Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
2013 Daytona Preseason Thunder Test Session (Daytona International Speedway)
Friday, January 11, 2013
The 2013 Daytona Preseason Thunder test session continued Friday with teams doing single-car runs in the morning session. Sprint Cup rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took time to talk with Ford Racing while adjustments were being made to his No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion about how things have gone so far.
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion – HOW ARE THINGS GOING SO FAR? “We are making changes to the car. We have a test plan when we come and Scott (Graves) and the guys are just taking that test plan and running through changes and we are kind of getting a pile of the good things that are good and go back to the shop and work on your car and bring that back down here. We lack a little bit of speed right now. I think us and Carl (Edwards) are about the same. Greg (Biffle) seems to be pretty quick so we will go back and look at their things and look at our things and come back ready to go. I think we are anxious to get drafting this afternoon most of all.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS FROM THE DRAFTING? “Heck, you just go out there and see how she drives. The Best Buy Fusion drove perfect the whole time here by herself so we will see how it goes during drafting practice. These cars go through the air a little different and make different holes and are a little bit looser I think in the draft. We will see how it goes and try to learn as much as we can here while we are testing before we get back.”
DO YOU LIKE THE WAY THIS NEW CAR IS DRIVING SO FAR? DOES IT FIT YOUR STYLE? “I haven’t really been able to test it on a track where it drives a ton different yet. Maybe Charlotte next week I think we will be able to tell a lot more. For me it drives fine right now. The little testing we did at Talladega I enjoyed it. We will see how it goes the rest of today and see if it is the same. I am not sure what changes they made to it from Talladega to now but so far so good I think.”
HAVE YOU SAT DOWN AND SET YOUR GOALS FOR YEAR ONE IN SPRINT CUP? “We haven’t yet but I think for me we have to go out and try to win every week. I think that is how you achieve your best results. You go out there and shoot for the best. That is what we are going to do and see how we start the season off and see where we end up. We have to be consistent. I think that is the thing that I have learned over the past three years racing in the Nationwide Series. You have to be consistent. You can’t make big mistakes. You have to take what the car and track will give you at that time and go on. I think looking back over the last couple of years we really put ourselves in a hole when we tried to get too much. So this year I think we have to stick to our plan and be smooth and be consistent.”
YOU WILL TRY TO DO THAT WITH A NEW CREW CHIEF AND LOTS OF NEW TEAM MEMBERS. HOW IS THAT GOING SO FAR? “It is great. The guys seem to be working really well together. I have a crew chief who is an engineer and two new engineers working together that weren’t on the same team together. It is a little different getting everybody on the same page but I think this test is a perfect time for that. Things have been going great today and yesterday and we are really looking forward to the couple of tests before the season starts to get everything lined up.”
