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[/media-credit]May 26, 2012
Charlotte Motor Speedway
The Richard Petty Motorsports front row of pole-sitter Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose finished practice early at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Both men spoke to Ford Racing about why they didn’t take advantage of the whole session and what their expectations are for tomorrow night.
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 U.S. Air Force Ford Fusion – YOU FINISHED EARLY. WHY? “We’re happy with our car. Our U.S. Air Force Ford Fusion is pretty fast. I’m happy with the balance of our car and it’s so hot right now that I don’t know that we’ll learn a whole lot, so we worked on some things trying to maximize getting on and off pit road and getting ready for tomorrow night.”
IS THERE MORE OF A DANGER OF TUNING YOURSELF OUT RATHER THAN IN UNDER THESE CONDITIONS? “I think it’s very possible to lead yourself down a path here in this practice that is not gonna be very helpful for tomorrow night. We could be proven wrong, but I don’t see how you can work on your car to get it good right now when the track temp is 120-125 degrees and tomorrow night it’s gonna be 90, so the track will change a lot and I feel like Mike (Ford) has a really good plan. He’s got a few changes he wants to make for tomorrow night. I have all the confidence in the world in Mike Ford and this 43 U.S. Air Force team.”
WHAT ARE YOU FEELING RIGHT NOW? DID YOU LIKE THE DAY OFF YESTERDAY OR WERE YOU WISHING YOU COULD HAVE RACED THIS THING ALREADY? “I was glad to have the day off, but we didn’t really have the day off. We went and did a lot of stuff down at Speed Street and a lot of stuff with the fans, so we didn’t really have the day off, but I was glad to be able to take all day yesterday and kind of soak it up – my first pole on Memorial Day Weekend with the U.S. Air Force on the car is a really special moment. To be able to have the whole day to soak that up and realize what happened Thursday night, and then prepare ourselves to come back here ready to do business today and get our car handling good and ready for 600 miles.”
WHAT IS THE KEY FOR YOU TOMORROW? “The whole package. There’s really not one thing you can overlook. At this level it’s so competitive. All the guys have really good cars, so if you miss one detail, that’s the difference between winning and running 10th. So we’re focusing on all the details and getting all the parts and pieces to line up. We’ll need good pit stops. I’ll have to do a good job getting on and off pit road. We need a good handling car and call a good race, and you need to have all of those things work together to have a shot to win the race.”
HOW DO YOU START THE RACE WITH MARCOS ON YOUR OUTSIDE? “I fully expect to lead some laps tomorrow night. I think our U.S. Air Force Ford Fusion is fast enough to be able to lead some laps, so we want to go out and get a good start and get some clean air on the car and go have a good race.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – IS THE HEAT WHY YOU QUIT EARLY? “We’re not proving anything and we’re not gonna race in these conditions. This place always feels the worst in the heat of the day. We had a really good Saturday night last week and we had a good qualifying session and good first practice this morning, so we don’t need to be getting ourselves off base. It would be nice to feel like you’re at the top of the time sheet going into tomorrow night’s race, but I think if you’re on top of today’s sheet, you’re probably not gonna be that good when the sun goes down.”
MARCOS AMBROSE CONTINUED — WILL YOU TREAT THE START OF THE RACE DIFFERENTLY TOMORROW BECAUSE ARIC IS ON THE POLE? “I want to lead that first lap, so I hope he treats me well (laughing). It’s just a proud moment for us to be on the front row like that together. The worst thing we could do is cause each other trouble, so we know what we need to do. Whatever lane he chooses, I’m just gonna go for it and see if I can lead the first lap.”
WHAT ARE YOUR EMOTIONS GOING INTO THE RACE? “I feel great about it and having a night’s rest on it just makes it easier. I love Charlotte and I love driving for the King. It’s just a good combination to be running well and up front where everyone can see us.”
IS THERE MORE CONFIDENCE ON THIS TEAM AFTER THE PERFORMANCE LAST SATURDAY AND IN QUALIFYING? “Yeah, we know we can run well and we know we’ve got good speed. We’ve definitely had a fun week because we ask a lot of the guys through the month of May and June. We’re doing a lot of testing and they’re working a lot of hours – more than any man should – and to run well is just a great payback. They’ll be the first to say, ‘We don’t mind doing the work if we run good,’ so that’s why it means so much to us right now because we’ve worked really hard to be in this position.”
