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[/media-credit]FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Auto Club 400
March 25, 2012 Auto Club Speedway
Ford Finishing Order:
5th – Carl Edwards
6th – Greg Biffle
16th – Matt Kenseth
21st – Marcos Ambrose
23rd – Casey Mears
25th – Aric Almirola
30th – David Gilliland
31st – David Ragan
34th – Ken Schrader
37th – Josh Wise
38th – Michael McDowell
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “It was just a quiet day. The track was coming to us a little bit, so we were hoping the race would get going again. This isn’t what we want for our DeWalt Ford, but we haven’t been good all weekend.”
EVERYBODY MINDED THEIR MANNERS TODAY. NO CAUTIONS UNTIL THE RAIN CAME. “All of the drivers knew the rain was coming, so you didn’t want to mess up and ruin your day knowing that there were going to be very limited cautions. I guess all of the drivers are smart.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I like this track but the last few times here we’ve been off just a tick. Today, I didn’t keep up with the track. I was a little bit too tight. I thought we were getting closer at the end because we started closing in on the 29, and then he got his car going. If they would have gotten the track cleaned off and going again, I think we would have had a chance because we’re good on a cold, green track. When it gets hot and slick, we’re not as good as they are.”
DOES THIS TRACK LEND ITSELF TO FEW CAUTIONS BECAUSE THERE WASN’T ONE WITH THE RAIN IN THE FORECAST? “The track kind of lends itself to that, but nobody wanted to see the caution come out either because we knew it was gonna be tight (reaching the halfway point). If we would have had a 15-minute caution, we may not have made it.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion – “It wasn’t very good. We just kind of gambled there pitting at the end hoping it would go back to green, but after the penalty that was pretty much it either way. We just didn’t really run very good. We started back there and kind of ran between 13th and 16th the whole day. I don’t know. We just missed it. I thought we were gonna be pretty good and we just never really were that great. I think we could run about the same as the 99 and 16. They finished up there in fifth and sixth, but they just qualified so much better. I did a poor job qualifying, so I think if we could have gotten in that position, we could have probably run in the top eight or nine, but I don’t think we were any better than that.”
EVERYONE KNEW RAIN WAS COMING TODAY. DID THAT HAVE AN EFFECT ON HOW THE DRIVERS RACED? THERE WERE NO CAUTIONS UNTIL THE RAIN CAME. “You never want to wreck, but it sure seems that when rain is coming the race seems to go off pretty smoothly. You knew they were gonna do everything they could to try and keep it running, as they should, because everybody wants the fans to see a good race.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion – “We made some improvements. I think our car had a little bit of speed to it, so it was definitely better today at the start of the race than it was yesterday. I think everybody was thinking about halfway. We don’t want to be here on a Monday, but this race track is a product of green flag racing. You’ve got five lanes wide and it’s two miles long, so you’ve got plenty of room where you don’t really have to race one another hard. You can really just kind of race yourself, so it was fun to go on that long of a green flag run. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad we got to halfway.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Medallion Financial Ford Fusion – “Our race was the same as the rest of the weekend – we just missed it. I didn’t do a very good job and the car wasn’t very good, so you just add all those things up together and we just didn’t have a good weekend. It’s disappointing. We wanted to have a good run here. Our car with Medallion Financial on board looked cool, I just wish it was as fast as it looked.”
