CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN. “This is I think the best we have every qualified here so I am not going to act like I am frustrated about it. I would obviously like to be on the pole but I didn’t think we would be this good coming out of practice. We picked up four-tenths or something like that. It was a big pickup for us. I am proud of our qualifying effort and I am proud that we have an all-Ford front row. There is a lot of pride in that for our guys at the shop.”
DOES THE GOOD QUALIFYING RUN GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE FOR THE RACE SUNDAY? “Like Kyle said, qualifying here is not indicative of how you are going to run the race. Hopefully our qualifying effort translates into a good race but we have to focus really hard on race trim tomorrow. The race is a long one and you can pass here. It really matters how fast your car is in race trim.”
“That is what my guys and I were talking about. We qualified fourth last week and we were disappointed and then 25 laps into the race you can’t even remember where you qualified. Obviously we are up here discounting how important qualifying is because we didn’t get on the pole but we are hoping that it doesn’t really matter. We are hoping the race is where we can show how fast we are.”
WHAT TRANSLATES MORE FOR YOU, THE INFORMATION YOU HAVE FROM JUNE OR THE INFORMATION FROM CHICAGO A FEW WEEKS AGO? “That’s a good question. Our race here last time went okay. We will probably use some of those. I think each track is different and you focus more on Kansas notes than you do on Chicago. This sport changes so fast, I don’t know about Kyle’s team but you are always developing something and there is always new stuff and new setup ideas and things you are working on and you have to keep moving forward. That is why I think the times were faster in practice today. Our mock-qualifying times were faster than what we just ran.”
THERE HAVE BEEN SEVEN MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS AND SEVEN DIFFERENT WINNERS. DOES THAT SAY ANYTHING? “I think it just shows that it is so competitive and pit strategy is so important and those calls you make at the end of the race is important. These races can be won by anyone. Well, not by anyone, but there is a larger group of people that could be winners in these races than I have seen in my short career here. I think that is where the different winners come from.”
