Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
NRA 400 (Texas Motor Speedway)
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion has enjoyed plenty of success at Texas Motor Speedway over the years. Biffle met with media members Thursday between test session at the track to offer his observations on the day and more.
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – TALK ABOUT HOW IT WAS LIKE OUT THERE TODAY. “Yeah, the last time I drove this car was last year here and it has come so far since then. It was definitely a handful then to drive and now the first few laps on the race track it has a lot of grip and is really fun to drive. You know, it is the same old Texas. We are sliding and a little loose and then tight and it is going to be a fun race.”
ARE SPEEDS WHAT YOU THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE? DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO GO UP OR DOWN THIS WEEKEND? “I think you are going to see pretty high speeds in qualifying. I think you will definitely – this is one of the old school race tracks, one of the few that are left, where the tire is super fast for the first lap and then falls off almost a tenth on the second lap. Two-tenths on the third and fourth lap. You will see that really fast one lap speed but that is not really a big concern on if we are going too fast or with track records because it slows down so quick. We do have less gear and that is probably worth at least a tenth of speed as well. It seems like to me that I could tell the motor doesn’t seem like it has quite as much steam because we have a little less gear in it.”
THIS HAS ALWAYS SEEMED LIKE A ROUSH TRACK AND YOU GUYS HAVE ALWAYS DONE WELL HERE. WITH THE SEASON YOU GUYS HAVE HAD, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO COME HERE AND DO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE IN THE PAST? IS THERE EXTRA EMPHASIS? “Yeah, I really think so. We plain and simply screwed up at Vegas and I take most of the blame for that. We were just way off with the new car. California was more of us. We qualified second and had good lap times but had to start at the back with an engine change. This track feels good. I had really good speed here, second quick, and the lap tracker our laps look fairly good. So I feel pretty confident we are going to have a decent weekend with at least a top-10 run and we will hone in on that as the weekend goes. I think we have a good chance at winning. Right place, right time. Two-tires, four tires. Make it on gas, whatever it comes down to.”
IS THERE MORE URGENCY? “Yeah, I think so. If you would have told me I would finish 18th at Las Vegas and 9th at Martinsville I would have told you that you were smoking something, I don’t know. I just never thought that would happen to us, but that is just the way it works.”
