FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Auto Club 400 Qualifying, Page 1 March 25, 2011
Auto Club Speedway
Ford Qualifying Results: 6th – David Ragan 11th – Matt Kenseth 13th – Marcos Ambrose 18th – Carl Edwards 20th – AJ Allmendinger 27th – Trevor Bayne 32nd – Greg Biffle 36th – Travis Kvapil 37th – David Gilliland 39th – Ken Schrader 42nd – Tony Raines
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford (Qualified 6th) – “It was pretty interesting coming to the green. I thought I had spun our UPS car out. It was loose and I took it a little easy through turn one and two. It did what I needed it to. It was pretty good. It was pretty comfortable when we unloaded. We made quite a few adjustments for this qualifying lap. We lost a little momentum coming to the green. The speed we gave up was from the start finish line.”
DO YOU ANTICIPATE OTHER DRIVERS HAVING TO GIVE A LITTLE IN ONE AND TWO? “Yeah, you are carrying so much speed getting into one and two. You are 204 or 205 and don’t have a lot of banking. If you miss it just a little bit you slip and slide and move around. Those turns are the most critical two corners here. I feel like it was ugly but we got through there. I am happy with the lap. Hopefully it holds up for a top-10.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford (Qualified 18th) – “We just needed one more run in practice. We made wholesale changes and took a guess at it. If we had one more stab at it I think we could have been way faster. The car will be good in race trim for sure but we will just have to battle through the field.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford (Qualified 36th) – “I am disappointed. It is the same speed we ran from the first lap on the track today. We thought we made improvements to get more speed for qualifying but we were too free. I could never get back to the gas hard like I needed. As long as these straight-aways are you pay the price on lap time. We will keep working on it. The shortened practice makes it a little tough but we will have time tomorrow and I am optimistic for Sunday.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford (Qualified 13th) “We went back to what we did at Vegas a little bit. We gained a little because of that but I don’t think it will be good enough. We are out here early and the track is cooling off so there will be some fast times out there. I am proud of my team, very proud of these guys for believing in me.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford (Qualified 27th) – “I was a little disappointed with it but it is tough going from Nationwide to Cup cars. We see that a lot. They are all going to pack in front of us. Truex just ran a 6.02 and we ran a 6.03. It is that tight all the time. That little bobble messes you up. We were tight in the center and I hit the seam wrong and we lost some speed there. I think we could have run a 40 or 50. We weren’t a pole run for sure but we could have beaten a couple of those guys. We will see where we end up. I don’t know where it will be, maybe 25th or something but we can race and I can’t wait. This place is so weird. I hate practice and qualifying because you have to run the bottom but I love the race because you love the top all day. I can’t wait to get to race time.”
TONY RAINES – No. 37 Race Fuel Energy Ford (Qualified 42nd) – “We struggled some. We didn’t have much practice today because of the rain and we had some issues with our rear bar that had broken in practice and we weren’t aware of it. We took a shot in the dark and hooked it up for qualifying and the car drove horrible. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow. We have a good group of guys though and we will get there. That short practice and mechanical failure hurt us today and you have days like that. We will rebound though.”
