FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Driver 4 COPD 300
February 19, 2011 Daytona International Speedway
JOSH WISE – No. 39 Cajun USA Mustang (Finished 31st) – “When you’re running in the pack it’s hard to see everything that’s going on, but from my vantage point I just saw someone get turned down in the grass.
You know they’re gonna come back out across the track and it’s a decision of do you check up and cut across the inside to try and beat them across that way, or do you just try to stay in it and keep her on the outside. I thought my best shot was staying high and squeezing around the outside before he came across the track and it wasn’t the best judgment I made today.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 16 Ford Drive One Mustang (Finished 10th) – ARE YOU HAPPY WITH 10TH? “No (laughing). I never thought I’d say that, but we had a car to win, we really did. They built us an awesome Ford Mustang. We led a lot. We had a tire come off – the left-rear – but saved the car and got back on the lead lap. We got back up to fourth on the last restart and then got hung in gears between third and fourth and it kept us from hooking up with Stenhouse and the 6 car.
We lost a lot of spots and gained a lot back to get to 10th, so I’m glad we got to 10th, but it’s upsetting and frustrating when you want to get a win for these guys and you’ve got a really good opportunity.
I think we’ve got a good season ahead of us. They’ve worked really hard on these cars. Jack Roush and everybody at Roush Fenway has put a lot of effort into it, but we learned a lot for tomorrow. That was a good thing. I got to work with some Cup drivers out there, pushing them around and getting pushed by them. I had a lot of help to get back on that lead lap, so our day could have been worse, but we would have liked to win.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY? “The whole experience.
I worked with all the drivers I’m gonna be racing with tomorrow. We led some laps. We pushed guys. We got pushed by guys. That was actually the first time in race trim I had been pushed. In the Duels I pushed Jeff Gordon the whole time. In this race, I pushed most of the time and then I got out front for a few laps and led and that was good for us.”
YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE GOOD LUCK ON YOUR BIRTHDAY.
YOU HAD TO BE THINKING ON THAT RESTART THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE YOUR DAY. “It was good luck all the way until the last lap and then we made an error. I thought I was in fourth because I felt it go in, but it wasn’t all the way in. It was stuck in third and had I known I could have moved it around, but I’m just thankful we got back on the lead lap and that blown tire didn’t end a lot worse than it did.”
WILL THE YOUNGER GUYS STICK TOGETHER TOMORROW? “We had a lot of help from the veterans. Stenhouse and I worked so good together, but when I was in trouble Brad Keselowski helped me out. Carl Edwards helped me out. Dale Jr. helped me out. Kyle Busch, Joey Logano – I worked with all the class acts of the field today, so that was really cool.”
RICKY STENHOUSE, JR. – No. 6 Blackwell Angus Mustang (Finished 8th) – YOU LOOKED LIKE ONE OF THE CARS TO BEAT OFF THE RESTART THERE, WHY DID YOU FALL BACK? “Yeah, I was just talking to Trevor and I thought I kind of messed him up because I thought he was going to wait on us but it ended up that he got caught between third and fourth gear so we lost a lot of ground there. He had a fast race car and he was really good at pushing. We were hoping to get hooked up there at the end because even with the little bit of damage on my car it still would lead pretty fast and he was such a good pusher. We saw the cup guys lining up together, so we were going to try to go together too. It just didn’t quite work out for us today, but we will definitely take the top-10 finish.” NOW THAT
YOU HAVE HAD A CHANCE TO RUN A FULL RACE OUT HERE, HOW WAS IT DIFFERENT THAN THE PREPARATION FOR THE RACE? “I didn’t know exactly how it was going to be, but I would have definitely liked to practice more on the two car draft and pushing and stuff. We never really got the chance to do that a ton in practice. I feel like that is the thing to do. Getting the timing down and getting locked up as quick as you can is the thing that we need to do.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY WORDS OF WISDOM FOR TREVOR FOR THE 500 TOMORROW? “We were just talking about that. It was good that he got the opportunity to draft with some of those Cup guys today because they know he can push really good and his car is really fast for tomorrow. That is going to help him out a lot, I am definitely rooting for him.”
