Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Good Sam 500 Advance (Talladega Superspeedway)
Friday, October 5, 2012
Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, is 11th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. He spoke to Ford Racing between practice sessions and talked about his plan for today and what it will take to get back into championship contention.
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – WHAT’S YOUR PHILOSOPHY FOR TODAY AS FAR AS KEEPING THAT CAR IN ONE PIECE TODAY? “It’s really changed a lot over the years. Before, our cars weren’t nearly as prepared as they are now. They were prepared, but we had a laundry list of things we wanted to try in race trim to see if the car pulled up better, drafted better or drove better and didn’t slide. But over the past four or five years, it seems like you just do less and less of that sort of thing because you already know how you want the car. We didn’t have that ability four or five years ago. When we leave the shop now going to a downforce track, we’re pretty close. We went and tested Nashville and unloaded off the track the best we could be. We could not make it any better. We hit it 100 percent with everything, so it just goes to show how we can predict so much stuff now. What we’ll do during practice here is make sure the car doesn’t have any leaks and it’s not rubbing or dragging. We’ll make one or two changes to see if there’s any difference because that’s just our nature to try a couple of things, but then we go into qualifying.”
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO CONCENTRATE ON IN THIS SECOND SESSION? “Qualifying. We’re gonna probably make three runs and then adjust on the car to try and find a little speed here and there. Hopefully nobody will pull out in front of us because that ruins the run, but we’ll look for speed that way.”
YOU AND MATT HAVE BEEN SOLID IN THE FIRST THREE RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES THIS YEAR. IS IT A CASE OF NOT MESSING WITH A GOOD THING? YOU’LL DO THE SAME THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah. We’ll try and find each other in the race and try to stay near the front as best we can and not leave one another to where you hang them out to dry. You try and do what you can until it comes down to the last lap and then it’s kind of every man for himself.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT YOUR POSITION IN THE STANDINGS RIGHT NOW? “I feel we’re racing for a top-five finish in the points. We really want to get in the top five in points. Can we win the title? Sure. I mean, obviously we can, but the deck is kind of stacked against us. We’ve got a big hill to climb, but nobody here is saying that we’re not gonna try or we’re not gonna do it. We’re gonna have to try all we can to get in the top five. Look at the guys from 13th and back that aren’t in the Chase, they’re trying to win too. Everybody shows up to win and do the best they can, so we’re gonna show up and do that as well. I think that realistic target would be getting in the top five and that would be pretty satisfactory if these guys continue to run like they’re running because we still have to make up a fair amount of points to get there.”
BUT EVEN IF YOU FINISH IN THE TOP TWO OR THREE EVERY WEEK, THE GUYS IN FRONT OF YOU COULD BE IN THE TOP 10 TOO. IT’S HARD TO MAKE UP POINTS IN CHUNKS, RIGHT? “A good example is to look at it this way. I have to finish roughly seven spots in front of Keselowski for seven races straight to beat him. So every race track we go to I’ve got to finish at least that far ahead of him from here to Homestead. Now, he could have a disastrous day and you leapfrog a bunch – maybe 25 points, which is three races worth – but you’ve still got four more races where you have to finish seven spots ahead of him – and then you’re only even. That might seem like something that’s pretty far out there, but we’ll do our best and see what happens in the end.”
