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[/media-credit]May 10, 2012
Darlington Raceway
FORD DARLINGTON FAST FACTS:
· Greg Biffle is the only active Ford driver with a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Darlington, winning back-to-back races in 2005 and 2006.
· Ned Jarrett clinched the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship for Ford after winning the Southern 500 at Darlington by a record 14 laps in 1965.
· Ford has 28 all-time NSCS wins at Darlington Raceway, including one by Dale Earnhardt in 1982 when he drove for fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Bud Moore.
· Bill Elliott is Ford’s all-time win leader at Darlington with five and claimed the inaugural “Winston Million” after taking the checkered flag in the 1985 Southern 500.
· David Pearson holds the record with 10 Darlington wins (2 Ford, 6 Mercury, 2 Chevrolet).
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion, currently holds down second place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings behind Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle. Kenseth, a two-time winner in 2012, held a Q&A session Friday morning at Darlington Raceway with reporters.
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING AT DARLINGTON? “I think most of us like coming to Darlington. It’s got a lot of history, obviously. It’s a very challenging track and I love the race track. It hasn’t really love me the last few years, but I’m looking forward to getting on the track today. Carl had a dominating run here last year. We really struggled last year, so we’ve been working hard looking at notes and trying to figure things out to be better this time around. I’m looking forward to it.”
HAVE YOU SEEN THE NASCAR BULLETIN ABOUT THE CHANGES TO THE CAR? “I have not seen the bulletin. The side skirts being shorter, is that the one you’re talking about? (Yes) I haven’t seen the bulletin. I heard from somebody that they did that. We actually tested that for NASCAR at the Michigan tire test, so it didn’t seem like a real big deal. I think they’re just trying to make it a little easier to pass, take a little bit of downforce and sideforce off the cars so the lead car doesn’t have quite as big of an advantage. I think that’s their thought process is to try and make it better for the guys not in the lead.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THE TRACK HAS WEATHERED? “I’m not sure. Just looking at it, I think it looks more gray than I remember last year. This new pavement that they’ve been using at all these race tracks when they repave them is so good that it doesn’t really give up much grip and doesn’t really wear out very fast. I don’t know how many years exactly it’s been since they paved it, but, so far, every time we’ve raced on it you can hardly tell it’s a year older. Hopefully, it’s gotten a little more slick and the tires have a little more grip for this track and drops off a little more. I think that will help the passing a little bit, but the real answer is you don’t really know until you get out there.”
DO YOU THINK DALE JR. BEING UP IN THE STANDINGS WILL HELP FANS COME TO THE TRACK AND WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET RATINGS UP ON TV? “I don’t really know the answer to either one of those questions, but I know that Dale Jr. is obviously extremely popular and has been voted the most popular driver for many years. I think whenever the most popular driver has success and can win races and do those things, obviously, it gets the fan base energized. He’s had a great season. He’s been knocking on the door to get some wins. He’s right up there in the points, so I don’t think it’s gonna be long. That team seems like it’s really starting to hit its stride.”
MATT KENSETH CONTINUED — HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAS BEEN STUCK ON 199 WINS SINCE OCTOBER. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT AND WHAT MIGHT BE GOING ON? “Yeah, I really feel bad for those guys. They’ve only won five out of the last six championships. Those guys are really on a tough run. I hope they get it straightened out (laughing).”
YOU’VE HAD A GOOD PIT CREW THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER. HOW MUCH TURNOVER DO PIT CREWS GO THROUGH FROM YEAR TO YEAR? “It’s been a really long time since we’ve been together, so obviously there has been some turnover with guys retiring and stopping the over-the-wall part. But I have always been really fortunate to have a great crew that’s worked really hard at it, and I think that really starts more at Roush Fenway Racing with the pit crew coaches and Robbie (Reiser) originally organizing that deal. They work really hard at it. It’s a performance business. I think everybody on pit road has gotten so much better than they were six or seven years ago. It’s hard to have a big advantage. Track position is more important than it probably has ever been, so we put as much emphasis on that as you do in the race car. You really have to work on your pit stops as much as anything else. Those guys work really hard at it and I think they do a good job.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY INPUT ON WHO GOES TO WHICH TEAM? “No, not really. Jimmy watches over those guys. Robbie, the pit stop coaches, all of those guys look over it and they try to get the best guys for the position as far as not only speed, but the accuracy part as well – not letting tires roll across pit road and not leaving nuts loose or dropping the jack before it’s full – all those kind of things. Everybody over the wall, except for one guy, are the same guys we had last year. It’s a group that’s been together. There are a bunch of moving parts to that deal. You’ve got to have a group that works good together. You might have the fastest tire changer somewhere, but maybe they’re not in sync with the tire carrier and the jackman, so I think keeping that group together and keeping them trying to improve is always an advantage.”
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO FIGURE OUT DARLINGTON? “I’m still working on it, honestly. I think it changes a lot. We only come here once a year, so you don’t know what you’re gonna have when you get on the race track as far as the tire-track combination and grip – setups change – so I think it’s really a moving target. The track doesn’t even resemble the track before they paved it and before they put up the SAFER barriers. It has so many changes. When they put up the SAFER barriers that was a huge change because it took away so much room, and then when they paved it that changed the whole ballgame again. It really didn’t drive like the old Darlington at all. It didn’t get slick. It drove more like a Charlotte or something like that, but with a much narrower groove, so it’s always changing and you’re always trying to keep up with those changes and always trying to learn and get better.”
DO YOU LIKE DRIVING AT DARLINGTON? “I really enjoy it and appreciate it. I was riding my motorcycle down here last night and I was thinking – I really enjoy the couple hours of quiet time – and I was thinking about how cool it was the first few times you came here when it was Labor Day and it was always in the ninties and you were just sweating standing there, and then you had to get in there and drive 500 miles. The track would slow up so much and it seemed like it was almost a five-hour race and you were just totally done and spent when you were done with the race. I always remember how special that event was and being part of that, so I’m glad we still get to come down here. I’m glad the Southern 500 is still alive, but I spent some time thinking about that last night and how cool that was because it was a race you always looked forward to, but you were always making sure you were in shape and drinking a lot of Gatorade, and you were hydrated, and everything was right in the car because it was always a marathon, and it was always hot, slick and treacherous.”
MATT KENSETH CONTINUED — HOW IS DANICA VIEWED BY OTHER DRIVERS IN THE GARAGE? “It would probably be better to ask somebody that has raced against her. I haven’t run any Nationwide races and the only time I was on the track with her the same time was at Daytona and she got caught on in a crash on the first lap or something, so I haven’t really raced with her or interacted with her. I don’t really know her that well, so that would be a tough question for me to answer.”
HAVE YOU EVER SPOTTED FOR SOMEONE BEFORE? “I have spotted a few times for my son (Ross) and I gave up. My son is very polite and quiet, but I don’t like the abuse at all and spotters get a lot of that usually. It’s a lot harder than it looks and being a driver it’s really hard for me not to talk too much, and I don’t really like heights, so I don’t really have a lot of interest in spotting.”
YOU HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT MONDAY. CAN YOU CLARIFY THE WHOLE CAR NUMBER SITUATION? ARE YOU GOING TO BE 17 NEXT YEAR? “I probably can’t tell you that. I didn’t write the release. You need to ask the people that wrote the release. I was as surprised as you were to read some of it with the way it sounded.”
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion, is still looking for his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Darlington Raceway. He came into the infield media center between Friday’s two practice sessions to chat with reporters.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU LIKE DARLINGTON? “I really enjoy coming here. It’s an adventure every lap. It’s a really tough race track and it’s something as a driver at Darlington you have to sit there and mentally prepare even before practice. You have to think about how you’re gonna run the race track and remember all the places that could reach out and bite you. Our Ford is very fast. At the end of practice we put up the fourth-fastest time. It’s handling well and I’m excited for this race. This is one of the most fun races on the schedule for me and our team.”
DOES LAST YEAR GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE FOR THIS YEAR’S RACE? “We’ve been waiting since that last restart a year ago to come back here. Everyone talks about this being one of the biggest races and, for me, it really is for our whole team. We would really like to win this race. The track has aged, I think, really well. I think the pavement is a little more forgiving right now, so you can slide the car around a little bit more. It’s more fun than it’s been the last couple of years, in my opinion, so I think it’s gonna be a heck of a race. It’s just a cool place to come race and I’m glad we’re here.” CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT IT’S LIKE TRYING TO RACE AGAINST THE WALL HERE? “Driving around here, you want to drive as hard as you can, you want to get that last little inch right up by the fence, but if you catch the fence and go a little too far, it sucks the front of the car right into the fence and it’s really bad for the equipment. I’ve run into the wall a lot here and usually the car runs worse after you hit it, so I’m gonna try really hard not to hit the fence. Five hundred miles is so tough, it’s tough to put that 500-mile race in perspective before you get going because for some reason it just doesn’t feel like any other track. It feels like a Baja race or some adventure race because there’s so much that happens throughout the night and so many things that change, and people that hit the fence. You can be a lap down halfway through it and then dominate the second half and come back and win. You really are racing the track and it’s like every man for himself the first three-quarters of the race and then you start racing people at the end. I don’t know if I’m doing a good job of describing it, but it’s just a tough place. Every lap is different and so many things can change throughout the event that you have to really balance being aggressive, but cautious. And it’s a taxing race, mentally and physically. It’s a very tough race. As far as coming in and needing a win, you don’t want to come in here needing a win, but a good, solid run here does a lot for you. It boost confidence because it’s one of the toughest tracks on the schedule on the equipment, on the drivers, on the pit crews, on the crew chiefs. Our race last year we did everything right and then I underestimated Regan at the end, so I learned a lot and I think Bob learned a lot through that race. It’s just a really tough place. When you walk out of here, it’s like, ‘Whew, that was an event.’ In all of those respects it’s fun.”
CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED — HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RACING NOW VERSUS THE OLD PAVEMENT HERE? “I think all the drivers really liked the old pavement. I think the new pavement, initially, took something away from the racing here, but I don’t know if it’s just me, I don’t know if other guys feel the same way, but I feel like this year compared to last year has been a big step forward. It seems like it’s aged a little bit. The Goodyear tires are falling off a little bit more. It’s not so white-knuckle, on the edge. The car can slide a little bit. You can mess up and kind of slide the car and gather it back up, so there’s a little bit of forgiveness there and I think all of that leads to better racings, so I’d say we’re 50 percent there or something like that. But I think every year we come back here it’s just gonna get better and better.”
WITH THE PAVEMENT MORE WORN DO YOU THINK YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DO WHAT REGAN DID LAST YEAR AND NOT TAKE TIRES ON THE FINAL STOP? “I think we’ll see in this Nationwide race tonight if you in fact can stay out with 10 or 15 laps on your tires. I just don’t know. I’m telling you guys, you cannot discount how hard Regan drove those last couple of laps. I think he surprised everyone, including myself. His car was very fast and he did a heck of a job. I think all of us drivers hope that the tires will fall off a little bit more and the track will eat those tires up and then it becomes really a battle of the race cars and the drivers and not so much the pit strategy. But I would not take anything away from what Regan did. He hung on. He drove hard and he didn’t win that thing solely because he stayed, it was a great job on his part.”
CAN A DRIVER STILL GET UP ON THE WHEEL FOR THREE OR FOUR LAPS AND GET IT DONE OR ARE TIRES GETTING TO A POINT WHERE THEY’RE MORE OF A FACTOR? “I’m just not sure. How old was the old pavement? Thirteen or 14 years? This is the fourth year (for the new pavement). I think this year, to me, the first couple of years the tires didn’t fall off a lot, the cars didn’t wiggle much. This year, it feels like a pretty big step. If it continues at that rate of change, if the change continues the way it seems to be, I think it’s just gonna get better and better. In practice, we didn’t have huge falloff, but we started running 29.50s or .60s and it fell off about four-tenths or something like that, which is huge. I mean, four-tenths of a second a lap is pretty big over 10 laps. I don’t know if everybody is falling off that much, I think some guys are a little better than that, but as long as you can just get a few tenths or half-a-second, it turns into a pretty interesting race because a guy can take tires and charge up through the field. I don’t know if we’re quite there, but it’s getting close.”
ARE YOUR GUYS FIRED UP ABOUT THE PIT CREW COMPETITION NEXT WEEK? “The Pit Crew Challenge is something neat for everybody. It’s cool for the drivers because we get to show up and watch our guys perform and the pressure is not on us, it’s on them. That’s neat to see everything kind of turned upside-down, at least for the drivers. The crew has pressure on them every week, but we get to stand back and watch these guys perform and see what they go through. I know my guys are always excited about it. They’ve been working really hard this year. We’ve had better and better pit stops. We started out having a couple of problems and the guys have really worked through it. There are huge bragging rights involved. It would be huge if they could win it and I know they’re all excited about it.”
CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED — HOW WAS YOUR ALL-STAR RACE WIN LAST YEAR AND WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW FORMAT THIS YEAR? “I don’t know. What is the new format? That’s a really good format change (20-20-20-20-10). That’s gonna make those first races really important because if you look at the way the racing is right now, if you start up front, you’ve got a huge advantage, so that’s a great way to address that issue. I think we started first or second in the last segment last time and that was a huge advantage for us. I don’t know if we would have been able to win if we started back in the pack, so that’s gonna put a premium on those first segments. I think you’ll see guys really, really battling it out. That’s a lot like a short track dirt race, where you go try to make the show. You’ve got to win your heat race just to get a spot at the front. That’s a neat way to pressure on everyone to, A, race hard. I’m really talking about this pretty ignorantly because I don’t know the whole format, but it seems like it would make us race pretty hard for the first segments and, if that’s the way it’s gonna be with the pit crews, it will put massive pressure on them so that will be good. It will make the whole event intense like that.”
WHAT KIND OF KID WERE YOU GROWING UP? “I’m learning real quickly what kind of kid I was growing up through heredity (laughing).”
WHAT GAVE YOUR MOM ANGST? “I think pretty much everything I did gave my mom angst, but I think it’s neat to be able to come down here on Mother’s Day with all that NASCAR does with the NASCAR moms. I can surely say if it weren’t for my mom and her help financially, emotionally – sometimes she was out there in the garage helping me get a transmission out of my race car or something – that if it weren’t for her, there’s no way I’d be able to do what I do today. I’m very appreciative and it’s just like everyone says, the more I learn, the smarter she is so I have a lot of respect for her.”
SOME TRACKS DON’T HAVE SOFT WALLS ALL THE WAY AROUND. WHY HAVEN’T YOU DRIVERS BEEN MORE PROACTIVE ABOUT WALKING THE TRACK AND GIVING ADVICE ON THOSE SORT OF ISSUES? “That’s because we don’t think like that. We think how we can win, we probably don’t think enough about how to be as safe as we could be. I saw that crash (Eric McClure at Talladega) live like everybody here and I cannot believe that he’s OK and he walked away. I don’t know what his injuries were, but to be able to walk away from something like that is a huge testament to everything that we’re doing. But, as always, if there are places – that’s one thing about race cars and wrecking is it seems like people always find a way to find the spot on the race track where the SAFER barrier isn’t there or you find a way to hit the wall that the HANS device doesn’t help you or the seat doesn’t help you. I think the more we can do to just look at those things and to address them the better, so maybe we should — maybe we should address it more. We have those safety meetings each year and as best I can tell, NASCAR and everybody involved really looks at these tracks and tries as hard as they can to find all the spots people could hit, but Elliott Sadler’s wreck at Pocono showed us that there are spots where you can hit so hard. I think those are all things we can look at, so if that brings attention to it and lets us look at some things, then that’s good. But I guess the reason we don’t do it is because we just come into these weekends thinking about how to win, win, win. Honestly, I don’t look at the race track and say, ‘Where are all the places I could wreck here?’ I don’t think like that and maybe we should.”
Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, continues to hold the points lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heading into this weekend’s race. Biffle, who owns a pair of NSCS wins at Darlington, spoke to the media before Friday’s qualifying session.
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – HOW DID THINGS GO TODAY? “Things went really good today. The car is driving decent. I think we’re a lot better than we were here last year, which gives me a lot of confidence and that’s good. We were kind of staying on pace and Puccia has picked our program up, and the guys and the cars are better, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow night. I think we’ve got a good chance later today of qualifying and being up near the front, so I’m pretty happy with the weekend so far.”
WE JUST HEARD CARROLL SHELBY PASSED AWAY. YOU DRIVE A SHELBY MUSTANG, SO WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? “That’s sad news. I did meet him a few times and talked with him. It makes me wonder what he was trying to get a hold of me for. He tried to get a hold of me a few months back or maybe a while ago and I returned his call a few times, but never caught him. That’s tough news. I’ve got a few of his cars and he was an inspiration to all car collectors and car guys across the country. I grew up in that era when all the muscle cars were happening and he did a lot of stuff for hot rods and other cars.”
ARE THE TIRES GOING AWAY FASTER THAN BEFORE THIS YEAR? “It’s headed that way. It’s gotten slick and losing grip. In the heat of the day the cars are sliding around a lot, and I remember the last race here when my car was not that good and it was sliding a lot. But it doesn’t seem like the tires are wearing like they did on the old pavement, so even though the track has less grip, I don’t think new tires are just way, way faster like they used to be. They are definitely better, but I don’t think from new to old is nearly like it was, but it’s getting less grip.”
HOW FAR WAS A TIRE RUN? “Before, you could directly relate like a math equation. You could run any lap time you wanted, but every tenth or two-tenths you went faster on new tires, you could subtract 10 off the back end you’re gonna slow down a second. So you could go as fast as you wanted for those first 10 or eight laps on new tires, you were like Superman, but you had to drive them like you had an egg with a soft shell on it. You just had to take care of them and, if you wanted to, you just crammed the throttle down and could smoke off a lap, but it’s kind of like nine lives – you just took a bunch off the back end of that tire. After 10 laps, the thing dropped dramatically, so it’s nothing like that.”
IS THIS YOUR BEST SHOT TO GET A CUP TITLE? “It’s easy to say when you’re leading the points that it’s your best opportunity, but I feel like from a competitive standpoint we’re running as good as we have in several years and I think we’re as strong as we were in 2005 right now, I really do. So, the answer is yes I think.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED — DID YOU HEAR WHAT TONY STEWART SAID AFTER LAST WEEK’S RACE? IF SO, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT? “I found some humor in it. As drivers, we’re in a spot that we can’t do anything right, so to speak. We’re just driving the car and trying to do the best that we can with the rules package we have and try to get the best outcome. I really don’t know. You’re always gonna have the problem with restrictor plate racing of accidents happening when you’re that close together and you’re all traveling at the same speed. There are a bunch of people who are gonna be involved in the wrecks. The only way to pass, the only way to get an advantage is just push the guy in front of you. That’s normally where all the wrecks happen from. The fans didn’t like tandem two-car racing and when we were communicating with all the drivers. They took all of that away. I see Tony’s point. It’s like, what can we do differently to make everyone happy? When you’re involved in a wreck, you’re not happy. It was a negative outcome for you because of the rules package, but it kind of is what it is. I ran on the bottom all day. I said, ‘I’m gonna try to protect my car,’ and it got crazy there for awhile. I got up top and ran some, ran all over the place, but was really just trying to stay up front and get ready for the end of that race, and I thought that we had it won on that last restart, but the 17 pulled off my bumper coming off turn two. We’ve got really fast cars and he probably needed to come out of the gas to keep me hooked on him, but we had a great chance of winning that thing. I don’t know what the answer is, I don’t know how to fix it.”
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH A NEWCOMER AT THIS TRACK WHO MIGHT NOT KNOW HOW TO GET OUT OF THE WAY? “That’s where accidents happen at this race track is because the unpredictability of this place is so hard. Even today in practice, a perfect example. I got a great run down there in three and four and I was on new tires and I caught a car and got a run on the inside of him coming off the corner and he pointed me to the bottom, but he didn’t let out of the gas until we got to the corner. Then you can’t go in this corner from the bottom because the apron is there. If you can’t get in front of the guy by the start-finish line and move up to have the line down into the corner, you’re in trouble. You’ve got to slow way down, run across the apron – even though there’s nobody on the outside of you – because you can’t make the corner. You’re going so fast and it’s so sharp on the bottom, plus you’re gonna run over that apron and get the car loose or make it run up the race track, so you cannot get out of the way here. There’s just nowhere to go. It’s hard to predict what people are gonna do. They point you to the bottom and then they run down in the corner with you, and if you’re thinking they’re gonna let off the gas and they don’t, you’re gonna wreck because I’m gonna drive it off in the corner with enough speed where the car is gonna slide all the way up to a couple feet from the wall. If they’re still there, we’re gonna crash, so I’ve got to mentally know whether that guy is gonna come out of the gas or not before you make the commitment when the corner comes. It’s really, really hard here with lap traffic. It’s probably the toughest thing about this place is passing cars that aren’t as fast or have a little damage and passing cars you’re racing with. It’s difficult.”
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SOUTHERN 500 MEMORY? “Even though I didn’t win it, probably the one where my flywheel broke and Terry Labonte won the race. We were leading a lot of it and had a really good car, and the car was bottoming out coming off turn two, but the car was really fast. It was driving really good and I was having a lot of fun and then the flywheel broke and caused the car to vibrate tremendously. We finished 10th, but that was a great day. It was a lot of fun for me and Terry Labonte ended up winning the race, but that Southern 500 kind of sticks out as far as me as a driver that I was involved in.”
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Southern 500 Advance, Page 9
May 10, 2012 Darlington Raceway
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED — HOW MUCH OF AN ADVANTAGE DOES AN EXPERIENCED VETERAN HAVE AT THIS TRACK? “It’s a tremendous advantage when you’ve run here before. It’s really hard to come here for the first time because you learn little things about this race track. I still learn little things about this track and I’ve been here a few times, but this place is very, very unforgiving. There’s no margin for error. To run a fast lap, you’ve got to be on the edge and, yeah, you can slow down a little bit, but you’re gonna be 30th. So when you are running on the edge and you are running that fast and you step over the edge a little bit, or you’re running 30th and you try to get a little bit more and step over that edge it’s big. The place is just unforgiving and it’s difficult. Experience here is worth its weight in gold.”
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Greg Biffle
7th – Carl Edwards
13th – Aric Almirola
19th – Matt Kenseth
28th – Marcos Ambrose
29th – Scott Speed
30th – Josh Wise
31st – Casey Mears
36th – David Gilliland
37th – David Ragan
43rd – Michael McDowell
47th – Reed Sorenson
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 A&W All-American Ford Fusion – “It was a big improvement for us over practice, but we struggled in practice. We fought loose a lot of the day and kind of just forgot about qualifying trim today in practice and just really focused on race trim. I feel like we got the car really good in race trim, we were just a little too free in qualifying trim.”
SCOTT SPEED – No. 79 Team Kyle/KOMA Unwind Ford Fusion – “It’s cool to come here with so few people and make such an impact right away. I know everyone is happy and it was a cool experience. This is a tough race track no matter what and the goal is to just get through everything without any major incidents. If we can do that, we’ll be OK.”
JOSH WISE – No. 26 Morristown Drivers Service Ford Fusion – “I like this track a lot. It kind of reminds me of my old sprint car racing days, running up against the fence. It’s just fun. I had a blast today. The guys brought a good car and they’ve been bringing me good cars every week, so that takes a lot of difficulty out of the deal. We made good changes today and we made good gains. We picked up good speed and I’m proud of everyone at Front Row Motorsports.”
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “It wasn’t that pretty. We were really tight down in three and four and on my first lap I overdrove one a little bit and kind of went up the track, so the combination of not getting everything out of it in one and two, and the car being really tight in three and four messed us up pretty good. That’s why my second lap was better because I missed one and two that first lap when the tires were the best.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Gravely Mower Ford Fusion – “I thought it was pretty good. It’s my first time here in a Cup car, so I was pretty unsure of what to expect. Mike Ford and these guys on this Gravely team did a great job. Our car was better than the driver for his first time here. I didn’t get everything out of it as I could have. I wasn’t sure what to expect. This place is too tough to tame and it’s already bitten me in practice, so I was a little unsure what to expect right there.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion – “It’s a good starting spot. I could have done a little better job for the guys in qualifying, but hopefully Greg stays on the pole. It’s cool to have a Ford starting on the pole.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “It was a great lap. I can’t say enough about these guys working on this 3M Ford Fusion. They’re doing a great job. I love this race track. The fans down here are great and I can’t wait for a great race tomorrow night. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfect lap here. I was in and out of the gas down there in turn one and two, and in three and four I felt I drove it in as far as I could and the car stuck really good, so I thought maybe I didn’t get enough, but when I came by and they told me it was the front row, I was pretty happy.”
GREG BIFFLE POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE – “I’ve said it three times in these interviews now, I’m having such a great time driving these race cars. My guys and Matt Puccia are doing such a great job. This is what a race car driver looks forward to is showing up every weekend and having a really fast car to drive. They’re sure making my life easy and making me look good so far. It was a pretty uneventful lap. The car just had a ton of grip. It stuck to the race track really, really well. I felt like I was a little bit light down in turn one and two, should have been a little quicker down there, but I got a lot out of it in three and four, so it was a great lap.”
DO YOU FEEL A SPECIAL SEASON COMING ON, ESPECIALLY IF YOU WIN OR RUN WELL TOMORROW NIGHT? “Yeah, it really will. I feel that special season already. I certainly think we’re gonna be a tough competitor all year, a tough customer. I’ll be honest with you, I was a little nervous coming here because last year we didn’t run that good here, the year before we ran OK, and the car just wasn’t in the race track and I struggled with that. I knew what I needed to do different and how I needed the car to turn a little bit differently around the corner and what I was looking for setup-wise, so we really focused on that and I got the car driving really, really good. So coming back here I think I had a better car, a better platform to start out. Before qualifying I felt I had a good opportunity to win tomorrow night and certainly now I feel a little bit better about my chances because when you drive a car and you get out and your hands are shaking and you’re out of breath and you put it on the front row, that says something. But when you get out of the car fairly relaxed like I was and the car did all the work and stuck to the race track really good, that tells me the car is gonna be good tomorrow night. It’s got a lot of grip.”
WHY DO YOU THINK SO MANY POLES HAVE COME THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS? “You’re gonna hate me for saying this, but it’s Matt Puccia. I didn’t have a pole for three years and Matt tookover the crew chief job about four weeks before that first pole. When Matt came aboard last year we got three poles. By the time he took over until the end of the season we had three poles, and we backed it up this year with two and a great qualifying effort everywhere we’ve been, except for last week, which I’m trying to forget about. He focuses on qualifying a little bit more and he knows what to do to the car, I guess. He just gets the car better when I tell him what I need. I told him what I needed in the car and they sat down and talked about it and he made some changes and it was on the money.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO YOU AND HAVE YOUR TEAMMATES PLAYED INTO YOUR SUCCESS? “I think everyone loves this place. This place is a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of success here with the three crew chiefs I’ve been here with, but I don’t think they (my teammates) have played as much of a role in our success this year as just the company as a whole. The company as a whole, our engineering and aero and engines and fuel injection and engineers – all that – is so good. Our cars are showing up, Matt’s car, my car, Carl’s car, are showing up at the race track as excellent cars. Our shop is putting out really good cars and our feedback is certainly fueling that. When Carl talks about his car and his run at Richmond and Matt and myself, so I think we’re all in it together, but I think a lot of credit goes to the engineering at the shop on how good of cars they’re building.”
WHO ARE THE GUYS TO WATCH IN THE RACE? “I think Carl was right there. Carl likes this place and, of course, he almost won last year. The 11 car looked pretty fast on the lap tracker. The final practice, it wasn’t a lot of laps, but the 22 car was fairly fast and he was fast on a qualifying run at the end of that practice session. I don’t know where he ended up tonight, but he looked to be one of the guys up there near the top. Both Matt and Carl looked pretty good.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED — WHAT CHANCE DOES YOUR PIT CREW HAVE ON THURSDAY IN THE PIT CREW COMPETITION? “I think they have a good chance in the pit crew competition. That pit crew competition is a lot about pushing the car. They’re doing a phenomenal job. I think they’re doing excellent. We changed one man on the pit crew this year because Matt wasn’t happy with the results we were getting, but other than that I think they’re doing a great job.”
WHEN YOU WERE IN HERE EARLIER YOU SOUNDED CONFIDENT OF A GOOD QUALIFYING RUN BUT DIDN’T COME OUT AND SAY THAT. DO DRIVERS NORMALLY DOWNPLAY THESE KIND OF THINGS? “Yeah, I think so. Certainly, I didn’t want to look like a jackass to come in here and tell you I’m gonna do what I think I’m good do because then when I don’t you’re gonna ask me why I didn’t. So if I tell you and I do it, then everybody is surprised. I just felt like my car was pretty good. That qualifying run we made at the end was pretty fast earlier in the day, our qualifying runs were good. I was just nervous because when you make a qualifying run, my last qualifying run was 28.18 and we just ran a 27.28, so you have no idea what this car is gonna do when you go eight-tenths of a second faster. That is huge, so everybody is nervous when you go out there to know, ‘OK, we’re gonna go eight-tenths faster.’ It’s hard to replicate that in practice. The track doesn’t have that much grip and the temperature is up, so I guess what I’m saying is you’re always nervous because you don’t know what to expect when it goes seven-tenths, eight-tenths faster – if you’re gonna have a handful or if the thing is gonna stick like it did, and you don’t know it until you’re in the situation.”
DO YOU STAY OUT LIKE REGAN SMITH LAST YEAR IF THERE’S A CAUTION WITH 10 TO GO OR DO YOU PIT FOR TIRES? “He won last year, but I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision. I’m gonna leave that one to Matt. It is very, very difficult to pass here. It’s hard to get an advantage, but we do know that tires are becoming more important to put fresh tires on because it picks the speed up a little bit, but it’s hard to pass four or five cars in that amount of time, so how many laps you’ve got on your tires when that situation comes, or are you almost out of fuel, all of those things will come into play. I want track position, but if everybody behind you comes, you’re a sitting duck. You’ve got to have about three or four or five stay with you. If you do that and squirt off to a good lead, I think you’re gonna be in good shape.”
