FORD FAST FACTS:
• Greg Biffle is the last Ford driver to win a NSCS race at Dover when
he captured this event in 2008.
• Matt Kenseth made his NSCS debut at Dover when he subbed for Bill
Elliott in 1998.
• Kenseth also got his first NSCS pole at Dover in May 2002.
• Ford has 24 all-time NSCS wins at Dover.
• Jack Roush stands second on the winningest car owner’s list at Dover
with eight career victories.
• The last time Ford finished 1-2-3 in a NSCS race was in this race
two years ago when Greg Biffle edged teammates Matt Kenseth (2nd) and
Carl Edwards (3rd).
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, has one NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series win here at Dover International Speedway and comes
into this weekend’s event seventh in the point standings, 95 points
behind leader Denny Hamlin. He held his weekly Q&A session Friday
morning before NSCS practice.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS ON
WHAT HAPPENED TO CLINT? “I don’t understand what they did. Does
anyone know what the exact problem was?”
THEY SAID HE WAS LOW ON THE
SIDE OF THE CAR. “I don’t understand exactly what measurement was
out, so until I can know what measurement was out, it would be foolish
to talk about it. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about it, but I
don’t think anyone knows what happened.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR
EMOTION TO BE RUNNING GOOD AGAIN AND BE AT THE HEAD OF THE ROUSH GROUP
IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE? “It feels really good to be running the way
we’re running. What we have to do is run that way over the next nine
races. If we can do that, then it’s gonna be really good. Loudon has
been our worst track statistically and if I didn’t mess up and slide
up into Denny, I think we would have had a pretty good day there. So
going forward, I think here at Dover, Kansas, California and all these
places we’ve got a lot to look forward to.”
IS THERE ANY REASON WHY
YOU WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO CONTINUE THIS KIND OF PERFORMANCE? “The only
thing that will stop us is making mistakes or having failures.
Mistakes are easy, especially with the way everybody is racing.
Everyone is racing so hard. You’ve got to raise your game and then
parts failures and stuff like that, you’ve just got to try to live
right and say all your prayers before the race and then hope for the
best.”
IT SEEMED A LOT OF TROUBLE LAST WEEK WAS ON RESTARTS. DOES
THAT WORRY YOU HERE? “Dover has more grip. The tire seems to grip a
little bit more. There at New Hampshire, the problem on the restarts
was everyone’s cars were so loose, there was no grip in the track.
That’s part of what makes it fun, but also makes it really dangerous
on the restarts. I think that’s why you saw each time we had a
restart there would be chaos.”
TWO YEARS AGO AT THIS RACE GREG WON,
MATT WAS SECOND AND YOU WERE THIRD. IS THIS A BENCHMARK RACE FOR
ROUSH FENWAY? “Two years ago Greg won the race. He won the first two
races of the chase, Matt finished second and I finished third here at
Dover. That felt pretty good. I remember getting out of the car and
thinking, ‘This is alright. One of us is gonna win this
championship.’ I know we’re not up there leading the points right
now, but we’re all close enough that if we can have that form again,
if we can get back to that, I’d say we have just as good a chance this
year. So that does feel good and I like running here at Dover, for
sure.”
ONLY FIVE CHASERS FINISHING IN THE TOP 10
LAST WEEK. DO YOU THINK A DRIVER CAN MOVE UP BY JUST RUNNING TOP 10
THAN IN THE PAST? “That’s interesting. I didn’t think of it that
way. I remember, maybe it was 2008 and some other years, but it felt
like the top 10 or 12 guys finished in the top 10 or 12. I didn’t
realize that until you said it, but I guess the fact that there are so
many cars running well, guys that aren’t in the chase, that can fill
up some of those top 10 spots. It might be more important just to be
consistent than it has been in year’s past, so, yeah.”
YOU HAVE A NEW
CREW CHIEF IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES THIS WEEKEND. HOW DO YOU FEEL
ABOUT LOSING DREW? “I didn’t lose Drew. We’ve got a deal. I get
Drew back. Drew is going over to work with David Ragan and I think
that’s gonna be a good move for our company. David and those guys
have done a really good job, but they haven’t had that spark to get
them going. I think Drew going over there and working with the team
and Donnie Wingo being receptive to it and kind of partnering up with
Drew, and then Donnie’s ability to look at the rest of our team kind
of fills that spot we don’t have right now. All of that is good, and
I’ve got Mike Beam on my pit box in the Nationwide Series, so it
looked like one of those moves we could try for the last eight or nine
races of the season and really nobody loses. Everybody has a chance
to win and that’s pretty cool to have that much depth.”
SO WHEN YOU
SAY YOU’RE GOING TO GET HIM BACK, WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT? “My plan
is for Drew to crew chief the 60 car next year. Now, if he goes over
there and lights the world on fire with David, then it would be hard
to get him back, but, right now, that’s the plan. Donnie Wingo right
now has kind of taken the place where Jimmy Fennig was, where he was
kind of overseeing everything that we’re doing around the teams. I
feel like we lost something when Jimmy left that position, so for
Donnie to do that and Drew to be able to work with David and see if
they can spark anything, and then me to work with Mike Beam, who has
been developing our Nationwide stuff for the last few months, it just
looked like a pretty good move. But Drew is not gonna be going
anywhere else. He will either be on that 6 or the 60 as far as I’m
concerned.”
WHAT DOES THAT SAY PHILOSOPHICALLY ABOUT THE WAY JACK
DOES STUFF? “I think it shows that we’re not willing to settle. Even
when we’re making progress we’re not willing to settle for second
best. Jack and Donnie Wingo and David Ragan all want the best for
that 6 UPS team and myself included. All of my guys on the 60 team,
we’re all sacrificing by being okay with Drew leaving and going over
there, so I think it says a lot about the organization. For me, in
the last two years, I’ve seen more of that. You can shake things up
and everybody raises their hand and says, ‘Alright, I’m in. Let’s do
this,’ and that’s pretty cool.”
HOW FAR DO WE NEED TO GET INTO THE
CHASE BEFORE WE SEE WHO HAS A REAL SHOT AT THIS TITLE? “I think we’ve
got to get about five races in to see who has a shot at the
championship. You’re gonna find out after five or six races. There
are gonna be guys that weed themselves out and there are gonna be guys
that stand about the rest. I think until five or six races in, I
don’t know who is gonna be leading the thing. Heck, this week in the
middle of the week we shook up the points because NASCAR made a
ruling, so you just never know what’s gonna happen.”
DOES IT FEEL
LIKE YOU DODGED A BULLET WHEN YOU FINISH 11TH, LIKE LAST WEEK, AS
OPPOSED TO 30TH OR 31ST? “If before Loudon you would have offered up
11th for me and our team, we probably would have taken it instead of
running the race. We ran really well in the race. We ran top two or
three most of the day, so being 11th was a little bit disappointing,
but looking back on it, that’s okay. Yeah, it’s frustrating to see
other guys finish in front of you and know they got a little leg up on
you.” C
AN YOU DESCRIBE THE FEELING? IS IT A SENSE OF RELIEF? “When
I saw Tony Stewart run out of fuel, that changed my perspective on the
day. Here I was thinking, ‘Man, Tony is gonna come out of this thing
with the points lead by winning the race,’ and then he runs out of
fuel 60 seconds from winning the thing. That made me realize that
it’s not over until it’s over. You just count your blessings. I was
like, ‘Whew, we made it.’”
