FORD MUSTANG TRIO FINISH CTSCC IN TOP-10

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Bret Seafuse navigated his No. 37 Mustang BOSS 302R to the highest finish among the Ford teams in the Fresh From Florida 200 at Daytona International Speedway.

BRET SEAFUSE – NO. 37 MUSTANG BOSS302R, JBS MOTORSPORTS-(FINISHED FOURTH, QUALIFIED 13TH)
“We went down the board because I made a bit of a blunder on the second restart and I jumped the start so I had to come in for a stop-and-go. We went from seventh or eighth to last behind all the ST cars and everybody, so we battled our way back and we won it on pit strategy.”

WHAT WAS YOUR STRATEGY?
“I drove that new Boss 302R as hard as I could and passed as many as people as I could, got it as far back up as I could. We weren’t in bad shape when we put James [Gue] in the car; we were coming back and decided upon a fuel strategy we thought might work and it darn near paid off.

WHAT ABOUT THE PENALTY?
“I’m not really sure, I’ve not done that before. Something must’ve looked different to us than it did to others but I don’t plan to do it again because it makes for a lot of extra work to overcome.”

JAMES GUE – NO. 37 MUSTANG BOSS 302R, JBS MOTORSPORTS– (FINISHED FOURTH, QUALIFIED 13TH)
“We sort of put ourselves in a bad situation right off the bat.”

HOW ABOUT THE MUSTANG BOSS 302R?
“This is a brand new car for us and have only had it for less than two weeks now. I just jumped in it [Thursday] for the first time so we’ve got a lot to learn though we learned a lot in the last couple of days.

A FEW TEAMS HAD A FEW ISSUES TODAY. DID YOU EXPERIENCE ANY OF THAT?
“So far, I’ve got no complaints straight out of the box after having had the car for only a handful of days, especially after having come from the back as we did. We were not necessarily the quickest car but we certainly know how to race.”

RAY MASON – NO. 60 MUSTANG GT, REHAGEN RACING– (FINISHED SEVENTH, QUALIFIED SEVENTH)
NOT TOO BAD OF A DAY FOR YOU?
“Well Ryan [Winchester], my young rookie buddy here gave me a very good car. We put scrap tires on it. Our tread didn’t work quite as well as we thought it would, had to fuel early. That’s just the luck of the game, but the car was good. We had a great run and the old man and the kid did a very good so we’re pleased.”

YOU HAD SOME TIRE ISSUES TOWARDS THE END.
“The tires started going off in the last eight to 10 laps, so I was getting a little bit of an oversteer, but it was very manageable.”

ANDREW CADDELL – NO. 59 MUSTANG GT, REHAGEN RACING – (FINISHED NINTH, QUALIFIED THIRD)
“We qualified well yesterday and had a good starting spot for the race today. The header got a crack in it right at the beginning of the race, so we were down a lot of horsepower. The Mustang was really good handling wise in the infield. If we would have had more horsepower, I think we would have had a pretty good shot at a top-five easily, but the BMWs were just way too strong. I’m happy with our result. Ken Wilden drove the Mustang like the champion he is. I think we finished pretty strong with that broken header. I’m excited about it, not excited as we should have been or could have been but ninth is better than what I did last year, so I can’t complain.”

YOU AND WILDEN ARE BOTH MUSTANG CHAMPIONS. HOW WAS IT TO RACE WITH HIM?
“I learned a lot from Ken Wilden this weekend. We looked at his data all weekend and I think it helped me improve my lap time from last year. He helped me a lot, I just we wish we could have made the finish a little bit better and got them a little higher in the championship standings.”

KEN WILDEN – NO. 59 MUSTANG GT REHAGEN RACING, – (FINISHED NINTH, QUALIFIED THIRD)
NOT A BAD FINISH FOR YOU AND ANDREW TODAY.
“It wasn’t the best day for us. It wasn’t what we had planned on happening going in. We just couldn’t get the car fast enough today. We have some time before Homestead to really work out the kinks and figure out a new strategy. Last year our worst finish was eighth, which isn’t horrible, but we need to do better in order to defend our title.”

HOW WAS YOUR CO-DRIVER ANDREW?
“Andrew is a talented driver. He really put forth his best effort today, but unfortunately we just couldn’t get the car up where we wanted it.”

GUNNER JEANNETTE – NO. 16 MUSTANG BOSS 302R, MULTIMATIC MOTORPSORTS – (FINISHED 49TH, QUALIFIED 12TH)
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“We had a couple of issues to start. First, we had something with the engine where it went down in power, some electrical issues, then it kind of fixed itself and it was going good. We had a really strong run coming back and I was coming up through traffic, but the engine was just cutting out so it was just really tough and then all of a sudden it just cut out completely. Then I cycled the ignition and it was fine and then I was going in the bus stop and I hit the brakes and the car wouldn’t stop and then it just stopped. Coming around in Turn 1 I hit the pedal again and just went all the way to the floor.

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT RACES LIKE THIS?
“It was a trying race but we use these as test sessions, so I’m sure that we’ll go to Homestead with all of the issues fixed. I’m very confident with that. There’s no way in testing to simulate what do you do during a race weekend like this. The last program when we introduced the Mustang FR500C we had pretty much a whole year of development to get the car right. This time we only had three months, so we’re just a little bit behind schedule, but I know without a doubt in my heart that this car is going to win a race season.”

FRANK MONTECALVO – NO. 16 MUSTANG BOSS 302R, MULTIMATIC MOTORSPORTS – (FINISHED 49TH, QUALIFIED SECOND)
“We had a really good race and started off well. We didn’t perform like we did in qualifying yesterday because we changed the car set-up but we made it up in the race. We had a couple problems in the race that we had in practice, so we started working on the car and didn’t find those problems this morning. We weren’t sure if it was a fuel pick up or ignition problem. Unfortunately, it hurt us. Hopefully, we’ll fix this and do better next race.”

TALK ABOUT RUNNING THE MUSTANG BOSS 302R.
“I had a lot more seat time in the BOSS than I did in the other Mustang. The BOSS has more development and will be very competitive this season.”

SCOTT MAXWELL – NO. 15 MUSTANG BOSS 302R, MULTIMATIC MOTORSPORTS– (FINISHED 56TH, QUALIFIED SECOND)
YOU WENT BACK TO THE GARAGE MID-WAY THROUGH THE RACE. WHAT HAPPENED?
“Typical with a new car there were numerous problems, but the main one that put us out is we keep either breaking a power steering belt or a pump, I’m not really sure but that’s what caused us to pit stop. We were also struggling with some engine issues and brake issues, more engine issues than anything, a bit of brakes towards the end, but that’s what you expect with a brand new car out of the box. We will get it right for the next race.”

MIKE MCGOVERN – NO. 53 MUSTANG, JIM CLICK RACING – (FINISHED 63RD, QUALIFIED 17TH)
“We had a good qualifying effort by Mr. Click, he did a great job. We had a great start. We made it up to ninth and things went really well. We pitted, I think a bit too early, but the pit stop went really well. When we got back out on the track, we made it up to 15th and then we had an issue with the right rear tire. All the lug nuts came off and got a big vibration. We came into the pits and the wheel fell off. We were lucky there. We had minimal damage, the Mustang is in good shape and it is a learning process for Click Racing. We’re going to continue to progress and keep working at it.”

YOU MUSTANG LOOKS PRETTY CLEAN WITH MINOR MARKS, THERE ARE OTHER CARS THAT HAVE A LOT OF DAMAGE. HOW WAS IT OUT THERE?
“I think at certain points in time when I was on track, there was a lot going on. Any time you have so many cars in little spots and speed differences then you’re going to have issues. But it’s just one of those things—that’s racing.”

JACK ROUSH JR. – NO. 61 MUSTANG, ROUSH PERFORMANCE – (FINISHED 66TH, QUALIFIED FOURTH)
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE CAR GOING BEHIND THE WALL?
“We had a little bit of contact with a car out there and I think it interfered with the cooling ducts, causing the oil and water temperatures to shoot up.”

BILLY JOHNSON – NO. 61 ROUSH PERFORMANCE MUSTANG – (FINISHED 66TH, QUALIFIED FOURTH)
“Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish but, Jack [Roush Jr.] showed a lot of speed. He was able to move up to second place and he did an awesome job. We wanted to have a better result, but we ran into some problems. I’m not sure what happened to the motor. The team is showing that the car is capable of doing well and we look forward to going to the next race to have that results show for it.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT YOU CAN APPLY TO THE NEXT RACE AND THE ENTIRE SEASON?
“I think the biggest concern right now is fixing whatever happened to prevent us from finishing this race. Then with the continued speed that we showed, the result will come from that.”

DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT HAVE AN ANSWER ABOUT THE MOTOR?
“I’m not sure. The team will take the Mustang back and work with Roush Yates guys to find out what happened.”