NASCAR CUP SERIES: FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400

August 7, 2022

Mark Rushbrook

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Talk about the day that you guys had as a racing organization.

MARK RUSHBROOK: It was a great day, great race. A lot of changes for the lead and strength across all the different manufacturers. Especially when it counted at the end to have Kevin and Stewart-Haas get such a strong restart. And get clear of everybody, and we had Logano and Blaney up there as well. Good to see all those Fords up there.

And when it counted, Kevin drove away and had a really convincing win. And really important to get him locked into the playoffs, but also here in our backyard for the Heritage Trophy to take that trophy back to Dearborn.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions in the room. If you have one, just raise your hand. We'll get you a mic. We'll start here on the left.

Q. There's a lot of special elements to this win and this performance. Does it mean more to you and Ford in general to have a guy like Kevin do that, given the season Ford and Kevin have been having?

MARK RUSHBROOK: Well, we've got great teams and great drivers across every race that we go to, and to have some of our drivers locked in and some fighting to get in, whether it was Blaney or Harvick, there was a lot of pressure on this weekend to come here, to have a strong performance, to get a win.

But especially for Kevin Harvick as a champion driver from the great team at Stewart-Haas, great Roush Yates power in there, it definitely means a lot to get it done today and to have him locked into the playoffs.

Q. Is this the race that gets Ford back going again, especially as the playoffs approach?

MARK RUSHBROOK: This is NASCAR racing. It's top-level racing, and everybody brings their best to every race. It's been a lot of great racing throughout the entire season so far, and we go to a lot of different tracks for the next three weekends, from here to Richmond to Watkins Glen to Daytona to end the regular season. Those are three very different tracks from today.

We learned a lot today, and we're going to continue learning this new car and keep putting our best foot forward every weekend.

Q. The cars change. The drivers change. Except for Kevin. But Ford keeps winning here. You put three in the top five today. Explain why this track is your home field advantage or whatever?

MARK RUSHBROOK: Well, for sure there's a lot of extra attention when we come here from the executives in our company having all the employees here. So we've spent a lot of time with the teams this week leading up to this weekend to let them know how important it is and to ask our Ford teams to work together, whether it's a driver or the crew chiefs.

But Doug Yates has been working really hard in the engine shop. This is definitely a horsepower track, and he brought a little extra this weekend and definitely paid off.

THE MODERATOR: Congrats again to you and the entire Ford camp.

MARK RUSHBROOK: Thank you.