we had some pretty good luck, so it all equals out over time, I guess.  The last, I think two years here, we’ve had great race cars and everything kind of fell apart on us at the end and you’re left around looking and saying, ‘Well, how did that happen?’  And today we’re kind of looking and saying, ‘How did that happen?’ But in a good way.  That’s just how it works sometimes.  I’m not really sure I know why and there is maybe a life lesson in there on why you stick to something and you have to believe in everybody around.”

WHAT ABOUT MARTINSVILLE NEXT WEEK?  “I know how Roger feels.  He’s wondering how many cars we’re gonna tear up (laughing).  How do I feel about it?  The Sprint Cup Series and specifically NASCAR in general competes on four different genres of tracks.  You have your superspeedways, your short tracks, your mile and a halves, and your road courses and each one of them is a different challenge.  As I explain sometimes to our fans it would be like if you were an NFL player and you said, ‘Peyton Manning, you’re a good quarterback.  Why don’t you line up at tight end this play.’  And then the next one, ‘Why don’t you line up as halfback.’  Because the skill set for each one of those different types of tracks is so much different and I think that’s what makes our sport very unique from others is that kind of universal skill set that it requires to be an elite driver.  If you’re a great restrictor plate track driver, that’s good but that’s not gonna win you a championship.  You’ve got to be good at all different type of tracks, so, for me, personally I embrace the challenge.  I embrace knowing that next week we’re gonna have to go to a track that’s almost as completely opposite as you can be from this race and in a few more weeks we’re gonna go to another road course here in Sonoma in California that’s gonna be even different again – as far away as you can be different – so I embrace that challenge.  I think it’s good for the sport.  It shows why these are some of the best teams and drivers in any sport in the world, so I think it’s a good thing.”

JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 AAA Ford Fusion – “We were OK.  We got ourselves up to third and it felt like we were pretty good.  We were every bit as good as the 20 if we could ever get out front, but we just made a mistake on pit road.  I don’t even know what happened yet, so I just know it was a tire violation of some sort, and we weren’t able to recover in time.  You get that with the last pit stop and we had a couple cautions to help us try to gain those spots back, but we just didn’t get back there in time.  I’m interested to see how Brad did it.  He had four tires there, I think.  That was a good call on Paul’s part to make that happen.”   THIS IS LIKE LAST YEAR WHERE BOTH OF YOU HAVE WON NOW.  WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU AS A GROUP KNOWING YOU’RE BOTH IN THE CHASE?  “It’s nice that we’re both in the Chase.  We can both race aggressive now and obviously he raced aggressively anyway.  It’s nice for both of us to have a win already and it’s great to see Team Penske still having speed and we’re just racing hard and doing everything we can to keep up with these guys.  The other cars are a little bit faster than us right now.  We’ve got to find some more speed, but we’re racing really hard and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

CHRIS BUESCHER – No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford Fusion – “It was a lot of fun.  I can’t thank Front Row Motorsports enough to give me this opportunity and for Roush Fenway Racing to allow me to go do it.  To be able to help another Ford Performance team out this was a blast.  It’s the kind of race track I wanted to make my Cup debut at – some place that the pace falls off, the tires wear down and you’re able to really hustle it and race late into a run and this was just that.  We went through a lot of changes today, a lot of ups and downs, and a lot of confusion too on my side just trying to keep up with where we were at with the lucky dog and with wavearounds.  Green flag stops, everything moved so fast and I really had no clue where we were gonna finish coming to the checkered.  I didn’t know where we were at, I just knew I had to beat a couple guys around us and tried everything we could.  It was a lot of fun.  Thanks to everybody with Ford that allowed me to do it.”  WAS THERE A POINT WHERE YOU SETTLED IN?  “It was nerve-racking at the beginning.  The first 50-100 laps even just trying to race around some guys – just getting that little initiation, I guess – people pushing you around trying to show you who is boss, but after we got 100 laps in I just started to feel a lot better and started settling into a run where we were comfortable and a lot like our XFINITY race we were able to find a place and keep moving forward with that.”  WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST THING YOU WILL TAKE OUT OF TODAY?  “A lot of it has been trying to get used to the amount of downforce and grip in the Cup car versus the XFINITY car.  That’s something that took me a lot of the race to figure out.  Restarts were tough because I didn’t realize how far you could push it, how hard you could really drive the car.  After we figured that out, our restarts got better the last half.  It’s always those little things and I don’t know if this is my last Cup start for the year or if we’ve got a couple on the way, but, regardless, this is a lot of information to jot down in a notebook and remember for my next Cup start.”  YOUR GOAL WAS TO FINISH ALL THE LAPS AND YOU DID THAT.  “We completed the race, finished on the lead lap and got a top 20 out of it.  I’m ecstatic about that.  These guys did an awesome job today.”  SO IS THERE A CHANCE OF MORE CUP RACES WITH THIS TEAM?  “Honestly, this is all we’ve talked about to this point.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  I’m sure we’ll get back to the shop in Charlotte on Monday and start going through it, but at the moment this is a one-race deal, but I wouldn’t mind doing more, that’s for sure.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Eckrich Ford Fusion – “It was a solid day for us.  We ran top 15 most of the day, so I’m really proud of Trent and all the guys on this Smithfield team.  They gave me a solid car and we ran solid all day and then I was really worried there at the end.  I thought we were gonna get kind of suckered out of a good finish with all those guys we had trapped a lap down and they all got back on the lead lap, so I was thankful to get a really good restart on that last start and pass quite a few cars.  I think we passed like 11 or 12 cars on that last restart, and we got the finish we probably deserved.  We ran up there all day, so I’m proud of the guys.  That was a decent car for us and we just keep making progress.  Our cars are not where we want them, but we’re getting the most out of them each week, so we’ll just take it and go from there.”