Ford Racing NNS Notes & Quotes:
Daytona 500 Friday NNS Qualifying (Daytona International Speedway)
Friday, February 22, 2013
TRAVIS PASTRANA, No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang – YOU MADE IT INTO THE RACE. YOU ONLY HAD TO BEAT FOUR CARS BUT THAT WAS A GREAT LAP. “Yeah, as easy as that sounds and as high as our expectations were and how good the car and crew are it was still a big thing. Chad, my crew chief, said that we were going to do mock runs, qualifying runs in practice because we had to make the show. He said the only thing that matters is to make the show. If we could make it without crashing it is a good day at Daytona. Otherwise a pole would be nice and winning would be nice but we have to take what we can get for now and just get these points up.”
HAVE YOU FELT THE PRESSURE OF ALL THIS INTERNALLY? “Without a doubt. We have such a great race program right now at Roush Fenway Racing and so much expectation from the action sports community. To come out here and be sitting well right now is awesome.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL FOR THE RACE TOMORROW? “All our practice was done to produce a qualifying run that would put us in the field. Now that we have done that, the yellow line on the back of my car is what everyone will be watching out for. Hopefully I can find a partner to draft with me because they know I have a good car from the time we posted and we can find a good partner. Maybe Trevor if I can buy him a nice dinner or something tonight. Maybe I will take him skydiving. It should be good. I am really looking forward to it.”
SAM HORNISH JR, No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang (QUALIFIED 2nd) PRESS CONFERENCE
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN TODAY. “Everything went almost as well as expected or planned. The car has been great and the guys at Penske Racing have done a really good job over the offseason of building us all new race cars. As soon as we put it on the chassis dyno for the first time and took it to the wind tunnel we knew we had a better piece than what we raced with last year. We are really excited about getting this year going with a lot of new changes on the Alliance Truck Parts number 12 team. New crew chief, car chief, spotter, just about everybody. Things were changed by either people getting promoted to the Cup Series at our program or changes that needed to be made. All in all I am real happy about our opportunities this year. The big thing for me is we have had a few months to think about it and take care of any of the problems that might arise and figure out how to make ourselves better. Now it is time to make it happen.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK THINGS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE RACE? “You are going to see packs of tandem racing. The great thing about the temperature we are going to have for tomorrow is the tires will wear a little bit more and it will make everything a little bit slicker and you are going to have some guys that will eventually tandem race. I think you might see a little bit of pack and a little bit of spread out stuff. Handling will be an issue at points in time tomorrow. I am excited about that. I wish we had a little less of a spoiler so you couldn’t push quite as much and be so aggressive because sometimes people – the fact that the spoiler is so big they can’t see what they are pushing you into and you can’t get your hand out the window far enough to make them know they need to slow down. It is part of what this racing is. If you win you love it and if you don’t you hate it. It just depends.”
