CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “It feels really good. For so long we came here and struggled at the superspeedways. I just want to thank everybody at Roush Yates and Ford because it just runs so well. It’s refreshing to have that under the hood and to know that we’ve got that kind of quality motor behind us. And, obviously, to get the car from Roush as well has been a big help for us. The guys polished on it too. They didn’t have a whole lot of days to work on it, but the days that we did have we tried to make the best use of it and do all we could to make the car a little better than when we got it. Bootie (Barker) and all the guys were pretty diligent in making sure that we did everything that we could do for that qualifying run.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “I’m real happy with it and I hope it holds up until at least through the end of this interview because I’m enjoying this right now. That is a very, very speedy Fastenal Fusion and I appreciate Bob Osborne and all the work he’s done. Doug Yates, the engines are so important in this. It’s so neat to come down here and to be so fast and to really have fun qualifying here. We’ve struggled so much in the past and so many guys have put so much effort in this off-season. I know I’m giving the interview like I’ve won the pole, I know there’s only seven guys that have gone, but I’m enjoying it and I hope we end up in the front because this is pretty cool.” DOES THE WIND HAVE AN EFFECT? “Yeah, the wind is scary. I don’t think the rest of the guys should hold it wide-open and just go easy because that wind is treacherous (laughing). The wind really does make the lap times different. The wind right now is blowing down the back straightaway and I could feel the RPM building to a higher RPM than we’ve seen in single-car runs. It’s like Chip (Bolin) said. He said, ‘You’re one good gust of wind away from the pole,’ and that’s all you can hope to be down here in Daytona.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I’m a little disappointed. I hate the wind. I guess if you’re out sailing it’s good, but coming down the front I was 200 RPM more on my first lap than I was my fast lap. That clearly is at least a tenth, tenth-and-a-half, two-tenths of speed. It was singing down the back, but coming down the front I just got a big gust of wind coming off of four or in the short chute and when I went into turn one I knew I didn’t have it. I was so slow going into turn one that I’m surprised we’re second. It’s just luck of the draw. Right now you feel the wind is really calm, so it all depends if you get a gust or not.” WHAT HAPPENED IN INSPECTION? “You want as much rear weight as you can get to get the back of the car down, and they were three or four or five pounds over on the rear weight. In the inspection process, when you’re off on something you go all the way back around and start over again. So then they moved it forward and it was too far forward, so they had to adjust it again. It was just a minor thing and it didn’t affect the speed of the car.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – “It’s great for Ford being one-two-three right now, but we would like to be on the top. Still, we had a good effort. It was a fast car and we’re gonna qualify well. It’s the best speedway car I’ve had down here in my three or four years in Cup. I’m excited for Sunday. I’m excited for the Duels. I think we have a real shot to win it.” LESS INTENSE TODAY THAN LAST NIGHT? “I was actually more nervous today because you know that any small jerk on the wheel can really affect your time. There’s not much a driver can do but mess up out there. They can’t gain any speed, but they can sure lose some.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “I thought it was good. I’m really proud of Greg Erwin and all the guys on this Smithfield Ford team. The Fords are running really strong down here. That’s something for Doug Yates and everybody at Roush Yates to be really proud of. Everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports has done an awesome job. They’ve worked really hard and it shows. We spent two months over the winter getting ready and prepared for this race and the hard work of all the guys really comes out when you come down here for Daytona for qualifying. We would have liked to have been those top two, but we’re not so we’re gonna go from there and we’ll race our way to hopefully a better starting spot for the Datyona 500.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 6 EcoBoost Ford Fusion – “We’ve got the EcoBoost Ford Fusion paint scheme on there, it’s looking good, and we had some speed in it. I wish we could have got a little bit more of a gust on the back straightaway. It felt like it was pretty calm for us while we were out there, but you’ll have that. The good thing is all the Fords are really fast.” MORE CONFIDENCE FOR THURSDAY? “It will definitely give you some confidence that you’ve got a car that is capable of being in the front and running up front for a lot of the race. It’s just an awesome job that all the guys did back at our shop and the engine shop. They just really work hard on these cars to come down here for Daytona. On Thursday our job is to keep our racecar as clean as we can so we’ll have it for Sunday.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion – “I don’t know. We’ve been off Greg a tenth or so, but never that far. We were two or three-tenths off of what they ran there, so it’s a little disappointing. By the same token, it’s encouraging as well that all of the Fords have been real fast. It seems like our stuff has been running good all weekend. I thought last night they had good speed and today it’s just about the top two, so as fast as all the Fords were, I was hoping we could maybe sneak in one of those spots, but we just didn’t have the speed those guys had since we’ve been here.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Al-Liner Ford Fusion – “That was a great lap. We came down with a good car and obviously a good engine program with Roush Yates Engine Performance behind us, so the crew did a nice job. I think we ran as many laps as anyone did on our practice day and we really picked up a little bit each time, so I can’t say enough about Jay Guy and our Front Row Motorsports team. They made good changes. We didn’t have anything crazy happen and we picked up kind of what we thought we would and our car seems to be pretty fast.”
DAVID GILLILAND — MHP/Power Pak Pudding Ford Fusion – “This is the same car we ran all last year at all the restrictor plate races and it just never has had a lot of speed by itself, but it drives really well and sucks up good. That’s the most important thing when you get out here racing. Today, if you’re not on the front row it doesn’t really matter, but we’re happy. The car drives good. It’s gonna be a new style of racing and I can’t wait to get out there and do it.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “I felt pretty good about the lap. Last year I would have been jumping up-and-down about qualifying in the top 10, but I really thought we had a shot at the pole today as good as our car was yesterday. It’s just the wind was against us. Going through three and four I could feel it kind of gusting onto the nose of our car, so at that point there’s not much you can do. I held it wide-open and they gave me a great race car, so I think it’s gonna race really good and that’s all that really matters. After watching the race last night, it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna matter where you start at.” A RELIEF KNOWING YOU’RE PRETTY WELL LOCKED IN? “Yeah. It’s a lot of relief. Now we’re back to the same position we were in last year. We started the Duel knowing we were locked in and it was just wherever we finished and now we’re back right there, so I’m ready for it.”
GREG BIFFLE OUTSIDE POLE PRESS CONFERENCE – “The first thing that comes to mind is what a team effort it has been getting these cars prepared and how hard everybody has worked. We’ve got fuel injection and we’ve got all kinds of things that could play factors in qualifying here. One thing is apparent and that is we have good, fast racecars. We were the fastest in both practices and felt like we may have helped the 99 a little bit and pulled a team effort together to get the front row for today, so that’s exciting for us to do that. I remember in 2004, an all-Ford front row with Jack and I on the front row and then Doug Yates with Elliott Sadler in the 38 car, so it kind of felt the same today and, yeah, it’s great to start up front on Sunday.”
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – “One of the things that is in play in our team, with the dynamics, is the jousting between Matt and Greg is who has been with us longer – the seniority thing. But Greg won the first championship in the Truck Series in 2000 and then two years later he won in the Nationwide Series, so Greg is a champion. He brought us our first championship. It was my embarrassment that I wasn’t able to support him and get him in the Chase last year, but we certainly feel that we’re off to a great start and Greg is committed and he’s motivated and he’s able and I’m glad that he’s on the front row, and I would have been happier if he’d had the pole.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO AVOID WRECKS ON SUNDAY? “A lot of that is luck and, hopefully, my jar over there that has my luck in it, hopefully, I haven’t used very much of it yet because I missed some big wrecks last night. Every wreck I was right in the middle of and thank goodness I didn’t cause any of them. It’s a matter of paying attention to your surroundings and a lot of it is what position you’re in. That wreck up there with the 24 and the 18, I saw the 18 wrecking on the bottom and Joel was telling me, ‘Get down, get down. Nope, stay up, stay up. Come on, come on.’ He changed his mind three or four times and so did I, and I caught myself watching the 18 car. I thought he was gonna come back across the track, so I’m watching the 18 and I’ve got the gas down and I’m on the brakes and I’ve got the gas down and I’m like, ‘I’m gonna make it,’ and then Joel is telling me, ‘Get to the bottom. Get to the bottom.’ And I looked forward and I see the 24 car is in the air, and I dang near ran right into that wreck because I was watching the 18 come back up the race track at me. So I went from full throttle to skidding the tires again, and then turning down the race track and getting by all that stuff. It’s just paying attention to what’s going on and hopefully nobody is coming at you at that angle. It’s gonna be the same way for the 150s and the 500.”
HOW IS IT WITH NO RADIO COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER DRIVERS? “It’s actually not anymore difficult because we weren’t tandem racing, so I’m not typically gonna be talking to another driver anyway. I was behind that car then that car and that car and that car, so I was never with another car – other than I pushed Kyle to the lead that one time and that was only half-a-lap. Really, it’s kind of a non-issue since the cars are broke apart. Now, if we were tandem racing, I would say we should be talking with each other, but it doesn’t really work out now with the spoiler and all that stuff.”
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE RISK THAT IS ATTACHED AT THE END OF A RACE? “I’m watching it just like you. You should be asking Greg that question (laughing). The point that’s there is that there’s a limit as to how long the engine can keep its water and there’s a limit as to how long it will go on fuel. As you approach the checkered flag, in a perfect world you would use all of your fuel up and you would use your engine and your water up and just get the checkered flag in time. It is true that these cars are hard to push now. It’s true that they are loose, but I believe it will be the case that the race will be decided, much as it was for the Shootout, I believe it will be decided with two cars that tag up and connect and that are the best two cars running together – not necessarily the best car is gonna win the race, but the best two cars are gonna have a chance to do it. No, I think the best two cars will win the race, but I don’t think they’ll spend that much time doing it throughout the race, which was one of the criticisms that I think fans had.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – “You’re exactly right. You’re right up the alley. We could beat this horse to death, but the facts are that the fans kind of spoke out and wanted to see these cars back in a larger pack and I think NASCAR wanted to see that as well, and the drivers were about half in half, so they started implementing things to try and break them apart. I think lowering the back bumper another two inches really keeps the cars apart now because I can have a run at that car in front of me and I’m like, ‘Well, I’m gonna push him,’ and I get within two feet from him and it’s like I start looking around and look at the gauges to see if the engine is still running because it just stops and then that guy just takes off like he pushed the turbo button. His car just pulls away because that air just pushes his car, so it keeps the cars from being bumper to bumper and driving around all the time. Carl and I tried it yesterday. I pushed Carl to the lead, but it’s hard to stay connect to the car, for one, and, two, it’s gonna overheat. Your question is, ‘What happens?’ Here is typically what happens when a car overheats. It overheats. It blows the water out, which you can see it’s blowing the water out. Then the gauge is flashing red, and then as it continues to get hotter and hotter and hotter, it just starts losing power, so the car starts slowing down, which is a good thing.”
WILL IT CAUSE A BIG WRECK? “I’m not saying every engine won’t do that, but most of the time – Jack knows as well as I do – they’ll blow the water out, they’ll start getting hot, it’ll blow a head gasket or it starts losing power. It’s that simple. It just starts expiring. It won’t break like that, so it’ll just start losing power most likely. That’s what happens to them.”
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – IS THERE MORE SUPPORT FROM FORD? THE RESULTS SEEM BETTER THE LAST YEAR OR TWO? “Well, there’s kind of a new sheriff over there. Jamie Allison got his job two years ago and he’s got his legs under him and is doing a real nice job. Andy Slankard does a nice job. Ford has been really consistent in trying to do the right things for the race teams for a long time, but the team that they’ve got right now, I think, is doing much better than average and they’re getting enough experience now to figure out how to bring the resources of Ford to bear. Two years ago we had an issue with our simulations not doing what they might and then we had to make our changes one at a time. You couldn’t make a wedge change, a bar change and an air-pressure change at the same time. Our simulations work great right now. They are certainly cutting edge and that’s Ford’s contribution and, of course, the FR9 engine has come on and Doug has done a nice job with that. We’ve got it now and actually had it in ARCA yesterday on the pole, and we’ve done well with it. In Nationwide we won a championship last year with Ricky, so it’s kind of a special time for Ford. NASCAR is committed to have everybody on the same template package as far as air is concerned, so that means the nuances and small things you do with the four-tenths scale model and the things you do maybe with CFD and the computer simulations are important and Ford is behind us on all that and they’re doing a great job. You’re not wrong in saying that Ford has really stepped up.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – ANY STRATEGY FOR THURSDAY? “Certainly, my primary concern is to protect the racecar. We know we want to start the race with this 500 car because we’ve got a lot of work into it. Secondly, we need to get in competition with this car and see how it drives and see what adjustments we need to make and what we want to do to it. Obviously, starting on the front row or on the pole for that 150, that’s gonna be a good spot and we’ll try to maneuver our way and stay up front. I’m sure at some point we’ll be back in a little bit of traffic, but we don’t want to get back in the back later part of this event three-wide or something — back where guys are fighting for their life to try and get in the 500. So we want to be coherent and pay attention to that, so we’re gonna race it just like normal, but if something happens and we get in a predicament where we don’t feel comfortable, or I don’t, then I’ll probably ease my way out of that position. But, for the most part, we’re planning on racing it just like normal. I know the crew chief is not super-excited about that, but that’s what we need to do to get this car ready for the 500.”
IS THERE A MORE RADICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN QUALIFYING AND RACE TRIM WITH THIS PACKAGE? “Not so much other than before we used to be able to have qualifying radiators, so we had giant radiators in the car with a ton of water capacity and we could tape the front solid. Some of the cars were taped solid and it makes a heck of a difference on the speed. It’s extremely different on speed, but the problem is the engine will overheat and once it gets that certain temperature, like I talked about, it starts losing power, so then your speed is overcome by the engine losing power and you have a chance of hurting it and not being able to race the 150 without an engine change, and then you’ve got to start in the back. There are differences now, and a lot of times the water you see coming out is just the expansion tank, the water getting to 250 and not having enough air gap. It’ll make itself a little bit of room by puking just a little bit of water, and we see that a lot of times qualifying at different places.”
LOOSE CARS AND BLOCKING. ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THOSE TWO THINGS? “Take and replay the 2004, 2005, 2006 with the old car and it’s exactly the same with cars sliding all over the place. They don’t slide now near as bad as they used to before they repaved it. Before they repaved it, man, you were death grip on the steering wheel constantly. Nobody in here knows what that used to be like, except for us that were inside that car. I mean, the thing would almost spin out by yourself in a qualifying lap, and now you could drive with one finger because the track has so much grip. So anytime in history that you’ve tried to push a car, and Carl and I know this very well, and so does Jack – Talladega 2008, I think – Carl tried to push me out to the front, we were almost to the lead and he was maybe three feet down on my left side and tried to push me in the middle of the corner just a little bit at Talladega and we spun out and it wrecked all of our cars. That’s what I saw last night and in practice when Tony pushed on the 51 car, when Kurt moved up and spun him out. When these other guys pushed on the 20, the car in the middle of the corner and it wasn’t square on his bumper, they’re gonna spin them out. We’re going around the corner. The car has a lot of g-forces on it and if you push it in the wrong spot it’s gonna spin out. My car drives pretty stable. I know a lot of guys have said that their cars are loose. Like David Ragan was in front of me last night and his car was so loose I was glad I was not driving it, but my car, on the other hand, was stuck to the race track like glue. My car, I could drive anywhere. Yeah, when Kyle was pushing me I was white-knuckling it because it just pushes the back of the car around. I don’t know how you fix that. Right now, I think the balance is pretty good on driveability and how long you can push each other. For what NASCAR was going for – to see more of the big pack racing – I think the balance right now is pretty good. Let’s face it, when you saw big packs like that and it was always a five or six-car wreck minimum. That’s just a fact. Unless one guy spins off to the bottom like the 15 did. When you’re bunched up like that and one guy wrecks, you’re gonna see six guys in it.”
