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[/media-credit]FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Auto Club 400 Advance
March 23, 2012 California Speedway
FORD RACING CALIFORNIA FAST FACTS:
• Ford Racing has won 10 times at Fontana, one shy of tying for the manufacturer lead.
• The Ford driver with the most NSCS wins at Fontana is Matt Kenseth with three. His most recent win there came in the 2009 spring race.
• All three Roush Fenway Racing drivers, (Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth) have won at Fontana. Edwards was victorious in 2008 while Biffle’s lone win came in 2005.
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion, is coming off a second-place finish in last week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kenseth, winner of this year’s Daytona 500, spoke to the media at California Speedway before today’s practice session.
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT COMING TO A TRACK WHERE YOU’VE HAD SUCCESS? YOU’VE DONE REALLY WELL HERE AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY. “Yeah, hopefully that’s a good omen. But I’ve always really like this race track, ever since we came out here, so I’ve been excited about this event since the racing season started this year. I thought last race was a great race. I thought with the strategy at the end we had a chance to win and got boxed in on a restart and I think we finished third or fourth – something like that – but I remember that battle on the last lap was pretty cool. I kind of turned into a race fan off of turn two watching those guys and I think it was one of the best finishes of the year, so I really look forward to the track. I think it provides some exciting racing. It’s always been a fun one for us, so I’m looking forward to getting out there.”
THE NEXT TIME JACK ROUSH GOES THROUGH THE APPELLATE PROCESS WOULD YOU LIKE EDSEL FORD BE THE CHIEF APPELLATE OFFICER? “I hope we don’t have anything we ever have to appeal.”
WHY DO YOU DO SO WELL HERE? “It always comes down to the cars and the team. Nobody can do anything without a fast race car and fast pit stops and good strategy, but, other than that, I don’t know why. Sometimes you have tracks that you do better at than others and you don’t know why. If I could figure it out, I would try to bring that to other tracks and do better at them as well, but it’s just been a track that seems like it’s suited our style and I’ve been able to communicate to the guys what I want in the car and what I want it to feel like and keep working for that until we get there. So I don’t know. We get asked that a lot when we go to places like this or Michigan and you really just don’t know besides the fact you enjoy them and it seems like your cars run pretty good.”
BUT YOU’VE HAD DIFFERENT CREW CHIEFS ALONG THE WAY, SO THAT HASN’T BEEN A CONSTANT. “Yeah, like I said, I don’t really know. Since the first time we came here in ’97 in the Nationwide car we finished third and won a few races here, so I don’t know why it’s been a good track for us. Like I said, it’s been one we’ve enjoyed, one we’ve been able to get the cars to run pretty fast at and we’ve been able to have some success here.”
