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Ford Racing
Mustang Debuts On Track At Talladega Nationwide Test Session
Nationwide Test Session, November 2, 2009 Talladega Superspeedway
NASCAR Photo
The No. 16 Ford Mustang driven by Colin Braun leaves the garage during testing at Talladega Superspeedway for the NASCAR Nationwide Series new car one-day test. "Ford has done a great job with this Mustang," Braun said. "I’m just having a fun time working with it. Right now, it’s driving really good."
Colin Braun, driver of the No. 16 Con-way Freight Mustang, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 17 Citifinancial Mustang, were Ford’s representatives during today’s NASCAR Nationwide Series test session at Talladega Superspeedway. The test marked the first on-track appearance for Mustang since it was unveiled three weeks ago at Roush Fenway Racing headquarters in Concord, NC.
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO FINALLY GET IN THIS MUSTANG ON A RACE TRACK? “It feels great. I think all the hype during the announcement was obviously exciting and I think that just builds up to come here to the race track. Ford has done a great job with this Mustang and I’m just having a fun time working with it. Right now, it’s driving really good. I think once you get out there and do some drafting it might change a little bit, but as of right now everything is good and we’re working on trying some different things.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE OUT THERE ONE CAR AT A TIME WHEN YOU’RE NOT DRAFTING? “I think it’s definitely more boring than a place like Texas or Michigan – something like that where you’ve really got to drive these cars – but it’s still fun and it’s something that really helps you get a feel for what you’re gonna be doing when you go out there and draft. Drafting for me is really where it gets fun. I really enjoy that part of it, but doing single-car runs you’re
just looking at your water temperature and making sure you’re good
there, plus there are some little things you can do that will give you some speed here and there.”
Suspension springs are ready to be put in Monday during the NASCAR Nationwide Series new car test at Talladega Superspeedway. In the garage behind the springs is the No. 17 Ford Mustang driven by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. during the one-day test.
NASCAR Photo
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Citifinancial Mustang –
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE DRIVING A NATIONWIDE MUSTANG TODAY? “I think it’s cool. Everybody knows what a Ford Mustang is because that’s what they started out racing. I think all of the fans think of a Ford Mustang as a race car and it’s raced ever since the first one was made, so I’m glad we’re getting the chance to run it in NASCAR. It looks like a good race car and they’ve done a really good job with the design. It really resembles a production Mustang and if we can just get it driving good here on the race track, we’ll be good to go.”
HOW HAS TESTING GONE TODAY? “It’s good. We’re just running through a few things. NASCAR has some stuff they wanted us to do and stuff we wanted to try, but, I think, this is a pretty good car. Obviously, they’re gonna be safer than the older cars that we’ve been running. It’s a lot more roomier inside. I kind of feel lost in there because the older cars are a little smaller inside, but it’s really comfortable and I like the look of it.” WHAT’S IT LIKE OUT THERE BY YOURSELF? “There are some things around this race track you can do differently to make up a little bit of speed, like how you enter the corner and how you let go of the wheel coming up off, so there are a few things you can learn. But we’re really just out here riding around and trying to collect a lot of data for the guys.”
Motorcraft Encourages Race Fans to Vote for Bill Elliott and the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup All-Star Race Fan Vote
DEARBORN, Mich., April 30, 2009 – Bill Elliott has already been selected as a Motorsports Hall of Fame driver.
Now Motorcraft, sponsor of his No. 21 Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, wants fans to select him to be a 2009 All-Star.
Elliott, the 1988 NASCAR Champion and 16-time fan-voted Most Popular Driver, will attempt to race his Motorcraft Ford Fusion into the NASCAR Sprint Cup All-Star Race on Saturday, May 16.
But since Elliott and the Wood Brothers finished in the top-50 in owner points in 2008, not only is Elliott eligible to race in the Sprint Showdown qualifying race that Saturday afternoon, but he also can contend for the fan-voted position in the All-Star race that evening.
To help ensure Elliott secures a spot, Motorcraft asks race fans to vote for Bill at http://www.nascar.com/promos/allstar/.
Motorcraft is the primary sponsor on the Wood Brothers No. 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Fusion for nine races this season, which began in February at the Daytona 500 and will culminate with the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“We really enjoy working with Bill and the Wood Brothers,” said Bob Benintende, Motorcraft National Marketing Manager. “Bill’s career accomplishments have already earned him a spot in the Motorsport Hall of Fame, and he certainly has All-Star credentials. We encourage all race fans to vote for Bill in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race fan vote.”
Fan voting is underway and fans will decide which driver will race as fan choice in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.
The Wood Brothers are acknowledged pioneers in the sport of stock-car racing, and have earned 96 wins in over 50 years of NASCAR competition – second most in Ford Racing history.
The red and black Motorcraft logo appears on the No. 21 Ford Fusion in NASCAR, while two Ford Customer Service Division (FCSD) brands - Motorcraft and Quick Lane - adorn the Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny Car of Bob Tasca III, winner of the 2009 Gainesville Gatornationals.
FCSD and its associated brands have won a place in the hearts and minds of racing fans everywhere since the mid-1980s, including sponsoring Ford Hall-of-Fame drag racer Bob Glidden, a 10-time NHRA Pro Stock champion, and NASCAR champions Bill Elliott and Dale Jarrett.
Motorcraft is a longtime team sponsor in NASCAR’s premier series. Ford Customer Service Division (FCSD) backed cars have recorded 33 wins and a pair of championships since Motorcraft first appeared on the Ford Thunderbirds of Bud Moore in 1985. In 1988, Motorcraft teamed up with Coors as an associate sponsor on Bill Elliott’s championship-winning Thunderbird.
About Motorcraft
Motorcraft® offers a complete line of original equipment-approved parts that are recommended and approved by Ford Motor Company. From routine maintenance to underhood and powertrain repairs, Motorcraft parts offer exceptional value with the highest quality and right fit at competitive prices. Motorcraft parts are available locally and are backed nationwide by Ford Motor Company's Service Parts Limited Warranty. For more information, visit www.motorcraft.com.
About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With more than 213,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company’s wholly owned brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com
_______________________________________________
DEARBORN, Mich., March 20, 2008 - To compliment the 1,000 2008 40th anniversary Edition Shelby GT500KR “King of the Road” Mustangs, Ford and Shelby Automobiles announce that an additional 746 units will be built for the 2009 model year to help meet worldwide demand of the supercar. Of that total, 571 units will be available for U.S. customers thus equaling the 1,571-unit production run of the original Shelby GT500KR. The remainder of the units will be for countries that did not receive 2008 models.
“The response to this car has been overwhelming, so I’m glad we can share it with more Mustang enthusiasts,” said Carroll Shelby. “This car is really special to me and demonstrates that when Shelby Automobiles gets together with Ford SVT and Ford Racing, we can deliver a Mustang that will compete with the best in the world.”
Like the 40th anniversary limited edition, the 2009 Shelby GT500KR will feature a 540-hp 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 with a Ford Racing Power Upgrade Pack, 3.73:1 rear axle ratio, short-throw shifter, and unique suspension tuning. Exterior design draws inspiration from the classic Shelby KR Mustangs and features unique carbon composite hood, wheels, and unique striping.
The unique 40th anniversary badging will only be featured on the 2008 special edition.
The Shelby GT500KR or “King of the Road” Mustang is the fourth limited-edition Mustang that Shelby Automobiles and Ford have brought to market since resuming their collaboration in 2001. It builds on the performance and success of the 500-horsepower Shelby GT500 – the most powerful production Mustang ever.
“If you drive a Shelby Mustang, you are part of something special: a 40-year history of legendary racing and street cars,” says Robert Parker, Ford Division Car marketing manager. “That’s what is driving interest in the GT500KR among enthusiasts around the world.”
Delivering the “King of the Road”
The 2008 Shelby GT500KR began production on Carroll Shelby’s 85th birthday on Jan. 11 earlier this year. As production ramps up to launch, enthusiasts can expect to see the first GT500KRs arrive in dealers this spring.
Each Shelby GT500KR begins life as a GT500, built at AutoAlliance International Inc., in Flat Rock, Mich. From there, the cars are shipped to the Shelby Automobile facility in Las Vegas, where a Ford Racing Performance Pack, exhaust system and short-throw shifter are installed. The GT500KR also is fitted with unique body, chassis and interior components. Every GT500KR will be hand customized and delivered to each customer in an enclosed transporter, just like the legendary Ford GT.
The strong demand for the new Shelby GT500KR was recently demonstrated at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Az. where a one-of-a-kind version built with a glass-roof was auctioned off for charity. The GT500KR sold with a winning bid of $550,000, which went toward helping the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
With more than 500 movie roles, the Ford Mustang’s filmography includes action flicks, spy films and light-hearted comedies. But Bullitt remains the ultimate Mustang film for car enthusiasts worldwide. Now, 40 years after the original first hit the big screen, the 2008 Mustang Bullitt returns to the streets, blending the best Mustang ever with the latest Ford Racing technology. Here’s a look at what’s changed over the years:
1. Undercover Appeal – Hollywood pared down the original 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 to give the car a stealthy appearance for film, removing the driving lights, running pony grille emblem, Mustang lettering and even the GT badges. The 2008 Mustang Bullitt recalls the movie car – right down to the Dark Highland Green paint and lack of exterior badges, scoops and spoilers. The only visible identification is the word “Bullitt” dropped into a gun-sight graphic in the center of the decklid. A new black-mesh grille on the 2008 Bullitt is devoid of the standard chrome pony and is accented by a satin aluminum strip that represents the chrome grille surround on the 1968 car.
2. Great Performances – For his role as Frank Bullitt, Steve McQueen was voted “World Film Favorite” by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. But 1968 wasn’t the last time the legendary actor delivered on-screen thrills in a Ford Mustang. Thanks to the magic of special effects, audiences watched McQueen climb into a 2005 Mustang GT and race around a unique cornfield road course built especially for the duo by a farmer in a Ford ad entitled Cornfield. The commercial premiered in movie theatres nationwide in fall 2004 before it appeared on television. Fans can still check it out on www.youtube.com
3. Tale of Two Cars – Two 1968 Mustang GTs with 390 cubic-inch engines were purchased and modified for the making of Bullitt. One was badly damaged by the time shooting ended and was destroyed. In 1972, the remaining car was purchased by its current owner, who bought it under the stipulation that his name remain anonymous. The car was kept at his father’s garage until 1990, when it was moved to a horse farm in the Midwest after a Mustang enthusiast took spy photos. Today, the location of the car remains a mystery. Some say the owner moved that car again to his house where it sits, unrestored, in the garage next to his Porsche.4. Sweet Sounds – An emphasis on realism drove the chase scene in Bullitt to movie greatness – right down to the soundtrack. Rather than opting for high-powered music to support the heart-racing action, Bullitt’s 10-minute car chase showcased the throaty roar of the engine, frenetic downshifting and squealing tires. The natural sound of this quintessential action scene helped earn the film an Academy Award® nomination for Best Sound.
Featuring the latest from Ford Racing Technology, the 2008 Bullitt’s exhaust note is as close to the original movie car as possible. Ford engineers based the new car’s rumbling sound quality on a digitally remastered DVD. The custom-designed dual exhaust system features a new H-pipe specifically developed for Bullitt. If theme music is warranted, drivers can crank up the Bullitt’s Shaker 500 Audio System.
5. Safety First – Steve McQueen (and stunt drivers) buckled up before racing the Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390, specially modified to run the bad guys off the road, at speeds of up to 110 mph along the streets of San Francisco. Concerned residents along the film route reportedly called the San Francisco Police Department and City Hall during filming of the now-legendary jump sequence. Some say the San Francisco authorities were led to believe the cars wouldn’t exceed speeds of 35 mph.Designed for performance, the 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt delivers the thrill of the original – along with a host of features scarcely imagined in 1968. Standard content includes an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with traction control, seat-mounted side air bags, LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children), Ford’s Personal Safety System®, SecuriLock® Passive Anti-Theft System (PATS); and the company’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System. (Ford advises consumers to buckle up, drive safely and obey posted speed limits.)
6. Sport-tuned – Bullitt’s 390 cubic-inch V-8 introduced big-block performance to the Mustang. For 2008, Ford dials the driving dynamics up a notch for Mustang enthusiasts. Ford engineers modified the 2008 Mustang Bullitt’s chassis and suspension to fine-tune handling and ensure the extra horsepower and torque from the 4.6-liter V-8 is put to good use. The live rear axle uses a 3.73:1 gear that helps launch the Bullitt with vigor.Stock Mustang GT shocks and struts were swapped out for new units that allowed engineers to dial in a more aggressive driving dynamic and deliver the most balanced Mustang yet. A tower-to-tower brace designed specifically for the Bullitt lends additional torsional and lateral stiffness to the chassis for improved cornering and holds a unique serial number for each Bullitt. The brakes also have been improved versus the base Mustang GT’s. More aggressive front pads were developed specifically for Bullitt and improve fade resistance and pedal feel.
7. Insider’s View – Driver’s-view shots let audiences in on the thrill of the chase in Bullitt, along with giving them a glimpse of the Mustang GT’s spartan, no-nonsense interior. The 2008 Mustang Bullitt maintains an understated mystique, with a graphically clean interior, sporting charcoal black leather and race-inspired accents – including a hand-machined, aluminum swirl dash panel appliqué. Consumers also can set the mood with available ambient lighting.8. Did You See That? – The chase scene in Bullitt took more than two weeks to film, resulting in 9 minutes and 42 seconds of edited footage that helped Frank P. Keller earn an Academy Award® for Film Editing.Filming in a working city, with locations spread out over a considerable part of San Francisco, helped generate a number of continuity lapses that are either overlooked or celebrated by Bullitt aficionados. A few disjointed street sequences emerge when the footage from certain streets is reused. (Audiences are tipped off when a green Volkswagen, yellow cab and white Firebird reappear several times.) The Dodge Charger driven by the villains loses no fewer than eight hubcaps during the chase. Still, for many, no other chase scene before or since has come close to equaling it.
9. Clean Machine – 1968 was the first year in which vehicle emissions were regulated by the U.S. federal government but cars still burned leaded fuel and catalytic converters were still years away. All 1968 Mustang engines incorporated an exhaust emission control system. Today's vehicles produce 99 percent fewer smog-forming emissions than cars in the 1970s. The 2008 Mustang Bullitt’s 4.6-liter three-valve engine delivers low emissions and is in compliance with MuCalifornia's stringent Low Emissions Vehicle II (LEV II) standard.10. Need for Speed – Then: The original 1968 Mustang GT 390 boasted a 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 15.2 seconds at 94.0 mph, according to Motor Trend. Now: Ford engineers modified the 2008 Mustang Bullitt’s chassis and suspension to fine-tune handling and ensure the extra horsepower and torque from the 4.6-liter V-8 is put to good use. Motor Trend clocks the 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt at 5 seconds even for 0-60, with a quarter-mile time of 13.7 seconds at 102.7 mph.
With more than 500 movie roles, the Ford Mustang’s filmography includes action flicks, spy films and light-hearted comedies. But Bullitt remains the ultimate Mustang film for car enthusiasts worldwide. Now, 40 years after the original first hit the big screen, the 2008 Mustang Bullitt returns to the streets, blending the best Mustang ever with the latest Ford Racing technology. Here’s a look at what’s changed over the years:
1. Undercover Appeal – Hollywood pared down the original 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 to give the car a stealthy appearance for film, removing the driving lights, running pony grille emblem, Mustang lettering and even the GT badges. The 2008 Mustang Bullitt recalls the movie car – right down to the Dark Highland Green paint and lack of exterior badges, scoops and spoilers. The only visible identification is the word “Bullitt” dropped into a gun-sight graphic in the center of the decklid. A new black-mesh grille on the 2008 Bullitt is devoid of the standard chrome pony and is accented by a satin aluminum strip that represents the chrome grille surround on the 1968 car.
2. Great Performances – For his role as Frank Bullitt, Steve McQueen was voted “World Film Favorite” by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. But 1968 wasn’t the last time the legendary actor delivered on-screen thrills in a Ford Mustang. Thanks to the magic of special effects, audiences watched McQueen climb into a 2005 Mustang GT and race around a unique cornfield road course built especially for the duo by a farmer in a Ford ad entitled Cornfield. The commercial premiered in movie theatres nationwide in fall 2004 before it appeared on television. Fans can still check it out on www.youtube.com
3. Tale of Two Cars – Two 1968 Mustang GTs with 390 cubic-inch engines were purchased and modified for the making of Bullitt. One was badly damaged by the time shooting ended and was destroyed. In 1972, the remaining car was purchased by its current owner, who bought it under the stipulation that his name remain anonymous. The car was kept at his father’s garage until 1990, when it was moved to a horse farm in the Midwest after a Mustang enthusiast took spy photos. Today, the location of the car remains a mystery. Some say the owner moved that car again to his house where it sits, unrestored, in the garage next to his Porsche.4. Sweet Sounds – An emphasis on realism drove the chase scene in Bullitt to movie greatness – right down to the soundtrack. Rather than opting for high-powered music to support the heart-racing action, Bullitt’s 10-minute car chase showcased the throaty roar of the engine, frenetic downshifting and squealing tires. The natural sound of this quintessential action scene helped earn the film an Academy Award® nomination for Best Sound.
Featuring the latest from Ford Racing Technology, the 2008 Bullitt’s exhaust note is as close to the original movie car as possible. Ford engineers based the new car’s rumbling sound quality on a digitally remastered DVD. The custom-designed dual exhaust system features a new H-pipe specifically developed for Bullitt. If theme music is warranted, drivers can crank up the Bullitt’s Shaker 500 Audio System.
5. Safety First – Steve McQueen (and stunt drivers) buckled up before racing the Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390, specially modified to run the bad guys off the road, at speeds of up to 110 mph along the streets of San Francisco. Concerned residents along the film route reportedly called the San Francisco Police Department and City Hall during filming of the now-legendary jump sequence. Some say the San Francisco authorities were led to believe the cars wouldn’t exceed speeds of 35 mph.Designed for performance, the 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt delivers the thrill of the original – along with a host of features scarcely imagined in 1968. Standard content includes an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with traction control, seat-mounted side air bags, LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children), Ford’s Personal Safety System®, SecuriLock® Passive Anti-Theft System (PATS); and the company’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System. (Ford advises consumers to buckle up, drive safely and obey posted speed limits.)
6. Sport-tuned – Bullitt’s 390 cubic-inch V-8 introduced big-block performance to the Mustang. For 2008, Ford dials the driving dynamics up a notch for Mustang enthusiasts. Ford engineers modified the 2008 Mustang Bullitt’s chassis and suspension to fine-tune handling and ensure the extra horsepower and torque from the 4.6-liter V-8 is put to good use. The live rear axle uses a 3.73:1 gear that helps launch the Bullitt with vigor.Stock Mustang GT shocks and struts were swapped out for new units that allowed engineers to dial in a more aggressive driving dynamic and deliver the most balanced Mustang yet. A tower-to-tower brace designed specifically for the Bullitt lends additional torsional and lateral stiffness to the chassis for improved cornering and holds a unique serial number for each Bullitt. The brakes also have been improved versus the base Mustang GT’s. More aggressive front pads were developed specifically for Bullitt and improve fade resistance and pedal feel.
7. Insider’s View – Driver’s-view shots let audiences in on the thrill of the chase in Bullitt, along with giving them a glimpse of the Mustang GT’s spartan, no-nonsense interior. The 2008 Mustang Bullitt maintains an understated mystique, with a graphically clean interior, sporting charcoal black leather and race-inspired accents – including a hand-machined, aluminum swirl dash panel appliqué. Consumers also can set the mood with available ambient lighting.8. Did You See That? – The chase scene in Bullitt took more than two weeks to film, resulting in 9 minutes and 42 seconds of edited footage that helped Frank P. Keller earn an Academy Award® for Film Editing.Filming in a working city, with locations spread out over a considerable part of San Francisco, helped generate a number of continuity lapses that are either overlooked or celebrated by Bullitt aficionados. A few disjointed street sequences emerge when the footage from certain streets is reused. (Audiences are tipped off when a green Volkswagen, yellow cab and white Firebird reappear several times.) The Dodge Charger driven by the villains loses no fewer than eight hubcaps during the chase. Still, for many, no other chase scene before or since has come close to equaling it.
9. Clean Machine – 1968 was the first year in which vehicle emissions were regulated by the U.S. federal government but cars still burned leaded fuel and catalytic converters were still years away. All 1968 Mustang engines incorporated an exhaust emission control system. Today's vehicles produce 99 percent fewer smog-forming emissions than cars in the 1970s. The 2008 Mustang Bullitt’s 4.6-liter three-valve engine delivers low emissions and is in compliance with MuCalifornia's stringent Low Emissions Vehicle II (LEV II) standard.10. Need for Speed – Then: The original 1968 Mustang GT 390 boasted a 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 15.2 seconds at 94.0 mph, according to Motor Trend. Now: Ford engineers modified the 2008 Mustang Bullitt’s chassis and suspension to fine-tune handling and ensure the extra horsepower and torque from the 4.6-liter V-8 is put to good use. Motor Trend clocks the 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt at 5 seconds even for 0-60, with a quarter-mile time of 13.7 seconds at 102.7 mph.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – PRESS CONFERENCE --
“I was really looking forward to this race. We were so fast in happy hour, I felt like the stuff Bob has been doing has been great, and then on the first pit stop when they dropped the jack, the 42 was coming in in the pit stall in front of me and we pulled right out in front of him and wrecked our car up just a little bit. We fought back from that all day and I was really proud of my guys. The pit stops were awesome. At the end, it was really fun racing with Kyle. We were running on the fence. One time I looked up and he looked like a dirt late model, he had the right-rear sparking off the fence and standing on the gas. It was just a lot of fun there at the end. I wish we could have caught Jimmie. He was fading. For a while I thought we were gonna catch him and then we just kind of all evened out and we needed a caution or something, but I’m very proud of my guys.” WHO’S FAULT WAS THAT? “It’s Bob Osborne’s fault, you know what I mean? That’s who’s fault it was. He apologized to all of us after the race and it was just a mistake. Bobby Hudson said to watch the 42. I was looking in my mirror and the way the sun was kind of setting, I don’t think Bob could see which one was the 42 – I know I couldn’t. He said, ‘Just go on the jack,’ and they dropped the jack and it was just at the worst time. Bob is such an awesome guy and I know he’s beating himself up over it, but I know we all make mistakes and he doesn’t make hardly any. I’m behind him 100 percent and it’s just a fluke deal. I don’t think it will ever happen again as far as Bob making a mistake like that.” CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL AT THIS TIME NOW VERSUS LAST YEAR? “I feel a lot different, but I’ve learned a lot. They say you learn the most through your toughest times. Last year wasn’t a disaster by any means, but we didn’t live up to the expectations that we all set. This year is definitely different. I’m sure this week last year I didn’t have a smile on my face right now, and now I do. That’s all you can ask for is to enjoy it, but any of the drivers can tell you that you live and die by this stuff. It’s tough. One week you can be a hero and the next week you’re nothing. It’s a really tough sport on you mentally and I think that having that bad year right off the bat kind of galvanized me a little bit and made me a little bit stronger person and a better competitor.” DID YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING TO CATCH JIMMIE OR WAS HE JUST DRIVING AS HARD AS HE NEEDED TO DRIVE? “It looked to me like he was searching and he was a little slow. I thought he was gonna be a sitting duck. I even said to Bob on the radio. I said, ‘I feel like it’s me and Kyle racing for the win here.’ You know Jimmie better than I do, but I don’t think on the last green flag run you’re gonna lay back. He goes pretty hard.” HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR WAS THE HEAT? “I felt pretty good. My guys worked pretty hard on our car. When they’re easy to drive you don’t sweat as much. This could have been a 600-miler and I would have been just fine with that. I needed some laps at the end. I don’t think that was as big of an issue as we thought it was gonna be. In practice it was unbelievably hot, but it wasn’t that bad tonight.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) – WITH ALL YOU WENT THROUGH TONIGHT, 17TH IS NOT TOO BAD. “Yeah, we just missed the setup again. It’s frustrating. I don’t know what it is, but we’ll keep working on it. We’ve only got a few more races with these cars anyway, but we’ll keep working at it.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Sharp AQUOS Ford Fusion (Finished 16th) – “We haven’t finished without me running into the wall in about five weeks, so it wasn’t a bad night. The car was really fast in the beginning and then we didn’t keep up with the track or didn’t make the right adjustments, but Larry did really well making some good pit calls and kept us on the lead lap, and then made some good decisions and the car was about as good as it was all night at the end.” HOW WAS THE HEAT FOR YOU TONIGHT? “All the cautions really helped in the beginning. If it would have gone green at the beginning, it would have been really hot, but it wasn’t that bad.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) – “We had a great car. Other than my mistakes speeding on pit road and blending a little too early, we might have had a car that could have finished in the top five or contend for a win, but just a small mistake hurt us like that.” WHAT HAPPENED ON THE SPEEDING PENALTY? “I just gassed it a little too early. We had a good stop and when you’re right there on the speed limit going down pit road, and if you hit it just a split-second too early, it reflects on your speed there at that last mark and that’s where we got busted at.” HOW DID YOU DEAL WITH THE HEAT? “Not bad. I had an ice pack the first half of the run and then just a lot of water throughout the run, but once the sun goes down it’s 100 percent better. When you have a good handling car, you kind of forget about the heat.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 R&L Carriers Ford Fusion (Finished 7th) – “No matter where you finish, unless you win, you always hope for better, but it was kind of frustrating. We took off at the beginning of the race and pretty much drove to the front and thought we had a pretty competitive car and as the track changed and the day went on, we just kept getting farther and farther off and couldn’t figure it out.” HOW DID YOU HANDLE THE HEAT? “It wasn’t really bad until my alternator went out and then I had to shut all my fans and blowers and air conditioners off and then it got pretty toasty.” AT WHAT POINT DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT? “With about 90 to go.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 25 freecreditreport.com Ford Fusion (Finished 41st) – “We had a left-rear tire go down. Our freecreditreport.com Ford Fusion was pretty good. We moved up a bunch from where we had started, but we got real loose there. We had just made a panhard bar adjustment, so I asked the guys if we went the wrong way and they said, ‘No, we’re pretty sure we went the right way. We think you’ve got a left-rear going down,’ and right then it blew going into turn one. This is a crazy place, it’s really exciting and that’s why the fans love it.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 37 Cub Cadet Ford Fusion (Finished 14th) – “It was pretty good. The car was off just a little bit all night. I thought it would be free tonight, but the track must have rubbered up and got tight, but it was a decent run overall.” WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW? “It’ll be slick. The top and bottom grooves are pretty neutral. It seems like you’re too loose on the bottom and too tight on the top, so it’s hard to manipulate that.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion (Finished 6th) – “This gives us confidence for tomorrow. Bristol is a tough track and we beat some good drivers, so hat’s off to the team for preparing a great car. We had a good race and had a lot of fun.” WILL WE SEE THAT CAR AGAIN? “Yeah, probably at Dover. I don’t know. We’re taking our Michigan car to Richmond and we took our Gateway car to Michigan, so you never know what we’re gonna bring.” WHAT DID YOU LEARN FOR TOMORROW NIGHT? “The outside groove is good and the bottom is good if your car is working, but there’s no one groove that works better or worse. There are a lot of grooves and a lot of good racing. This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.” IS THIS A CONFIDENCE BUILDER TO GO THROUGH A RACE AT THIS TRACK WITHOUT A MARK ON YOUR CAR? “Yeah, it does. It just shows if you do have a good handling car, you can move around and do what you need to do. We were lucky. We were around a lot of wrecks and didn’t hit anything, so we’re just happy to be here and happy to bring it home in the top 10.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Scotts Ford Fusion (Finished 11th) – “It was a long night. It ended up being a good points night just because the 29 had trouble, but we salvaged everything we could. That was it. That was all we could do, so it turned out OK.” WHAT ABOUT THE CUP RACE TOMORROW? “I think our car of tomorrow is pretty good. You can run anywhere, so it just depends on where your car is good. It’s gonna be a good race.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 9th) – “The 41 car wrecked and got in our way. We should have finished up fifth because I had those guys all passed and just got held up there, but we had fun. We didn’t have a very good car, so I’m pretty happy with 10th.” WHAT ABOUT THE OUTSIDE GROOVE. IS THAT THE BEST WAY TO PASS NOW? “The outside is really good. Some of these guys in the Busch Series, they don’t go up there, but I know all those guys in the Cup cars will go up there immediately, so you’ll see a little different race – but the 38 car could pass on the bottom, so if your car is good, you can do it.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 21st) – “I’m a little discouraged because I felt we were a 10th to 15th-place car. We started the race off and just didn’t have any grip. I complained that the rear was out of the track, but more than anything the front wasn’t turning either. We made some adjustments and stopped a bunch of times just kind of working on the chassis and finally got some wedge adjustments done and got it to where we could respectable lap times. We were so far back though as far as track position that it was tough. Busch Series racing is pretty tough because the top 20 guys run pretty much the same speed. I was pretty happy with it after we got some adjustments done, so it wasn’t a bad night. We brought it home in one piece. We fought track position, but we got ourselves back there with a bad handling race car.”
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion, is fifth in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series standings while still holding a commanding lead in the NASCAR Busch Series. Edwards held his weekly Q&A session after Cup practice Friday.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – HOW WAS PRACTICE ON THE NEW SURFACE? “Our Office Depot Fusion was really fast. We were struggling a little bit with the Scotts car over on the Busch side, but Bob Osborne and everybody did a really good job and the car seems pretty fast.”
HOW WILL THE RACE CHANGE WITH THE NEW SURFACE AND THE WIDTH OF THE TRACK?
“I got the chance to sit up there in turn three the other night and watch the end of the truck race and it looked to me like people are gonna be able to hang on on the outside and maybe even make some passes on the outside, where in the past, if you were running along in line and somebody moved you out of the way or you’d slip up, you would fall back. Now, it looks like there will be truly two or three grooves of racing.”
DO YOU EXPECT LESS BUMPING AND BANGING HERE?
“I don’t know if you can take any of the bumping and banging out of Bristol. It’s still a really small track and you’re going really fast. I’m interested to see 200 or 300 laps in how all of the dynamics work out with passing and whether or not it separates the field more or keeps everybody close together. I can’t tell what line is gonna be the fastest at the end of the race.”
WHAT CHALLENGE DO YOU FACE WITH A SHORT WEEK?
“The biggest challenge with the short week is for the guys. The truck drivers and guys at the shop turning things around and not getting to be at home with their families for very long. For us drivers it’s pretty simple, we get on our planes. I was home Tuesday afternoon riding my bicycle in Missouri, but all of the guys had to go back and really work hard, so it’s hard on them.”
DO YOU LOOK AT THE COT CAR DIFFERENTLY NOW THAN 10 RACES AGO?
“Yeah, the reality is we’re gonna race this new car every race next year and we’ve got to get used to it. Now I don’t look at it as just a novelty or a one-off thing. This is what we’re focusing on and, as a driver, I’m starting to get used to it a little bit more and it’s starting to feel more like a race car.”
HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE UP 165 POINTS IN THREE RACES FOR THE GUYS CURRENTLY OUT OF THE CHASE?
“To make up 160 points or something like that in a few races is really hard, but this is auto racing and anything can happen. Bristol here is gonna be a real bottleneck race for guys who are close in the points. You could run first or second here just as well as you could have an accident that’s not your fault and run 43rd, and there are 140 or 150 points difference there, so it’ll be interesting to see how the points work out after this race.”
YOU SEEM TO BE GOING ALL OUT AND TAKING CHANCES THE LAST FEW RACES. IS THAT THE CASE OR DO YOU STILL HAVE THE BIG PICTURE IN YOUR MIND?
“I have the big picture in the back of my mind, but I don’t know if I’m taking anymore chances, I just think the one I took at Watkins Glen was just more obvious. I think everyone is really hanging it out. Look at a guy like Kurt Busch. They’re doing everything they can. I know all of the teams are feeling the pressure. Some guys are in a position where it’s all or nothing now and other guys are right on the inside of it trying to not give up too much and we’re kind of in-between. I feel like if we can just come out of here with a top 20 or 25 we’re almost locked in the chase, so, really, the last couple of weeks we’ve been being a little more aggressive and I don’t think that will change.”
HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO PREPARE FOR THE CHASE RACES THE LAST FEW WEEKS?
“The last few weeks I personally haven’t been looking at the chase yet. We’ve been so busy doing everything we can and there are still so many hurdles. This COT race here on the new surface at Bristol, that has occupied a lot of my thoughts and a lot of the team’s effort. I know from a testing standpoint and all that we’ve been focusing on the chase, but I don’t think I’ll get into points racing and chase mode until after Richmond.”
IS THE TRACK CHANGE DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT AS FAR AS THE SETUP GOES?
“It’s pretty interesting. Concrete race tracks are real touchy anyway as far as the setup. You’re either on or off. If you’re a little too loose, it feels real loose. You add that to the banking here at Bristol and it feels like a new race track to me. The old Bristol was so much different with the bumps and the way you drove it. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out. It’s kind of surreal to have the same shape. Everything looks the same, but it’s just real smooth. It’s wild.”
ARE YOU ATTACHED TO THE 99 NUMBER? CAN YOU IMAGINE DRIVING ANYTHING ELSE?
“It just gets down to people get used to certain things. You build a brand around certain numbers and sponsors and drivers. I think for anyone it’s always a shock when something changes. I personally have never really thought about driving a car other than the 99 since I’ve been in it, but I think with anything, after people get used to a change – it took me a long time to say Nextel Cup Series, but now it sounds normal. I think people get used to any change, but, yeah, you do get used to certain things.”
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, has won the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Bristol night race each of the last two seasons and comes into the weekend ranked third in the point standings. He held a press conference Friday afternoon in the Bristol infield media center.
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN BRING BACK SETUP-WISE FROM YOUR LAST TWO WINS HERE THAT WILL WORK ON THIS NEW TRACK? “I think there’s gonna be a certain amount of stuff. We just have to try to be patient and try to be in the front at the end. You’re still gonna have some action here no matter what. You still have a lot of banking, it’s still fast, it’s still 43 cars in a small area, so I think you’ve kind of got to pace yourself and try not to get in trouble at all, but especially early. I think that will, but other than that, really, nothing. The car of tomorrow is all different. It’s a brand new surface. The track drives a lot different than it drove before, so I think it’s gonna be quite a bit different, but there’s still gonna be some similarities.”
HOW HOT IS IT OUT THERE IN THE CAR? “It makes me crabby. It was actually a lot hotter yesterday. I thought yesterday was pretty miserable sitting in that car all day, so it is hot but we’re still racing at night and it’ll be alright. It’s 250 laps and usually you get some cautions here and you can get yourself cooled back off, so it’s kind of the same for everybody. It’s something you kind of learn to manage. You never know when that weekend is gonna be. It was weird because it’s been so hot in North Carolina and around the southeast and last weekend we wore jackets all weekend at Michigan, and came back down here and it’s about 100, so it’s definitely gonna be hot.”
WHAT IS ROUSH FENWAY’S MINDSET AS FAR AS TESTING THE COT? “They talk about it a lot, but, honestly, I haven’t seen that big of a difference. There are people working on stuff and we’re trying to get going. There have been a couple of more tests, but I haven’t been in a car and tested anywhere since the last time we’ve all talked about it. I haven’t seen a huge change in it. There has been a little bit. They have been testing a little bit. They went to Nashville last week and I think they’re going to Iowa this week, but I couldn’t make it. Mainly there’s other stuff. The seven post is about up and running and they’ve been doing more simulation work and trying to figure all that out. That seems to be working as good or better than anything. When we test, we can’t at our tracks with our tires, so you kind of learn some things but sometimes it kind of fools you too. We’ve been working on it. I think that we’re getting stronger. I don’t know if it’ll be in time, but I think we’re on our way back up.”
ARE YOU CONCERNED FIVE OF THE CHASE RACES ARE WITH THE COT? “To be honest with you, I’m concerned about every race. I don’t know what race we’re gonna run good or bad in. Last year, going into the chase we won Michigan and Bristol and thought we had a lot of momentum. We ran real good at Chicago and was leading all the way through and then we went to Kansas, which is almost just like Chicago and we ran last all day and we beat whoever dropped out. You just never know. It’s real competitive and you never know when you’re gonna hit it right or be off. I feel a little better about our car of tomorrow stuff. Carl ran really well the last couple of races. Dover was a pretty decent race for us, so I think we’re making progress. Today, I’ve been pretty happy with the car most of today. It’s been a lot better than I expected and it’s actually a lot better than my Busch car has been this weekend, so I feel alright about it right now.”
IS THE TRACK QUITE A BIT DIFFERENT AS FAR AS REFERENCE POINTS AND THAT SORT OF THING? “It’s quite a bit different. I know everybody does something different. I know a lot of people have points they look at, I never really do that. I just kind of do it by feel, so it doesn’t really matter to me that much. It does drive a lot different. I think in general everybody is gonna see probably a better race. There’s a lot more possibilities to run side-by-side. I caught a slower car in traffic and instead of sitting there and being behind him and keep trying to get under him, I just drove outside of him and went around him. We’ve never been able to do that before. I think the preferred groove in three and four in the race is probably gonna be the high side. I think you’re gonna run the second or third groove. It’s nice if you can come back down off the corner. If somebody gets under there, it’s gonna be a close race but I think it’s gonna be hard to pass on the bottom. I think the guy leading the race, if the guy in second is running him down, I think he’ll move up before he’ll stay on the bottom. I think if somebody sneaks outside of you, you’re gonna have a hard time getting off the corner on the bottom. It’s real flat down there and the way the transition in the track dips like that, there’s a lot more banking on the outside to get off the corner – and to get off on the second groove underneath there is very difficult right now.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE JOB YOUR CREW HAS DONE THIS YEAR? “Last week I felt we had a car that could win and I ran it in the wall, so that wasn’t one of those weeks. We had a pretty good car last week. They’ve always been good at that and Robbie has been good at calling the races and making sure we position ourselves the best we can no matter how we’re running all day – to try and get ourselves positioned the best we can for the rest of the race – so they’ve been good at that. You see it in all sports. I’ve been real lucky because all of my over-the-wall guys are really gamers. They practice really good, but when the pressure is on is when they really perform and you see a lot of people that are the opposite. A lot of people you’ll go out and watch pit practice and say, ‘Man, they’re lightening fast,’ and then they get in a pressure situation and drop a lugnut or can’t get a tire indexed or don’t get the car jacked up or whatever it may be. I’m fortunate that my guys are the opposite. When it’s on the line is when they’re always the best.”
WHAT DID WINNING AT BRISTOL MEAN TO YOU AND WHEN DID YOU REALIZE DENNY HAMLIN WAS FOR REAL? “It’s extra special to win here. This is probably the coolest environment for a race that we go to – being a Saturday night and having all the people around here. It’s kind of a crazy party and almost a college football game-type atmosphere. It’s cool to win here. A lot of things can go wrong and take you out of a race and it’s a difficult track, especially before because it was very difficult to even manage by yourself. So to be able to go out there and race with all those guys and get everybody on the same page and figure out how to get your car handling better than the rest to be able to pass was always a big accomplishment if we can do that. So I’ve been lucky to have good cars, but really to win any of these races is big. It’s hard to win and we don’t do it near often enough, so whenever it happens it’s always pretty cool. As far as Denny, I guess when I first saw him in a car you could tell he had a lot of talent. As soon as he got in there the 11 car started running good and being a contender every week.”
SHARPIE 500 QUALIFYING
RICKY RUDD – No. 88 Snickers Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) – “We’ll take it. It was really uneventful. I was a little bit tight everywhere, but it wasn’t too bad. We were 17th in practice and we talked about it. I told Butch not to change the car too much because I would change myself. I thought I could probably gain more speed by me changing me than him changing springs. I tried a couple of things and it seemed to work.” HOW WAS THE LAP? “It didn’t feel like that good of a lap. I was gonna run a second lap because I didn’t think the first was all that great, but Butch said, ‘I’ve seen enough right now. Bring it in while you’ve still got something.’ The Snickers guys worked really hard on this Ford and we’re really happy. We picked up from where we practiced while most guys went the other way.” IS RETIREMENT AN OFFICIAL WORD WE CAN USE NOW WITH YOU? “Yeah, I think you can call it retirement. I’m not looking, but if something fell in my lap with a very limited schedule where you rotate a few drivers through the system I’d maybe take a look, but I’m probably more actively pursuing that rocking chair on the porch or on the beach than I am a ride right now.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 12th) – “I’m really happy with the speed we got out of that lap. From a feel standpoint I felt like we were off a little bit on our balance, but we still got a good lap out of it. We’ve been fairly quick since we unloaded, so I’m really happy with that lap time.”
ROBBY GORDON – No. 7 Camping World Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – “That’s not bad. It was a decent lap for us. We were loose in practice and we tightened it up. A lot of guys got loose, so it came to us a little bit. We predicted it would get loose, so it worked out well for us.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NEW SURFACE? “It’s a lot different obviously compared to what raced on before because there are no bumps anymore. It’s gonna be important to qualify good.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) – “It’s good. To start up front here is a big deal. I’m really proud of my guys. It was easy to drive, so I just drove it around and that’s the best we’ve ever qualified here. I’m not gonna be upset about the pole. I’ve been way in the back here, like 30th and 40th, so I’m not gonna complain about second right now.” HOW WAS THE CAR? “It’s been pretty good since we unloaded and I’ve got to thank my guys for making it so easy to drive. I thought, ‘Man, if we could just be up near the front this would be great,’ and right now we’re sitting second. I’m trying real hard not to be frustrated about not getting the pole and trying to look at the positive of being second right now. The reality is it’s a race we’ll be starting up front. Pit selection is a huge deal so I couldn’t be happier.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Irwin Ford Fusion (Qualified 3rd) – “This is a good car. The Irwin Industrial Tools Ford Fusion was really good in race trim. We really killed ourselves when we switched to qualifying earlier. We messed up, but we went back to the trailer and re-grouped. It’s so hot here this weekend that it’s real easy to get frustrated because you’re just sweating your guts out, but we’ve got a good Ford this weekend.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NEW TRACK SURFACE? “I still have kind of struggled, it’s the same thing. We’ll have to wait and see. It should be interesting on race day with how wide the race track is because you can run the same time on the top or the bottom. There might be more wrecks because I don’t think you’ll be able to root guys up out of the way and get underneath them and make the pass. You’ll probably need to be on the outside.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 4th) – “That was certainly a little faster than I thought we did run after I got through with the lap. The car was a little free in and a little tight off, but the second groove had some good grip and on new tires you can kind of abuse them a little bit. It wasn’t too bad of a lap. That gives us a good starting spot and it’s pretty cool to start in the top 10 at Bristol.” HOW MUCH HAS THIS PLACE CHANGED FROM YOUR FIRST VISIT? “The track is just a lot more forgiving. There’s more room. The last time we came here in the spring if you didn’t hit your marks exactly and be on the bottom and get on the throttle early, you just weren’t gonna get a good lap in. Now it’s a little bit wider and the banking from top to bottom is a plus for racing. If your car is not exactly right, you can move around a little bit. It just worked out good. We’ve got a good AAA Ford for tomorrow night’s race and I think we’ll have some fun.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY PRESS CONFERENCE – “It’s certainly a lot different. In year’s past you just had to kind of get up underneath the guy. If you were on the outside, you just had to kind of commit that you were gonna let him go and fall in behind him. It’s gonna be different now. I really think the outside is gonna be the preferred groove. In the Busch car yesterday you could really roll up on the outside of guys and it’s hard to make your brain comprehend that you can do that here. You’re so used to trying to get up underneath him and all of a sudden you get on the outside of a guy and with the way the banking was before, if you got on the outside of somebody, you’d pancake the wall. The way it is now, the car just continues to have grip up there, so it’s gonna be a lot different. I’m sure all of the guys that aren’t running the Busch race tonight will pay a lot of attention. I didn’t get to watch the truck race, but they said the outside worked really well. Typically, if the trucks or the Busch cars run a little bit off of the bottom, when the Cup cars get out they go straight to the wall. I think it’s gonna be a different race than you’ve ever seen here.” ARE YOU A DRIVER THAT NEEDS VISUAL CUES HERE? IS IT BRAND NEW? “I think so. In year’s past, you kind of new what you wanted your car to feel like and everyone that’s watched a race here remembers the guys dropping their left-front on the black part of the race track getting into the corner and then you’d kind of run up about a foot and then drop your left sides off to the asphalt coming off and that’s where the grip was. If you didn’t hit that, you had to check up so you didn’t get into the wall. I watched some of the guys qualify before I went out and in Busch practice yesterday, you’d see guys that there were a car length off the bottom and you’d think, ‘No chance.’ The 22 car was on the pole for awhile and wasn’t anywhere near the bottom of the race track. It’s really hard and I can’t imagine for somebody like Ricky Rudd, who has run 50-some races here, to go through that because, for me, when I pulled out in the Busch car the other day, if I ran the old conventional line, it was just slow. You just had to slow down so much and the race track is a little bit slower, so the gearing that we have – I noticed in the Busch car and the Cup car that we really don’t have enough gear – you’re like 200 or 300 RPMs off from where you would like to be, so when you give up that little bit of speed it’s really magnified with not being able to have the right gear.” WILL SLOWER MAKE FOR BETTER RACING? “I don’t know. I’m really curious to see how the Busch race goes tonight and how that works with passing on the outside. I watched some of the guys, even in the Cup practice, go all the way up the race track and your first thought is, ‘Oh, he’s wrecked. That’s why he’s up there,’ but you don’t gain any ground on him. It’s gonna be different and it’s gonna take everybody a little while to learn what we need to do. It’s definitely different.”
Travis Kvapil, driver of the No. 6 K&N Filters Ford F-150, captured his third career pole in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series by claiming the top spot for Wednesday’s night’s O’Reilly 200.
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 6 K&N Filters Ford F-150 – “It’s always nice to start up front at Bristol. We had a great test here a couple of weeks ago and really learned a lot. We came here yesterday with our K&N Ford and it’s just been fast right off the truck. We really found some speed in it today. I was really happy because the guys sat back at the hotel and talked about it and they came up with a good game plan for today and it paid off. You don’t know what to expect for pit strategy and things like that, but being up front is definitely gonna play into our hands.”
HAVE YOU TALKED ABOUT PIT STRATEGY? “I think it’s gonna depend on how the race plays out. I think everybody is gonna try to pit as early as they can and make it the rest of the way on fuel, but then do you pit again or not? I feel like the track is easier to pass now than it was and the tires don’t seem to fall off a whole lot, so it’s just gonna kind of depend on how many guys are on the lead lap and how your truck is performing. Hopefully, we can just keep it up front all night and we’ll be happy.”
DO YOU NOTICE A MAJOR DIFFERENCE FROM A GRIP STANDPOINT WITH THE NEW CONCRETE SURFACE? “It seems like anytime we go to concrete it kind of has that same feel. It has a lot of grip, but at the same time, it’s kind of tough to get a hold of it. It’s a lot different than what it was a couple of weeks ago. It seems like there’s a lot more rubber down in the track, so they did a great job with the track. The groove has opened up a little bit and I think it’s gonna be a little bit easier to pass. It’s still gonna be a track position type of race, but if we get back there a little bit, I think we can get our way to the front.”
O’REILLY 200 POST-RACE QUOTES
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 6 K&N Filters Ford F-150 (Finished 11th) – “My truck was a little loose and I thought we could keep it on the outside and run pretty good up there. That was kind of the plan. I was willing to give up the bottom because my truck was just too loose. I needed to just let it roll around the outside. I’m pretty sure I gave him (Kyle Busch) enough room out there, but he just got up into me a little bit and that’s all it took.”
WHEN YOU SAW HIM IN YOUR REARVIEW MIRROR WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? “He’s definitely one of the best and one of the hardest drivers out here. There were numerous restarts before that, so I figured I’d be able to hold him off. He got down on the bottom and I know he was loose down there and he just got up into me.”
ERIK DARNELL – No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 (Finished 13th) – “It was frustrating. I honestly thought after practice that the Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was gonna be better than what we were in the race. We were second in the open practice yesterday and we were top five in the morning practice today and qualified sixth. I thought we had a really good truck for the race. Unfortunately, it tightened up on us more than I thought it was going to. We made big adjustments on the pit stops, but, obviously, didn’t go far enough. It was a frustrating finish.”
RICK CRAWFORD – No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by Int’l Ford F-150 (Finished 5th) – “This Ford F-150 Power Stroke Diesel by International made some really bold moves tonight. We made one adjustment on an early pit stop and those four Goodyear Wranglers stayed under me and we finished up with a top five. That was a pretty good run for us tonight.”
YOU KEPT YOUR NOSE CLEAN AND STAYED OUT OF TROUBLE. “I’m trying to teach Adam, my son, a racing lesson here. At a place like this the man who wins the race isn’t going to have a mark on his truck. You’re gonna have to race without touching people and I know we’ve got some scrub marks on the rear bumper, but that’s behind me. I tried to keep the front of the truck clean and that’s what you have to do here. You have to survive here at Bristol but you’ve got to finish first in order to finish first.”
WAS IT EASIER TO PASS WITH THE NEW SURFACE? “Oh yeah. This is a great job by Bristol and Bruton Smith and his entire staff here at Bristol Motor Speedway. What a fun place to race. It always has been fun, but this is a really nice place to come and showcase your talent – especially when you’re driving an F-Series pickup.”
MARK MARTIN – No. 21 Mark Martin Ford F-150 (Finished 3rd) – “The race track is awesome. I’m looking forward to watching the race Friday and Saturday night. I want to thank Wood Brothers/JTG Racing for letting me drive such an awesome Ford F-150 tonight. We really wanted to win this thing for our Ford store back in Batesville and all the folks there, but we gave it a good run. We never changed tires all night and the truck came on strong at the end. We were set up for the long run so it worked out, but just not good enough to win.”
DAVID STARR – No. 10 Int’l MaxxForce Diesel Ford F-150 (Finished 17th) – “Our International MaxxForce Diesel Ford F-150 was pretty awesome, but track position was real critical. On that first pit stop we only took two right side tires and probably should have taken four, but it wasn’t bad. Todd (Bodine) got in the back of me and I don’t know how I didn’t crash, but we were gaining spots back. Then the caution came out and we pitted and put tires on it and it was rocket ship. I was coming back up through the field, but on a restart I lost two spots and felt I needed to clean my tires off, so I scrubbed my tires really hard and when we had another restart it just went all the way up to the wall and you couldn’t turn. We were really fortunate that we got another caution because we had a cut right-front tire. We put tires on it and gained more spots, but our Ford F-150 was a rocket ship. We just needed a little luck on our side. I’m disappointed. The race is equal for everybody – it’s 200 laps – but even just five or 10 more laps would have been good because we were coming. It wasn’t a bad race. It could have been worse, but I’m just disappointed because we were better than 17th. I’m excited for my teammate Rick Crawford, he had a great night tonight. It was really cool to see him up in the top five, but we’re disappointed. Still, we’re excited because our International MaxxForce Diesel Ford F-150 was good tonight, but little circumstances resulted in bad luck. We’re gonna keep our chin up and keep digging. It’s getting better so I’m pretty excited about everything.”
DANNY O’QUINN – No. 50 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 (Finished 10th) – “That was awesome. It was my second time ever in a truck and this 50 team is really a bunch of great guys. The Roush Fenway trucks are so good that it was just a privilege to drive it tonight. We started off and drove up through there five or six spots and tried a different deal with pit strategy and took only a couple of tires. That really ended up hurting us because we fell way back and I couldn’t even drive it. We decided we needed to put four back on it and didn’t have a whole lot of green flag racing, but every lap we ran we passed some cars, so it feels really good to come out of here with a top 10. It feels good for Northern Tool because they’re a great sponsor and it’s just a privilege to be driving these Roush Fenway Ford Racing F-150s.”
WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE TO FINISH TOP 10 WHEN YOU’RE NOT DRIVING A FULL SCHEDULE? “That feels good and that’s what we’ve got to do. I tell you, it’s not any fun going out there and watching these races every week and not being a part of it, but I’ve hung in there and tried to stay around everything. I drive whatever I can get a hold of this year. It doesn’t matter what you’re racing, if it’s a go-kart or anything, you’ve got to stay up to date on everything. I’ve been trying to do that as much as possible as this year. You’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity you’ve got out there when you get ‘em because you never know when the next one is gonna pop up.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (qualified 2nd) – “It was a really good run. I probably could’ve gotten three and four a little bit better, and that was probably the difference. Between the .15 and the .09 that Jeff Gordon did, but the things is, we’ve got a great car for this weekend,a nd that’s what we’re excited about.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (qualified 13th) – “I think the car’s going to be pretty good. We were just a little loose there, but still pretty fast. It’ll be fine. I like racing here.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – IT HAS TO BE NICE TO COME BACK AS THE MOST RECENT WINNER AT A RACE TRACK. “It’s always fun to come back to a place where you won the last race. It gives you a lot of confidence. I feel like our Office Depot team has been building a little bit of momentum since then. I’m a little nervous; we didn’t bring the same race car, but this is the time of the season to test stuff, and as much as you’d like to bring the same race car, Bob built some stuff that he thought’s better, so that’s what we’re going to run.”
HOW’S THE THUMB? “My thumb’s good. At this point, just following the doctor’s orders and keeping this little brace on it, keeping it in place so I can get this over with as quickly as possible.”
YOU ARE SOLIDLY IN THE TOP 12. WOULD YOU RATHER START THE CHASE NOW, OR WAIT FOUR MORE RACES? “I’m glad that we’ve got a few weeks left. We went and did some testing this week, we’re going to test some more before the chase starts, and I don’t think you can ever be prepared enough. Right now, we’re not quite as fast as some of the other teams at different places but we’re approaching them, so the more time that we have to prepare ourselves, the better?”
YOU HAVE A BIG LEAD IN THE BUSCH STANDINGS. HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK ABOUT WINNING BOTH? “I’d love to win both championships; that’s my mission this year. That’s why we all do this, so to me it would be an amazing achievement. It would be something that I would be extremely proud of, so I’m working really hard at it.”
YOU ALWAYS GIVE AWAY YOUR TROPHIES. IF YOU WIN THE NEXTEL CUP CHAMPIONSHIP, WOULD ANYBODY GET THAT TROPHY? “I don’t know. That’ll be an easy decision after the hard job of winning it. So, I don’t know. That’ll be a cool trophy to give away.”
THE CREW CHIEFS FOR THE 24 AND 48 RETURN THIS WEEK. WHEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENS AND BNASCAR SITS DOWN THE CREW CHIEFS LIKE THAT, DO YOU THINK, IN THE PUBLIC’S MIND, THAT’S A CREDIBILITY ISSUE FOR NASCAR? “It’s just about accountability. Somebody has to be accountable for the fact that the cars are illegal, and the crew chief’s the guy that’s ultimately accountable for having cars show up at the race track, so I don’t know what else NASCAR could do. They fined ’em 100 points and sent the crew chiefs home. If that were two races into the chase, that would be a fatal penalty. It all worked out such most of the people they penalized with those huge points this year, it did not affect their season terminally. Maybe for Dale Jr. and Kurt Busch, it was extremely close, but for Gordon and Johnson, everybody was aware that it really wasn’t going to affect their ability to make the chase, it was just NASCAR making an example, and saying, ‘Listen, once we’re in the chase, these are the penalties that you’re going to get, so don’t cheat.’"
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (qualified 21st) – WHILE THE TEAM WAS WORKING ON THE CAR DURING THE FIVE-MINUTE CLOCK. “We broke a rear-end gear. I’ve got a feeling it didn’t get fluid. So, something broke in the rear-end gear.”
(AFTER THE TEAM GOT THE CAR BACK ON THE TRACK FOR QUALIFYING) TIME ASIDE, WHAT DOES WHAT THIS TEAM JUST DID IN FIVE MINUTES SHOW? “They did a great job in getting the gear fixed, but they didn’t have oil in the first gear and it blew it up, so that was a great job to recover from it and get back out there, and get a lap in there.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “I feel good about where we’re at, as far as making the chase we’re in a pretty comfortable spot. Certainly once they re-grid the cars and everything, I think we’re tied for 11th, or something like that, right now. That’s not exactly stellar, when you go from third to 11th. But I feel good about my team. They’re doing a great job, and they’re doing a great job with car prep and all the stuff has been real reliable, we just have to get our cars running just a little bit better to have a shot at it.”
WHAT IS THE GAME PLAN FOR THE NEXT FOUR RACES AS YOU PREPARE FOR THE CHASE? “Same as every week. We don’t really change anything. We go and race as hard as we can race every week. We try to win the race every week when we show, so we’re not going to do anything different now. We’re just going to show up with our best piece every week, put our best foot forward, and do the best we can.”
ON HIS CHANCES TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP. “I feel like we could. I don’t think, at the moment, our performance is good enough to win it, just on performance, but it takes a lot more than just performance to win a championship. You’ve got to be flawless on pit road, you can’t make mistakes on the track, on pit road, car prep, everything’s got to be reliable – you need everything to be able to have a shot it. So, I feel good about almost every area that we have. Performance, I know, is off a little bit compared to the 24, 20, 48, some of those guys – we’re off just a little bit on performance, but I think we’ve got the rest of the stuff. When we get the cars running just a little bit better, I’d feel pretty good about it.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CAR OF TOMORROW NOW, COMPARED TO EARLIER IN THE SEASON? AND WHAT IMPACT WILL IT HAVE ON THE CHASE? “I think we run it in half the races in the chase, so I think it’s going to have a big impact on it. I feel better about it than I felt in the beginning of year. I think we’re still behind at some tracks with it than others. I think maybe Dover, some of those tracks, we can be fairly competitive, but Loudon, Richmond, some of those tracks, have been a big struggle for us. We still have some work to do, but we’re working on it and I think we’re getting it a little bit better.”
HOW DO YOU THINK IT WILL DO AT TALLADEGA? “I don’t have any idea, I don’t have any expectations, I don’t know what to expect until we go there and test, really. So, we haven’t had ’em at a superspeedway; it’ll be the first race for ’em at a track like that, so it should be interesting. It should be brand-new for everybody, so it should be kind of the same for everybody, and I look forward to the test and see what they drive like.”
BEING THIRD IN POINTS, CAN YOU DRIVE MORE AGGRESSIVELY THAN SOMEONE, SAY, EIGHTH OR NINTH OR 10TH IN THE STANDINGS OVER THESE NEXT FOUR RACES BEFORE THE CHASE? “I do everything the same every week. I drive as hard as I can every week, and whatever our car will give us and whatever situation we’re in, we’ll get the best finish we can out of it, and that’s all you can really do. There’s no really extra you can do. If there was extra you could do to try to go from fifth to winning the race, you’d do it every week and try to win every week. We’re running as hard as we can run, and we’ll go out and give it our best effort every week.”
WHY DO YOU RUN THE BUSCH SERIES? WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF IT? “I’ve run about the same schedule in the Busch series for several years; we run 20-some-odd races. First of all I enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun. We’re at the track anyway on Saturdays, so instead of sitting in the motorhome lot, you might as well be out on the track. You get to learn the track more. Some tracks you come to once a year, some tracks you come two twice a year, but that’s not really a lot, so to get the extra track time, and we usually run the same tire, and the track conditions are close, it’s the day before, so you still learn a little bit from it – I still do, even though we’ve been coming to these places for a while – and I have a lot of fun. And our Busch program has always been real competitive, and that’s fun as well.”
SO, WHY DON’T MORE DRIVERS RUN BOTH SERIES? “I think right now it’s probably at an all-time high for drivers. So, there is a lot more going on on Fridays, qualifying day and practicing both cars and going back and forth – there’s definitely more work to it than just doing the Cup car. And some drivers look at it like there’s more of a risk, too; you know, you’re out on the track more and I know some guys don’t want to have a chance at getting hurt or something happening to mess up their Cup deal. I think to do them all is a lot, but I think if you do the combination races when you’re at the track anyway, I don’t think it takes away from your Cup program. I think it helps when you’re at the same track.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK THAT FITS ROUSH FENWAY CARS? “I don’t really know, historically. I know the last couple of years, we’ve had good cars here. It kind of suits our engine package, a two-mile track, there’s not a lot of RPM dropoff, I think, has always been good for the Fords, they seem to run good up high. So, I think that’s been a plus, and I learned a lot from Mark Martin and Jeff Burton, that’s most of the reason for the success that Roush has had here. I learned a lot from those guys, and those guys always had a lot of success here. I think that’s carried over to Greg, Carl and me.”
DOES A WIN OR TOP-FIVE HERE REALLY MEAN A LOT MORE TO JACK ROUSH? “You’d have to ask Jack that. I don’t know. I think that he wants to win every race, but certainly being close to Detroit, and the manufacturers, and Jack’s business being so close to here, certainly it seems like a big deal for all them – maybe a little bit more than other races.”
RICKY RUDD – No. 88 Snickers Ford Fusion (qualified 22nd) – “We were, like, 30th in practice, and we knew we weren’t where we needed to be, and the guys changed the car around quite a bit. We didn’t have a whole lot to lose. I guess it was somewhat of a gamble, but like I say, we were no better than 30th. Man, whatever they tickled there, I’ve got to find what they did because it really made a big difference to the race car. I think we learned something.”
BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Ford Fusion
BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion (qualified 23rd) – “Keep digging, keep digging. Might get a little better. Keep trying to get there. It just seems like we’re a run or two behind every time we run, but I’m proud of the guys. We had really good pick-up from our practice time, and that’s what counts in this business. You keep trying to nibble away at it. I feel like we were a little bit too free up off the corner there a little bit, but all in all I think like we made a pretty decent run at it.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 M&M’s Ford Fusion
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 M&M’s Ford Fusion
(qualified 24th) – A YEAR AGO THIS RACE, YOU MADE YOUR DEBUT WITH THIS TEAM. “This week, I’ve taken a lot of time to reflect on the last year. It’s been a lot of fun. I was telling a friend of mine that one year ago today was probably the most nerve-wracking day of my life. To come back here and be a little more settled in, a little more comfortable driving the M&M’s Ford Fusion, I have a lot more confidence now coming in. We’ve been building. I feel great about where the direction of our program is headed.”
WHAT ABOUT THIS WEEKEND? “I think we’ve got a good car. This is a brand-new car that we built specifically to bring here. It’s been really good. On our qualifying lap, we were just a little free, but I think that’s a good thing here. Tight and Michigan, you don’t go fast. We’ll just keep plugging away on our race trim set-up and hope we get our M&M’s Ford Fusion as best we can.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion (qualified 25th) – “I’m happy with that. That’s certainly a pick-up from what we had in practice. We always unload in race trim and we just spend 90 percent of the first practice in race mode. We usually get one qualifying run at the end of practice, where some of these other guys unload in qualifying trim. We don’t have to qualify on the pole; certainly it’s cool to be fast but we just wanted to get a nice solid top-20 starting spot, top 25, and we always seem to race a little better than we qualify, so that’s what’s important.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion
ROUSH FENWAY RACING HAS ALWAYS DONE WELL HERE. HOW DOES THAT HISTORY AFFECT YOU OR HELP YOU THIS WEEKEND? “It gives us a little bit extra confidence. We know that certainly that the Gibbs, DEI and Hendrick cars have stepped up their programs up here a lot recently. I remember four or five years ago all of Jack’s cars one-through-five, just driving away, and it’s not like that anymore. We certainly have our work cut out for us, but we’ve got great engines, we’ve always had good horsepower, good aero package and that’s what it takes to run well here at Michigan.”
HOW MUCH OF A RELIEF IS IT JUST TO BE BACK ON AN OVAL? “For me, it’s a lot. Like someone asked me, ‘How do you feel? Montoya’s kind of taken some leaps and bounds over the past month.’ And I told him, ‘Well, if we go to some south Georgia short-tracks and race some Legends cars, I think could make a little stretch here.’ It’s been fun the last few weeks. The one bad thing is once I somewhat feel comfortable at a road course we don’t see another one for another year. So, that’s the only bad thing. Now we’ve just got to sit back and wait for another year to come, when now, if we had two more road courses, I feel like we’d be a little more competitive. My number-one goal all season is to get a little better on the road courses. I feel we’ve struggled a little bit. But, this year was the first time I’ve ever run a big car on a road course, period. So, we’ve done a little better than what some people thought, but we’ve still got a long ways to go to where we want to be.”
JACK ROUSH – Roush Racing – DO YOU PREDICT A WIN FOR THIS WEEKEND, AND WHICH OF YOUR DRIVERS DO YOU THINK WILL DO IT? “Well, I never bet on a horse race or an automobile race. I certainly wouldn’t predict a win. I feel that things are likely to every job over a period of time. However, you could look and say that we’ve been real lucky. But, the harder you work sometimes and the better people, or the more able people you are surrounded with, the better your prospects are. If I looked back at our success over the years and said ‘Okay, how is that accomplished?’ I think Mark Martin had a lot to do with it, it’s not missed that this is my home track. Coming from the Detroit area, I always feel like I am coming home up here. I think that the guys and the girls in the shop and the drivers rally a little bit for me. We’ve got a couple thousand employees in the Detroit area that certainly pay attention, and we’ve got a lot of customers in our automotive side and consumer products side that will be here in our suites and things. We’ve had great cars based on Mark Martin’s legacy and the pressure is always on. If you ask me who could win here, I think that David Ragan might be a long shot based on the fact that he’s a rookie. But, everybody else has either recently won or is very hungry and anxious to win. I would not bet against Greg Biffle or Matt (Kenseth) or Jamie (McMurray), and certainly Carl (Edwards) is real hot right now.”
DO YOU HAVE A PLAN TO GET YOUR COMPANY DOWN TO FOUR TEAMS? “We’re looking at a number of different options. We’re looking at the prospect of an investor group that might be willing to come in and start another four-team program. We’d like not to relive success or lack of success that some recent entrants that have come in with outside money and started their own their own thing. I think we could help somebody come in and the fifth team that will become available for me in 2010 will be a seed corn, potentially, for that. It shouldn’t go without notice that we are unabated in our effort to find and identify new drivers and to build our crews and teams with outsiders to the extent that we can and advance them through the programs as they get experience. We’re on a track to be able to help somebody come in and provide the technology and the man-power to get them started.”
INAUDIBLE QUESTION. “Well, I’m open to ideas, I could obviously collapse. I might go bankrupt; I could crash at your feet and some people might find some joy in that. I’ve been in the racing business since 1965; I’ve been traveling since 1970. I was racing over 22 years before I started stock-car racing – I don’t intend to fail. I see a path for recovering the investment that we’ve got in our fifth team to maybe seed corn for somebody else’s program, and that’s what I’ll do if I can.”
COULD THE NEW INVESTOR COME IN AS EARLY AS NEXT YEAR? “I don’t see it as early as next year. It might be the case that the investor group might decide to come in and start with a program that wasn’t one of my existing five and could build it’s way into the second and third team to take one of my five when I divest myself of it, ready to give it up. But, the idea of me going down to four teams without some external force in 2008 is certainly not on my mind.”
ONE OF THE BIG POINTS THE CAR OF TOMORROW WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE WAS THAT TEAMS WOULD BE ABLE TO RUN FEWER CARS. HAS THAT BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE AND IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE? “The Car of Tomorrow, I think, will have a result in the reduction of the number of cars that are required to run a program. You didn’t ask the key question: Do I think that the cars will be enough less expensive to be a net save to the teams? I absolutely feel that there will not be a net save to the teams based on the amount of money that goes into the cars to get the chassis the way that NASCAR wants it for it’s inspection; then past the initial inspection, the amount of sheet metal that has to be replaced to fix a relatively small problem. The time would have been that we could have replaced the front snout and a front end of a car or a rear snout and a quarter panel, depending on the lick. Most of the relatively minor damage that the cars have had is going to retire a complete body because when you get the kind of shot into the body that causes a snout to bend, you almost always have some amount of distress that is put into the rest of the car. And when we had reasonably wide-open, or relatively wide-open tolerances, you were able to let that tolerance be taken out by the effects of the crash. You can’t do that now. It would be okay with me if somebody would stamp a complete steal body and you could just weld it on to your chassis and go. The amount of precision that’s required to get the sheet metal in order to pass the tech line is unprecedented in terms of what we’ve had. For the time being, we anticipate at least a 70% to an 80% increase in labor that’s required to keep these cars ready to go from one race to the next. I see a 20% reduction in the number of cars that’s likely to be used and 80 to 100% more labor required, first of all to build the car and then get it through inspection in the first place, and then to repair it after it has the inevitable problem on the race track.
“As far as what’s happened in the race with the cars of tomorrow, as seen by me – I think the people that have had the best test programs, that were in variance and difference with NASCAR’s stated policy as regarding what they wanted done, the people that have the best test programs had the best result. As we started to catch up to, that one-third of the way into the season, our prospects are dramatically improved. Our first concentrated effort, as we went outside the bounds of what was stated that everybody was supposed to be doing, we’ve started our test program and said, ‘Alright where are we going to start first,’ we concentrated on the two road races. We tested numerous times, as other folks had, in getting ready for the road races and we’ve had very competitive road race cars for both Watkins Glen and Sear’s Point. As we looked at the dampers and the way that we limit the travel in the Car of Tomorrow versus the car of today, in order to see the effect of heat and temperature on the rubber and see the effect of the car moving around on the race track in difference to the seven-posters, that are used for shock testing, base testing, we find that you learn many new things that are worthwhile.
“I think that our stated goal from the beginning was to have to be ready with regard to what our understanding of what the rules were and with regard to the preparation of our hardware for peaking in races that start in Loudon after the Richmond fall race. I think we’ll attract with that. I’m very happy with our progress in the last three occasions when we’ve raced the Car of Tomorrow and was aghast at how far we were behind with regard to the things that other people about the car from the test that they’d done in a non-NASCAR sanctioned test.”
WITH AS MANY BUSCH CARS AS YOU HAVE, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE BUSCH SERIES DO SOME SORT OF FORM OF THE CAR OF TOMORROW OR WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE IT GO TO AN OPPOSITE TYPE OF CAR? “I’ll make a categorical statement and say, ‘Son, I’m a racing dog.’ I’m a NASCAR racer, NASCAR is certainly the side where I put the emphasis at this point in my life. If they decided that would race from the second day in January to two days before Christmas and fill all those weekends, I’d be signed up with my cars, five or 10 or as many cars as I have at a point in time, I’d be signed up to be there and to support them and go out and race for the sponsors and race in front of the fans that have the interest in it. I am committed to whatever NASCAR comes up with for rules to be there and to support it with what I think will be the most effective programs.
“The Car of Tomorrow, for the Busch Series, is going to be a travesty for a lot of the teams that are relatively low funded and have got marginal economic models. If they manage to save as much money for the Busch guys that I see them saving for the Cup guys, in the long term the field will be a third of its size. If they do the Car of Tomorrow for the Busch Series, I’m in and I’ll run as many cars as I can find sponsors for and I’ll make it work somehow.”
SOME TEAMS KEEP THEIR CREWS IN SHAPE WITH PHYSICAL FITNESS TRAINERS. ARE YOUR CREWS REQUIRED TO DO ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR AS FAR AS WORKOUTS AND DO YOU BRING ANY TRAINERS IN? “Regarding the crew members, we’ve looked at what other teams are doing and looked at the problems that we’ve got in some of our team programs for pit crews and, certainly measured the strengths of others. We tried to emulate the things that we’re doing for the things that have worked best in all of the programs and diminished the things that haven’t worked as well. If you’ve got too much for a person to do, the pit operation and the physical training and the focus on the testing or the practice that guys do at the shop seems to be the first thing that suffers. As much as we’ve tried not to have pure athletes come in and change our tires and do our pit work we have to be very careful to not have them too vital to too many operations or there’s a conflict for their time.
“We do have trainers, physical trainers and sports trainers, as well as people that are expert in choreographing pit stops, not the muscle set group training of the physical side of it, but also how you choreograph a pit stop. So we’ve got those different specialties that we apply. I’ve looked at the prospect of having a person to come in and think about motivations and a psychologist come in and help us with our deal. One of the things you find is that there’s a lot of people that have got the motivation and the need and the physical promise to do what they need to do but they are limited emotionally or mentally in being able to perform under the extreme stress that we’ve got on pit road. They can do it in the shop and they can do it in practice, but they have trouble doing it under the right circumstance. So, there’s that other piece that I don’t think that we’ve got the measure of yet to really understand what to do. I think the pit crews, the people that change the tires or fuel the cars and do the minor repairs on the cars are extraordinarily important to the programs and there’s several different looks of that that different groups are doing based on the fact that they have got different resources and different accumulations.
“When Henry came in years ago with the sports athletes that really didn’t have any mechanical aptitude and made a pit crew out of them I was afraid that that was going to be a departure that would going to be very sad for me. I’d like to have a pit crew involved with the car in the shop, either for the body preparation of the chassis preparation or a component preparation part, so that as they pass through period in their lives where they can no longer sprint across the pit wall and in record time jack the car up or change a tire that there’d be something else for them to do on the team. It looks like that’s still okay. We haven’t had to give up on the prospect of having the people have a job in the shop. But, if they have too many jobs, it looks like it’s not good.”
HAS YOUR MERGER AS ROUSH FENWAY GONE BETTER THAN WHAT YOU ANTICIPATED IT WOULD? “Roush Racing was not in a panic to find a partner to either bring an influx of money or talent or a sponsor marketing program. We did not have a problem that required us to be a motivated seller to go find an investor in the program. When John Henry called me initially and I referred him to Evan Lyle, my CEO, and Geoff Smith, the President of Roush Racing, to have a discussion. When he called, I couldn’t have been any less interested in the prospect of having somebody else that I’d have to answers questions for or to potentially compromise with to run my race teams. But, as we looked at what was there in the Boston Red Sox organization and what the Fenway Sports Group has done with golf and with some of the other interests around baseball, we said, ‘Wow.’ There’s more than 12,000 dedicated sports fans in the Northeast that are by-in-large not interested in NASCAR’s brand of stock car racing. They haven’t been exposed with it adequately. So, we had the prospect of picking up some energy for our sponsors and some fans that would support our drivers with all of their memorabilia and things. So, we looked at that and said, ‘That could be very interesting,’ not knowing where NASCAR is gonna go in the post Bill France Jr. era of time and the manner in which they might decide to franchise or to put a value a on the operation of the teams that would require and investment on the part of the teams. Everything I’ve made is backing race cars and race teams or equipment for my engineering company. I want a cash-rich company that has the wherewithal to raise large sums of cash if the need would be there based on some change in policy from NASCAR. The idea of giving me the confidence when I go to sleep at night that I can survive virtually any change that doesn’t only destroy the viability of the relationship of the financial model between buying a ticket and owning a race track and running a race team, as long that balance, the viability of all those units, stays where it is, regardless of what the capital investment might be in the short term, I’m now able to survive. I was worried about that before. The idea of saying that I didn’t drivers, I didn’t have sponsors or I was destitute in some way was not the reason I took investment money. A number of other people that have taken investors and looked into divest themselves and some of their race teams have had some very serious problems with their viability.
“We haven’t had a huge change in our operation. I’ve got a board meeting that I’ve attended I think twice in the five months that we’ve been partners and it’s been very amicable, where there’s been many new ideas brought that I was not the initiator of based on the perspective that the Fenway Sports people have had. Operational control of the team still rests within me and the structure that I have in place. We have got an operating agreement that doesn’t interfere with the ongoing exercise of management judgments that we have. It’s wonderful. In my 45 years of being in business, most of which has been around racing, I’ve had four partnerships, two of which I could not have accomplished, one which was a waste of time and one which was very bad. I have every reason to believe that the relationship I’ve got with John Henry will be very good in the long term. It’s going to be good for our employees, it’s going to be good for our fans and for our sponsors.”
Past Ford Racing News
- John Force, driver of the Castrol GTX Mustang, won Sunday’s Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota. This is the second victory in as many events for Force, who has secured a spot in the Countdown to the Championships.
- Travis Kvapil, driver of the No. 6 F-150 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, won his third race of the season this weekend in Nashville. Kvapil moves up one spot to third in the standings.
- Robby Gordon was the top Ford driver in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race, finishing fifth in his No. 7 Fusion.
- Matt Kenseth was the top Ford driver in the NASCAR Busch Series race, finishing sixth in his No. 17 Fusion, jumping up five spots to 12 th in the standings.
August 12 – Both John Force and Travis Kvapil captured victories for Ford Racing this weekend that moved both drivers into championship contention.
Force won his second consecutive NHRA race in his Castrol GTX Mustang, while Kvapil was one of six Ford F-150 drivers to finish in the top-10 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. Robby Gordon and Matt Kenseth were the top Ford Fusion drivers in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series races at Watkins Glen, respectively.
With his victory in Brainerd, Force has now won a record 125 Funny Car races and has secured a spot in this year’s Countdown to the Championship with one event to go before the playoffs. En route to the win, Force defeated Gary Densham in the first round, Jeff Arend in the second, teammate Robert Hight the third round and Kenny Bernstein in the finals.
"Austin Coil [crew chief] has run this track a lot more than me from the old days of match racing and he really knows this place, whether it's hot or cool here," said Force. "This season has been something. Early on I couldn't beat anyone, including that girl named Force, and I remember awhile back telling Coil we were pathetic. Something just had us snake-bit and we never did find what it was.”
Kvapil’s victory was his third of the season and the eighth win of his career in the Truck series. He led for 47 of the final 48 laps and moved up one spot to third in the championship points standings.
“It was pretty awesome,” said Kvapil. “It took our K&N Ford half the race to get the track position and the right adjustment in it. We started practice yesterday and really weren’t any good. I expected to come here to be a contender. This is the truck we won with in Michigan with and finished second in Kentucky.
“We had a good note on it an always had speed every time we take it to the race track. We were 10 th or 15 th yesterday off the truck and we ran a lot of laps and made a lot of changes. The team really busted their tail in practice yesterday and the team engineer made all the right moves yesterday. We didn’t spend much time on qualifying effort and then got ready for qualifying. We started the race and it was a little too tight, but I felt like a lot of that attributed because to the fact that I was back there 10 th and having a lot of traffic. Mike (Beam, crew chief) told me what the truck was doing and wanted to do some air pressure adjustments. That first stop, we made an air pressure adjustment off the tires and really lift the truck up and really brought it to life. The lap times we could run in the long haul were just amazing, we were three-tenths better than everybody and my truck was just driving good and we didn’t make any adjustments on the second stop… just made a fuel run.”
Rick Crawford, driver of the No. 14 F-150 was impressed with Ford’s dominance of the race.
“Look at that, six Fords in the top-10,” said Crawford. “These F-Series pick-ups are Built Ford Tough and all the guys driving a Ford in the top-10 made some bold moves tonight. Congratulations to Travis (Kvapil) and the Roush Yates combination under the hood. We’ve got one, too; it brought us from 28 th to sixth. So, a good job by the Circle Bar Racing guys and Power Stroke Diesel by International. The truck was fun to drive, always exciting and I really had a good time tonight in my F-Series pick-up.”
In the NEXTEL Cup race at Watkins Glen, three Ford drivers grabbed top 10 finishes. Qualifying was cancelled due to weather conditions on Friday and Marcos Ambrose didn’t get an opportunity to qualify and make his Cup debut in Robby Gordon’s No. 77.
On Sunday, Gordon had his best showing of the season when he finished fifth in his No. 7 Fusion.
“A good points day,” Gordon said. “It should make up for missing last weekend, for sure. We’re going to race track at Michigan where I ran a top-10 the whole time we were there last time, so I expect to have a good run there, as well.”
Carl Edwards, who finished eighth, was just two turns away from a top-two finish. Edwards was battling for the lead with race winner Tony Stewart before he spun out going for the lead and eventually finished eighth.
“I just figured the [heck] with it,” said Edwards. “I’ve got one more braking zone before the end of this race and I just went in a little deeper than I had and wheel-hopped it. Lucky I practiced going through there; in practice, you know, I went through that same gravel trap. I knew I wouldn’t lose too many spots if I did mess up, and we ended up eighth, which my guys deserve better than that, but still, a fun day and I just didn’t want to finish second. I really wanted to get ’em.”
Edwards moved up one spot to fifth place in Cup standings and is still the leader in the Busch standings, with a commanding 766-point lead over second place driver David Reutimann. Matt Kenseth was the top Ford driver in the Busch race at Watkins Glen, finishing sixth and moving up five spots to 12 th in the standings
“I thought that was really good,” Kenseth said. “That was the first Busch race I ran here in, like, eight years, so I’m actually extremely happy with that. We ran pretty competitively, had a great strategy, had great pit stop, everything went right. If I was a little better at it, I’d have probably had a shot at the win, but with one hour of practice on a new car and me not being here a lot, that’s the best we could do.”
Next weekend the Nextel Cup and Busch competitors will head to Michigan International Speedway while the Truck series will remain in Tennessee to compete in Bristol on Aug.22. The NHRA will travel to Reading, Penn., while Mustang drivers in the KONI Challenge Series will be racing at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
Ford Driver Boris Said
“Bill Elliott came up a little while ago, and I guess he had run into Boris across the garage, and he asked him what he was doing, and Boris said, ‘Nothing,’ you know, he had missed the race. I don’t know from where it started, if Bill asked him to drive our car or what. I think that’s the way it went because Bill came to me and said that in the best interests of the team, let’s put Boris in. He said I’ll give it my best effort, and Bill’s an excellent road racer, the first place he ever won was at Riverside, but he suggested putting Boris in. We first cleared it with sponsors and then went to NASCAR and cleared it with them.”
IT WAS BILL’S IDEA?
“It was Bill’s idea. I was standing right there and he comes over and goes, ‘Come here a second.’ He came up with it. Like he said, ‘I’ll leave it up to y’all, but I’ll do the best I can, but I think is the best for the team to try to get back in the top 35.”
DID YOU HAVE TO CHANGE SEATS OR PEDALS AT ALL?
“Bill’s kind of tall. I think there’s only a couple of inches difference, although Boris looks towering, I guess, but he had already been in the car, I think while I was in the NASCAR trailer he was already in the car.”
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BORIS? HAD YOU EVER WORKED WITH HIM BEFORE?
“We didn’t know Boris at all and made a blind phone call to him – I think it was the first year we had Elliott Sadler, which would be 1999 – and we asked Boris to go help test with Elliott at Sonoma. Like I say, without knowing each other, he did anything we asked, he bent over backwards for us, and when we got done we asked him how much we owed, and he said, basically, pay me what you think I was worth. And we’ve remained friends ever since. Eddie [Wood] called him a couple of years ago, might’ve been last year, when we were talking about going to Mexico for the first time, and we wanted him to get some seat time with Jon [Wood] and we had a car of Jack Roush’s that had two seats in it – and this was January or February – Boris flew out here, red-eye, drove up from Greensboro, tested that day and basically flew back to Mexico to go race. It was a deal like that. He doesn’t want to be known as a teacher, he wants to be known as a race driver, but he’s excellent at both I think.”
BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion –
“I thought a little bit about it last night – I didn’t know what Boris had going on, but when I came in this morning, I just happened to run into him at the gate and I said, ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ And he said he wasn’t doing anything. So, the wheels started turning. I think I do okay road racing, I mean, I’m not the world’s greatest, but the problem that I have is I haven’t road-raced since Sonoma. And this team is so close to where they need to be, and Bill Elliott doesn’t need the points, so why should my selfishness take away from this race team, if – I feel like with Boris, having come off fresh from racing last week and as much as he’s road-raced, I feel he can do better than I could. And that’s the reason I did what I did.”
YOU KEPT MENTIONING “TEAM,” WHICH SHOWS THAT THIS IS NOT AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT, BUT A TEAM SPORT.
“It is. And that’s what I told Len. When I went to talk to him, I said, ‘Look, I feel like this is better for this team. I think I can do okay, but there’s no guarantees. There’s no guarantees what he’s going to do, but just given the odds of what he could do versus what I could do, I feel like he’s the better choice of the two.’ I said, ‘Now, when we go to Michigan, that’ll be a little different deal.’ He ran good at Sonoma in these things, and it’s just unfortunate that the way weather got us yesterday. I mean, I’ve got mixed emotions about it. I really want to drive. I enjoy driving. What Len and Eddie and this team needs is the best shot they can absolutely get, and I feel this is it. So, we put it together and here we are, and we’ll make the best of it. That’s the way I feel.”
BORIS SAID – No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion –
“Totally shocked. I was walking by Bill Elliott this morning, and he said, ‘Hey, want to drive my car?’ And I was, like, ‘Sure.’ I thought he was kidding around. Nobody had ever done anything like that in my life for me, that generous, where he just stepped aside. He knew how bad I wanted to drive. He’s forgotten more about driving than I know. It’s just something he did for the team, and for me, and I guess that’s why they call him Awesome Bill. It just shocked me, made my day.”
LEN WOOD SAID THAT YOU AND THE TEAM HAD WORKED TOGETHER IN THE PAST, SO THIS ISN’T AN ALL-NEW SITUATION FOR YOU, IS IT?
“No. They were actually the first team that ever called me to come up and help one of their drivers, Elliott Sadler, so they were the first people I ever really met in NASCAR Nextel Cup. I’ve known them ever since then, and they’re great guys, the Wood Brothers. To be driving for them is just shocking to me. If anyone would’ve ever told me I’d ever drive a Wood Brothers car, I’d have told they were crazy. For Bill Elliott to step aside like that is just amazing.”
DID YOU TELL THEM YOU WOULD DO IT FULL-TIME NEXT YEAR?
“Exactly. I’d do it full-time for anybody. It’s just that yesterday was so disappointing. All the work that Frankie Stoddard and our team’s done to make our No Fear car so fast at every race, and then two weeks in a row you get shut out because of Mother Nature, it hurt. I was pretty grumpy last night.”
HOW DID THE CONVERSATION START?
“I was walking to my Busch car and I was walking by Bill, and he was like, ‘Hey, man. You want to drive my car?’ And I’m like, ‘Sure, no problem, I’ll drive.’ I just thought he was kidding around. Mike McSwain came over – he said Fatback, but I have a hard time calling him Fatback, I don’t know what I’m supposed to call him, but he came over and said, ‘No, no. It was Bill’s idea.’ I was shocked. Awesome. Awesome Bill.”
HOW DO YOU FIT IN THE CAR?
“The car’s a little tight, bit I’ll adapt. It’s a long race.”
THIS MUST BE AN EMOTIONAL TWO DAYS FOR YOU.
“Two weeks in a row – at Daytona, where Frankie Stoddard gave us one of the fastest cars on the track, which would’ve been a sure pole, probably, and a chance to be in the Bud Shootout again, to get shutout and then the same thing happened yesterday. I wasmore disappointed yesterday because right after they called it, it got really nice out. I’m eating dinner at 7:30 last nigh, it was so nice, I’m like, ‘Man, why couldn’t they have finished qualifying?’ It was disappointing night. And then today, to wake up, it was like a Christmas present.”
HOW WAS THE CAR THIS MORNING? “It was pretty good. You just have to get used to working with different people. It’s not my car so I’ve got to be a little careful, so I’ll take it kind of slow. But I think the car will be pretty good.”
WILL THE CAR OF TOMORROW BE EASIER TO ADJUST TO THAN A STANDARD CAR?
“Maybe. These guys are so good, you could give them a mule and they’d be just as fast and competitive, so I don’t think it really matters what car it is. It’s still a steering wheel, gas pedal, a brake pedal – all those things.”
FORD RACING PHOTOS
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion –
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Ford Fusion
RICKY RUDD – No. 88 Ford Fusion
JAMIE McMURRAY – No. 26 Ford Fusion
ROBBY GORDON – No. 7 Ford Fusion
NOTE: Photos are not for sale!!
BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Air Force Ford Fusion –
“I think, right now, I’ve finally gotten back into a race mode. I’ve kind of been out of the loop, so to speak, for the last year. It just takes a little bit of time to get back up to speed. I feel like now I can give them some good feedback. Now, they’re sorting through the things I like and the things I don’t like. We’re now kind of figuring each other out, and once you come back to some of these places a second time around – here, the first race, the car we brought, we had some issues with it and we couldn’t get it sorted out. And it was like every time we ran were behind two or three practices before we unloaded. Yesterday, we were a lot closer and a lot better than we were here the last race. Those are the things you have to keep working on. It’s not the big stuff, it’s all the little stuff. There are things we have to continue to work on, and that’s where I feel you can continue to run and get your dialogue between me at Hoyt [Overbagh, engineer] and Fatback [McSwain, crew chief], and all the guys on the team – the that’s where it all meshes together.”
WHAT MAKES POCONO SO DIFFICULT TO FIGURE OUT?
“It’s a compromise. We came here, and you didn’t shift. And then people were shifting during the race. And then that got to be the big thing, and NASCAR eliminated that, and when they did do that it made it more of a challenge. The compromise is like a road course – and, again, you’ve really got to be good in key places or you’re really going to be bad. That’s what makes this track such a challenge.”
THIS IS A LONG RACE, TOO. IS THIS TRACK A CHALLENGE MENTALLY?
“Not that bad. I think it’s more physical than mental. I think it was worse when they shifted here. This will be the one of the most physical race tracks you’ll run. It is a long day. It’s taxing. Here, you might catch a break and it might be fairly cool and then when you come back it could be 95 degrees and 100 percent humidity.”
WHERE IS THIS TRACK THE MOST TAXING?
“It seems like the corners – and going back to when you shifted here, it’s a little bit easier since you’re not shifting, but there’s something about this race track and what you have to do and the way you have to drive it that it’s just been that way. I think one thing is just the length of the race. That’s probably one of the hardest deals. You run 500 miles, but you can only run a 56- or 57-second lap around this place on into your race run, so it makes for a long day.”
If a Ford Racing driver wins Sunday’s Daytona 500 NASCAR event, Ford Motor Co. will present them with a 2011 Mustang GT featuring the all-new 412-horsepower 5.0-liter V-8.
This will be one of only 50 special pace car editions of the 2011 Mustang GT that will be built and sold to the public.
The actual Mustang GT that is serving as the pace car for Sunday’s Daytona 500 was recently auctioned off at the 39th Annual Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Collector Car Auction for $300,000 with all proceeds going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 12, 2010 – As if winning the Daytona 500 and hoisting the Harley J. Earl trophy in Victory Lane isn’t enough incentive already, Ford has upped the ante for its 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers even more by offering them a new 2011 Mustang GT, powered by Ford’s new 5.0-liter engine, if they win Sunday’s “Great American Race.”
“When we unveiled the Mustang pace car in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago, the response from the media, enthusiasts, and our drivers was unbelievable,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford Racing North America Motorsports. “We know how much prestige goes with winning the Daytona 500, but we wanted to do something that would be an added bonus for our drivers and this is it.”
The 2011 Mustang GT being offered is one of only 50 special editions that will be built and sold to the public, and is a replica of the pace car being used Sunday. This will mark the first time in 40 years a Ford Motor Company car will be pacing the field for the Daytona 500
This latest version of Ford’s legendary muscle car is a Race Red glass roof coupe with an all-new 5.0-liter V-8 engine capable of producing 412 horsepower, while delivering a class-leading 25 mpg on the highway.
The one-of-a-kind model will feature a special Daytona 500 graphics package, Ford Racing suspension, strut tower brace, mufflers, and special interior treatment, including specially branded lit sill plates.
“I wanted to drive that Mustang home as soon as I saw it in Charlotte,” said Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Ford Fusion. “It’s good to know now that if I win on Sunday, I’ll actually be able to do that. Everybody knows how close I came to winning this race a year ago, so I’m even hungrier this time around.”
The actual Mustang that is serving as the pace car on Sunday was recently auctioned off at the 39th Annual Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Collector Car Auction for $300,000 with all proceeds over MSRP going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Ford has won the Daytona 500 a total of 11 times, including last year’s triumph by Matt Kenseth. Other winners include: Tiny Lund, Fred Lorenzen, Mario Andretti, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Bobby Allison, Davey Allison, Bill Elliott (twice) and Dale Jarrett (twice).
About the 2011 Mustang GT
The new Mustang GT continues Ford’s powertrain offensive with an all-new 5.0-liter V-8, which uses advanced technology to deliver 412 horsepower and projected unsurpassed highway mileage of 25 mpg.
The 2011, Mustang GT adds specially tuned Electric Power Assist Steering (EPAS), 11.5-inch front and 11.8-inch rear vented disc brakes, and an enhanced suspension featuring an improved rear lower control arm and stiffened rear stabilizer bushings.
For enthusiasts, a Brembo brake package, with larger rotors and calipers from the Ford Shelby GT500® Mustang, unique 19-inch wheels and summer performance tires, is offered; new fender badges herald return of the 5.0-liter engine.
About Ford North America Motorsports
Ford North America Motorsports, based in Dearborn, Mich., is responsible for major racing operations in North America, including NASCAR (Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, Camping World Trucks), Grand American sports car racing, NHRA drag racing, Rally America and the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup. The department also oversees the development and marketing of Ford Racing Engines and Performance Parts, the outreach programs with all Ford Clubs and Ford enthusiasts, and the marketing of the Ford Racing brand through initiatives such as Team Ford Racing. For more information regarding Ford Racing’s activities, please visit www.fordracing.com.
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Crown Royal 400 Qualifying,
May 1, 2009 Richmond International Raceway
JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 27th) – “Our car is actually pretty good in race trim and it wasn’t bad in qualifying trim. I just think going out too early is probably not gonna be good. Richmond has been notorious for being a place that you just want to go out at the end. With the weather the way it is, it wasn’t quite so bad because we got a cloud there, but just going out too early I think.” DID THE WIND WREAK ANY HAVOC ON YOUR LAP? “I didn’t notice it. You’re going so much slower here than what you do at some of the other places and you’re kind of in a tunnel with the stands and everything around you, so it didn’t seem bad.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 20th) – “It’s been a little bit rough today. We usually run really good here and we’ve struggled a little bit. It’s no secret that we’re off just hair and we don’t know why. It’s about the same as Phoenix. We’re having that same kind of issue, but I think that lap time is pretty decent for us actually.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 22nd) – “I feel like we’re just average at best. We’ve tried really hard to put a lot of effort into all the race tracks this year, but we just seem to struggle a little bit at the short tracks. I feel our UPS Freight Ford is pretty close. If we could get just a little bit more, I think we’d be a top-10 car, but we’re just right outside of that and we know that we need to make a couple of improvements. I feel like Jimmy and the team will make a couple small changes and 400 laps is a long race here at Richmond and, hopefully, we can be a top-10 car by the end of the night. We’re not quite there yet, but, hopefully we can get there.”
_______________________________________________
CARL EDWARDS
MATT KENSETH – No. 17
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion
MARCOS AMBROSE
STEPHEN LEICHT – No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion
TODD KLUEVER – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion –
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