GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR POSITION NOW AND WINNING THIS RACE A YEAR AGO? “Certainly we’ve been trying hard to win a race. We’ve come close a few times and this is a place, Michigan, Bristol, Atlanta are all great tracks for us and we feel like we can win at basically any of these race tracks. We’re trying hard. We’re getting our cars driving good. That’s what we’re working on this next session and I’d love to be part of that Sprint Summer Showdown. That would be exciting for us, but just winning a race and getting in the Chase – a win doesn’t automatically lock you in, but being 13th in points, if we won a race, we would probably move up to 12th or 11th, which would put us right in that mix. We know that’s important and that’s what we try and do every week.”
YOUR REACTION ON CARL STAYING? “I didn’t know he had re-signed. He has? OK. This is the first I’ve heard of it. I think it’s great that he’s coming back to our company. I was a little skeptical, I suppose, whether he was going to figuring this is August already. I guess I’ve been through the whole thing and you’ve got to look at competitiveness and what other people have to offer and things like that, so he took his time and made a good decision I think. I haven’t really been at the shop, but I’m relieved because people won’t ask me about it anymore after today. That’s why I’m most relieved about it and to have him back as a teammate. He does a good job getting his car setup and helps. I think we all help each other. It’s been a big help this year. David Ragan is running much better and it really gives us another car to look at and get ideas from, so we all feed off each other. Some weekends everybody puts the 16 setup in their car and some weekends are split up and some weekends we go to the 99 setup and now we’re looking at what the 6 is doing as well, so we have a pretty good relationship within Roush of all the drivers providing something and Carl is no exception to that.”
DO YOU FEEL MORE ANTSY NOW WITHOUT THAT VICTORY? ANY ADDED PRESSURE? “Yeah. I would have never guessed we’d be this far into the season without winning a race after the way we finished last year. We finished up really, really well. We won two races and then Carl came and won two races and we really, really had some momentum. We probably would have wins at this point in the season if it weren’t for the issues we’ve had fueling the cars and fuel mileage and things have really put a damper on our thing this year – pit stops and things like that around the fueling – so that’s been a little bit of a drag. I’m surprised that we’re 13th in points for how we’ve run this season. We’ve run really, really good, but we haven’t had the finishes to show for it and that’s better than not running very good and getting mediocre finishes and you’re hoping to figure out what’s wrong with your cars and how to make them better. We’ve got pretty dang good cars, we haven’t been able to finish because the caution comes out, we’re a lap down with 40 laps to go in the race and we’ve got to start at the tail end of the longest line. We go from running third or fourth or in the top 10 and now we’re 27th. We get back to 18th and it’s the checkered flag, so you chalk 18th up in the column and it’s not a representation of how our team has run, but that’s what has happened to us all year, except for Indy. Indy was kind of a turnaround for us, so hopefully we can continue that.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT WATKINS GLEN NEXT WEEK? “That’s one of my favorite places. I like that race track, I really do. It’s a lot of fun to go and run there. I’ve had a lot of success at that track. Qualifying on the front row and I’ve won a truck race there, so it’s been a good track to us and I’m looking forward to that race track. I definitely feel like we have just as good a chance at winning there as we do at some of these other places. If we get the right track position and get up front, we have an opportunity to win even there.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED — WHEN DO YOU START LOOKING AT WHAT THE OTHER GUYS AROUND YOU IN POINTS ARE DOING AND ADJUST YOUR STRATEGY? “That’s probably more Matt’s decision than mine. I drive the car and do the best job I can. As a team, I’d say you’re looking at them now with four or five races left, but, at the same time, it’s a double-edged sword because you really try to worry about yourself to get the best finish because that’s about all you can do. If they take a leap of faith or stop an extra time or do something, I don’t know that we would follow them to try and make that gamble pay off versus just go for the best – if it’s a 13th or a 7th or a 3rd or 4th, that will get us the most points and that’s what we need. If they go off strategy or do something, I’m not so sure that we would automatically follow them, but it’s a good point for those guys to look at and I’m sure they do – to try and pay attention with what they’re doing. Maybe you get down to the very last race or one or two and maybe if you’re ahead of them you stay on that strategy to make sure they don’t beat you. If you finish 25th and they finish 26th or 23rd, you don’t care, so you follow them if you’re ahead of them. That way, you’re gonna be in the same finishing position as them, within three spots, and you’re five points ahead of them or something.”
IS THERE ANYTHING SPECIAL ABOUT RACING ON CONCRETE OR DO YOU SEE IT GOING AWAY FROM THE SPORT? “I don’t see it going away from the sport unless they wanted to change and not go to Martinsville as much. I’d be happy with that (joking). That’s not my best race track, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the concrete. I’ve won at Nashville. I like that race track. It was a lot of fun when they first built it. I don’t know what happened. I know it’s just Nationwide and Trucks only. I really don’t know. I thought it was a good market and thought it was in a good spot and it raced fairly well. I thought it put on good shows, so I’m not sure what all happened there, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the surface being concrete. Concrete tracks are fun to race on too.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR POSITION? “Our mindset here at Pocono is just to capitalize on a track that’s been good to us in the past. We ran OK here in the spring. We think we’ve got a better team, a better car this weekend than we had in the spring, but I guess regarding the wild card and making the Chase, I’ll go back to what we felt like would get us in from day one and you’ve either got to be in the top 10 in points, I think you’ve got to have two wins or be in the top 12 or 13. Thirteenth may get in, but I don’t think so. I think you’ve got to be 11th or 12th in points or have two wins, so that’s what we’re working on. You can’t make it 14th in points. I don’t think you can make it 15th or 16th, so we’ve got some good tracks in front of us. We’re right there in the mix. We’d love to be sitting sixth or seventh or eighth in points right now, but we’ve had really fast cars. It’s just a matter of not making mistakes and can’t wait to get back on the race track and get going.”
HOW DOES THE EDWARDS SIGNING AFFECT YOUR DEAL AND UPS? “I’m glad that it’s just over. Steve Newmark and Jack and our management team are working on it very diligently. They’ve also got Matt Kenseth’s car to work on finding a sponsor and then finalize the UPS program and our deal for next year, so now that Carl is signed, that can be put to rest and we can move on. I’m happy to see it. I’m glad it happened now. I wish it would have happened six weeks ago, but that was certainly the top priority of Roush over the last six weeks, in my opinion, and maybe now they can move on. All I can continue to do is what I need to do on the race track and the management at Roush will keep doing what they need to do to negotiate with UPS and look for some other sponsors as well.”
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED — WITH PAUL WINNING DOES IT PUT MORE PRESSURE ON YOU, AND CAN YOU SPEAK ABOUT YOUR TRIP TO WALTER REED? “I think with Paul winning, other than Paul being a good friend of mine I couldn’t be more happier to see him winning, that’s the last thing we wanted to see. We wanted to see Carl win, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick win those races in the top five or six in points. Anybody that wins a race from 8th to 20th puts more pressure on us, so I think that when we go to Richmond 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and probably 15th in points will all have a win, so it’s gonna be an exciting Richmond. Like I say, if you’ve got two wins, I think that’s gonna be very good or you’re gonna have to be 11th or 12th in points. It’s gonna be very exciting and I’m glad we run well at Richmond. And then Walter Reed yesterday, I’ve had some members of my family in the military over the years and they’ve never been injured to go to a hospital like that, but to see young kids – and I still feel pretty young – but to see those guys that are 19, 20 years old, 21 years old, that maybe they don’t have any limbs or they just have one arm and a prosthetic leg and they’re in pretty good spirits. They’re happy to serve our country and it makes me proud to be an American. I would hate to know I had to pack up everything in the U.S. and go halfway across the world and fight like that and may return, if you return, so they were all just happy to be alive and you definitely get a new sense of appreciation for what those guys and girls do, so I very much enjoyed the trip and can’t thank all the NASCAR guys for making it happen. I think they really enjoy it too. There are a lot of NASCAR fans. You don’t meet one guy who doesn’t know something about NASCAR. They’re all Dale Jr. fans, but I do like going up there. They’re fun.”
ARE YOU NOW A DENNY HAMLIN FAN AND HOPE HE GETS INTO THE TOP 10 AND DO YOU THINK THE FACT CARL RE-SIGNED VALIDATES ROUSH FENWAY AND SPONSORS MAY HAVE A MORE FAVORABLE POINT OF VIEW AND EASIER TO ATTRACT SPONSORS? “I’m not a Denny fan and I am a Denny fan, so we’ll leave it at that. I still feel like we control our own destiny in making the Chase. I don’t think you deserve to be in the Chase if you’re 16th in points with one win. If you’re 11th or 12th and you’ve got a couple wins or something, you deserve to be in there so we control our own destiny and we’ll see what happens. As far as Carl coming back, yeah, absolutely, I think it makes Roush Fenway still, in my opinion, the strongest team out there today. I think that the sponsors that Carl will attract because he is Carl and he’s been a part of our company for a few years before I got there, and it’s good to have that. I think we can build on having guys like Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle and myself, Carl, we’re all a little different, we all have different types of driving styles on and off the race track, and, yeah, having Carl there is a big asset. Obviously, I know how good of a driver Carl is. I would hate to know that I had to line up against him every week with him being on another team, and we’re good friends. He’s often got an extra seat on his airplane, so I like that. I can bum a ride every now and then when I need one, so there are a lot of good things about Carl coming back. I know that everyone at Roush Fenway likes it and I just can’t wait to move forward.”
