TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 42nd) “We were a little bit too free in our practice run, so we made a couple changes to tighten it up and we were actually freer in our qualifying run than we were in our practice run. So I’m kind of disappointed. I thought we made the right adjustments, but either we didn’t go far enough or the track changed a little bit. But we spent 95 percent of our practice in race trim, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and working on it for Sunday.”
DAVE BLANEY, No. 38 A&W Ford Fusion (Qualified 40th) “Well, we just got it in. I actually thought it was a better lap than what we actually ran. We are in the show and that’s what matters, and we have tomorrow to work on it and see what more we can get out of it.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 37 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 38th) “Our Ford Fusion was pretty good. It was a little to free in practice and we tightened it up but probably went a little too far. I was a little on the tight side but I feel like we have learned quite a bit. We have the car driving really consistently now which is something we have struggled with the last few weeks. I feel like we are making gains as a team and taking steps in the right direction.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 AFLAC Ford Fusion (Qualified 31st) “I am frustrated because we were much faster than that in practice. We have to figure out what went wrong there. We will work on our race trim and see. The good thing is that you can pass here.”
KASEY KAHNE – No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) “So far it is good. We will see. I felt like I moved around a lot. I missed the bottom a little bit and gave up some time. We should have been in the 80s somewhere which would give us a better shot at the pole. We sell gained two-tenets there though so that is good.”
ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 19 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 15th) “I think that was pretty good. I don’t know where it will end up at, but we did a lot of work today on a lot of different things. This is a special weekend for us with the paint scheme. I love that Stanley gives me the opportunity to drive this car with this scheme on it. We want to go out there and run well and keep improving weekly and finish this season as strong as we can.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 10th) – ““It seems like our UPS Ford was fast when we unloaded it here this weekend, but obviously going out for qualifying in the top 10 doesn’t help our efforts. If that time puts us in the top 15, that will be a good starting spot for Sunday. Our mile-and-a-half program has really been the strong point for us and it was good to have a full week in the shop with Drew [Blickensderfer] to come up with a game plan for this weekend. Last week, he was kind of thrown in and had to make changes on the go, so it was good for us to spend some time together to put together a plan. Qualifying is half the battle and I’m looking forward to Sunday.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) “I am really happy with the speed. I wasn’t real happy with how I drove though. I thought we had enough speed today to have a shot at the pole if I could have gotten to drive exactly how I wanted to, but I couldn’t quite get it. I am happy with the speed of the car though.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 5th) “It was a pretty good lap. A little bit tight off of two though. I probably could have put the gas in a little sooner. If I had gotten it turned a little bit better then we probably would have been on top of the board so that feels pretty good.” HOW DO YOU FEEL IN RACE TRIM FOR SUNDAY? “I feel pretty good about it. We will just have to wait and see what it is like in practice tomorrow though.”
PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd) “The car has been pretty good since we unloaded. We worked on qualifying trim exclusively today. Slugger and the boys made some good improvements in practice. The track is a little bit slicker than I think it was earlier. I am pretty happy with the lap. It got a little slick at times but based off the RPM coming off the corner I thought we would be quicker than that, but I will take it.”
TWO FORDS UP THERE ON TOP OF THE BOARD RIGHT NOW, HOW DOES THAT FEEL? “It is really cool. Hopefully they will stay up there for the rest of today and all day Sunday.”
YOU MADE THE DECISION TO NOT RUN IN RACE TRIM AT ALL TODAY WHERE DOES THAT PUT YOU FOR THE REST OF THE WEEKEND? “We will be maybe a run or two behind the eight ball tomorrow but I think we will catch up pretty quickly.”
PAUL MENARD PRESS CONFERENCE
PAUL MENARD, No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion — TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN OUT THERE TODAY. “We didn’t change a whole lot from practice. We made a lot of changes in practice to get the car a lot better. We had a late draw which obviously helped us because we were able to listen to what other people were saying about the race track. We made a couple of little air pressure adjustments. The car was a little more free than what we had in practice. My RPM on exit corner was about a hundredth better than in practice so I thought it would be a better lap. These mile-and-a-half tracks are easy to overdrive and mess up your whole lap. I feel like I left a little bit out there.”
IS THERE A LITTLE EXTRA IN THIS TO BE A NON CHASE GUY UP NEAR THE TOP WHEN THE CHASE GUYS DOMINATE THE HEADLINES? “I think I can speak for everyone in the garage that they give 110-percent each time they go out, so no. If we could have qualified second every race this year we would have taken that, and would have taken a few poles obviously. We just hit on something the last few weeks and have been qualifying well. We had a good race last week and we hope to have a good race Sunday.”
YOU HAVE HAD VERY LITTLE SUCCESS HERE, WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE TODAY THAN YOUR PREVIOUS THREE ATTEMPTS? “The car is driving good. If the car isn’t driving good then it makes for a long day for sure. We had some notes from last year where I think we qualified 20th. We had some video of the lap and picked up some things from that. It is a totally different race car and totally different set up though, and it is working.”
