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[/media-credit]Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Aaron’s 499 (Talladega Superspeedway)
NSCS Qualifying (May 6, 2012)
FORD FINISHING ORDER
3rd Matt Kenseth
5th Greg Biffle
7th David Ragan
8th Trevor Bayne
12th Aric Almirola
13th David Gilliland
18th Casey Mears
19th Marcos Ambrose
29th Terry Labonte
30th Carl Edwards
42nd Josh Wise
43rd Michael McDowell
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 3rd)
“It was tough. The car ran hot a lot of the day and we had to manage the water temperature and the fuel. It was close at the end but I just wish I could have stayed on Matt’s bumper. He pulled away from me a little bit. If we could have stayed locked together it would have come down to him and me at the end but we just couldn’t stay locked up with him there at the end.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 5th)
“I just did a poor job of staying with Greg. We had a really fast car all day and nobody could really stay attached. That worked for us at Daytona and I think what happened here was a lot of the cars bailed out from behind Greg and he didn’t have anybody pushing him. We just didn’t have a strong enough row. I should have just drug the brake and kept him with me better than I did. By the time he was attached I had way too big a lead. I knew if I waited for him we weren’t going to win and I knew if I held it wide open we weren’t going to win so I just did the best I could.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Finished 8th)
“We will take that especially after all that mayhem out there. We ran out of fuel once, spun out once after getting hit. I slowed way down and I don’t know what happened. It was a good caution for us because we needed fuel to make it to the end. I think that is a great finish for us. Two top-10’s on the year out of four starts is not terrible. We can keep working on it. They always give me good superspeedway cars and if I can make them last to the end I know we can get a top-10 out of it.”
WERE YOU HOLDING YOUR BREATH ON THE LAST RESTART? “Yeah, you know I figured the last one would be more calm than any of them because pretty much everybody was crashed out already. There were like 15 cars. I looked in my mirror and saw like five behind me and I was ninth or 10th. I was hoping we could push Junior up there because if we won, or he won because we pushed him it would be a good day for us. I think it was a good run for us and we ended up with a top-10 so that is good.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 VeriFone Sail Ford Fusion (Finished 12th)
“I think our quarter panel hurt us a little bit. Our VeriFone Ford was fast all day. I put myself in different situations and tried to be really patient and I would stick it out on the bottom whether we went back to 17th or were up in the top-five I really stuck to my guns and wanted to stay on the bottom because I knew that would prevail. I thought we did a pretty good job being consistent right there. Our pit stops were really good today and all in all I thought it was a good day. I wish we wouldn’t have gotten that damage right there and we could have done something at the end. All in all it was a good day and we didn’t lose any points at Talladega which is important. It is easy to come here and finish 38th. To get out of there with a 12th place finish and go to Darlington – I will take that.”
ARIC ALMIROLA CONTINUED — HOW DID THE COMMUNICATION GO WITH MIKE FORD TODAY? “It was great. Mike is obviously a savvy veteran on the box and he runs the show and that is what I like. I like someone who runs the show and I just do what I am told.”
MIKE FORD, crew chief, No. 43 VeriFone Sail Ford Fusion
WHAT IS IT LIKE SITTING UP THERE CALLING A RACE WHERE THERE IS SO MUCH MAYHEM? “You have a lot of unknowns coming in, down to the tools you are using to call the race. It was good though. I was impressed with the demeanor of the whole race team. We had good pit stops. It wasn’t a perfectly smooth day and we had to deal with damage but everyone did a really good job. I think we have a strong race team here. We will just bring it together and try to move this thing forward.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Ford Fusion (Finished 18th)
“We kind of just tried to stay out of trouble all day and then after that last pit stop we were well inside the top-15 there so we decided to go ahead and see what we had. We were able to go to the front and lead some laps. I can’t remember what lap it was, it was probably with 15 or 18 to go and we were running in the middle. The 17 had a run but there wasn’t enough room and I got tagged in the left rear and eventually six or eight laps after that we got a left rear flat and spun out and got in the wall. That kind of ended our day. The guys did a really good job. Our plan was working. The only problem is there are a lot of other people out there with plans.”
