Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Qualifying (New Hampshire Motor Speedway)
Friday, July 13, 2012
Ford Qualifying Results:
11th – Greg Biffle
19th – David Ragan
20th – Marcos Ambrose
21st – Carl Edwards
23rd – Aric Almirola
27th – Matt Kenseth
32nd – Josh Wise
33rd – Casey Mears
36th – Michael McDowell
37th – Ken Schrader
39th – David Gilliland
42nd – Kelly Bires
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – YOU USED GREG’S SETUP. HOW DID IT WORK? “It worked pretty good. That’s the fastest we’ve gone, but we’re just missing something. I might be driving it wrong or we might be missing something with tire pressure or something like that. It seems like the car should be a lot faster, so now I look forward to just going racing and getting it figured out. I thought we would be a little better than that with as good as it felt. I was thinking that would be a .60 or something like that.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “We had a really good car, but just ended up a little tight right there. My second lap was really good. I just got tight off of four and I didn’t want to lift because I knew it would be the top of the board most likely, and I just ran out of real estate. I had to go for it because I knew a .66 wasn’t good enough, so I just murdered one and two on the second lap and got into three and four good, it just got tight on exit. I thought I was gonna make it. It was close.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Medallion Financial Ford Fusion – “We wanted better than that. We picked up some from practice, so our changes were better. I wish we would have had that run in practice so we could have made some adjustments on that, but that’s OK. We’ll work on it in race trim tomorrow and get ready for the race.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “I’ll take it. We made a lot of changes there trying to get better and I think it worked. I didn’t get the best lap down, but it’ll hold on for a little bit here. This is one of my tougher tracks, so I just wanted to get through here with a decent starting spot and we’ll work on it tomorrow.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 NESN Ford Fusion – “That was probably our worst lap of the day, but it hasn’t been going very well. This place has always been a struggle for us, especially in qualifying, so we’ll just get through today and start working on it tomorrow.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion – “I think we picked up a little bit from what we ran in practice. This is kind of a new build for us. It’s not a new race car, but it’s a little something different than what we’ve been bringing to the race track, so it’s shown a little potential with just an early afternoon practice and qualifying. This is a fun track to race on if you have a good handling car, so we’re gonna work hard tomorrow and try to keep our car fast for the race on Sunday. That wasn’t a bad effort. We picked up a little bit, so you can’t be mad with that.”
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “We’ve improved a ton. When you think about when I first came over to the program how much the program has changed, how much it’s grown. Bob Germaine has put a lot of time and effort into this program and getting it to where it is today. We finally are starting to hit our stride a little bit. This wasn’t a very good lap. It was really slick and loose in, but in the races leading up to this we’ve really improved by leaps and bounds. I’m real proud of the direction it’s going. We still have a lot of growing yet to do, but the Geico Ford is going in the right direction.”
ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS AT ALL ON A DAY LIKE TODAY WITH THE NUMBER YOU DRIVE? “When I got my rental car today it had 13 miles on it and it’s Friday the 13th and I drive the 13 car, so you definitely think about that kind of stuff, but, so far, it’s been going in the right direction.”
JOSH WISE – No. 26 MDS Transport Ford Fusion – “It’s slick. It seems like the track is a little slower than practice. We didn’t really match what we did in practice, but we just played it smart. We unloaded really good today and didn’t want to make a whole lot of changes and possibly dial ourselves out, so we did a good job by bringing such a good car.”
KEN SCHRADER – No. 32 Federated Auto Parts Ford Fusion – “I haven’t been here in forever and we unloaded today and felt pretty good. We know about where it’s gonna wind up, but we like to try to play that game of if we weren’t locked in, would we be in trouble or not. Obviously, the Federated Auto Parts Ford is not in trouble.”
KELLY BIRES – No. 79 Team Kyle/Bestway Disposal Ford Fusion – “We really had to thrash to get here and we didn’t have a lot of time to spare to be able to work on this thing. We never tested it and I obviously have never been in one of them before, so to come to a place like Loudon where it’s all chassis and aero taking an effect and run a lap like that wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t the greatest lap because the car got tight on us. We were a lot better earlier today and weren’t able to back it up, but it was good enough to get in and it’s my first Sprint Cup race.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL – No. 98 Phil Parsons Racing Ford Fusion – “We struggled today from the time we unloaded. We made gains to get ourselves in the race, but it wasn’t a great lap. Still, it’s good enough to get us in the show and that’s what’s important. We just take it one weekend at a time and we’re really looking forward to Indy, where we get an opportunity to run the full race, so we’re excited about that.”
