Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Good Sam 500 (Talladega Superspeedway)
Sunday, October 7, 2012
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 EcoBoost Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW: WHAT ABOUT THE LAST LAP? “Clint and I got together a little bit on the backstretch. I don’t know if that was my bad and we weren’t exactly all the way clear or what happened there, but that really slowed the group and we got a big lead, which typically isn’t good here. I just looked in my mirror and saw them coming at me three-wide. I kind of let Tony have his spot there. It didn’t look like he had a big push behind him and lined up with Kevin and we pretty much stayed locked together there until we got to turn three and I thought it was gonna be a drag race to the finish. I didn’t know what was gonna happen and I’m still not sure what happened. Somehow I think Tony got turned and caused a big wreck.”
WHAT ABOUT THE SAVE YOU HAD WHEN BIFFLE PUSHED YOU AND YOU WENT TO THE APRON? “I was trying to go to the bottom, but not that far (laughing). That’s one of those I’d love to take the credit for but it’s pretty much lucky. I just kind of held the wheel and the car sort of caught itself and thankfully we were able to straighten it out with no damage. I’m just proud of Doug Yates and all the guys at Roush Fenway for giving me such a rocket ship.”
WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE FOR YOU? “We had a lot of speed today, more than I thought we had. There were just certain spots on the track I couldn’t run and make it work. We were really loose and we were on the bottom and I had people pushing me and people outside of me it was just really hard to control. The track kept getting looser for me as the day went on and we never could get it tightened up. On the last lap that’s why I chose the middle groove. I knew I couldn’t be on the bottom or I’d get spun out, so I had to run the middle or the top to try to make a move.”
TWO FIRSTS AND TWO THIRDS IN THE PLATE RACES THIS YEAR. “It feels great this year. I’m not sure it balances out. I feel like I’m pretty clumsy at plate racing my whole career and never had a lot of great finishes, but I’m glad the plan came together. These are the guys that deserve it. They do all the work and make these cars go fast. I was just holding the wheel.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU SEE COMING TO THE CHECKERED FLAG? “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. Unbelievable. I was probably 20th and five-wide up against the wall and then cars started wrecking. A car flew over the top of my car as I turned to the bottom and missed guys by three inches. It was like Days of Thunder coming through the smoke and the grass and just kept it going straight. That’s all I did and once I was clear of all the stuff I kept going to the start-finish line, but it was the craziest thing I’ve ever been involved in in my life.”
DID THE INCIDENT WITH MEARS ON PIT ROAD PROVE TO BE A BLESSING? “Maybe because we weren’t in the middle of all that, but I saw him (Mears) starting to go and I let off the brakes. I didn’t know what else to do. I have to get there so he can see me. I felt if I kept slowing down that he would have just turned me into the wall when I was turning in. I don’t know if I did the right thing or not. I don’t know what else I could have done than to just wait for him and go behind him. That probably would have cost more time than what we did, so I don’t know. What I do know is we had another really, really good car.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “We were there at the end. We had a strong day. We decided we were gonna run aggressive all day and try to stay up at the front all day and we did that. We had ourselves in position to get a top-five and just got tagged there at the end. I thought I missed the wreck, but looking back at these kind of races at least I didn’t cause it. It is what it is. I have no idea where I finished, but we’ll just go on to the next one and forget about this.”
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “It’s kind of how these races are in that you either have a really good day or a really bad day. The real fortunate thing was we ran really good all day. I was really proud of everybody on our Geico Ford. Roush built us a great car and our guys did a great job refining it. Bootie and the guys made good calls and kind of kept us in the game all day long and it was fun. I had a blast all day long. At the end we had the run to really win or be top three. That middle lane took off and went. I had the 55 and was shoving him pretty good. The 14, you could tell for a second that it’s almost like he thought, ‘should I go down or not,’ and then when he decided it was already too late. This stuff happens. Everybody is trying to win and make something happen. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the finish we deserved today, but it was fun to be competitive and run well.”
THE CRAZIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN? “It was about the biggest wreck we’ve had in a long time at the end of a race. I saw Tony went upside-down and I’m glad to see he’s OK. It’s unbelievable we can go out and run around here 200 miles an hour and have a pile-up like that and everybody walk out feeling pretty good.”
