Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Bojangles’ Southern 500 (Darlington Raceway)
Saturday, May 11, 201
Ford Finishing Order:
7th – Carl Edwards
13th – Greg Biffle
18th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20th – Aric Almirola
22nd – Joey Logano
29th – David Gilliland
32nd – Brad Keselowski
34th – Marcos Ambrose
37th – Casey Mears
39th – David Ragan
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Peanut Patch Boiled Peanuts Ford Fusion – “It looked like we got some trash on our grille, so we came down and we knew we were gonna lose a lap or two, but we were fortunate and we caught a caution so our penalty wasn’t gonna be that bad. We got some water put back in it and pulled some tape, and went back out and it skyrocketed temperature-wise again, so I don’t know if we’ve got something clogged up in our radiator duct work or the radiator itself, but we lost water a second time. I think it just lost a little bit too much water and got a little too hot. The engine ran great all night. Our car was just way too tight to start the race and we didn’t get any cautions to work on it. Every single stop we were too afraid to pull rubbers and do big adjustments just because we didn’t want to spend a lot of time on pit road. It’s unfortunate not to finish the race here, but I’m proud of our guys. We worked hard and had a decent car. We’ll take some time to recuperate and get ready for the All-Star Race.”
THAT’S THE NATURE OF THIS SPORT. YOU GO FROM WINNING LAST WEEK TO NOT FINISHING THIS WEEK. “Yeah, that’s how it goes sometimes. That’s a character-building weekend for sure. You’ve just got to work hard and stay focused and keep the right attitude. This is a very long season, so this isn’t it.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Geek Squad Ford Fusion – “We struggled a lot tonight and we ended up coming back to seventh, so I’m proud of our effort. But it’s like Jimmy and I talked about, we’re just missing something. We have been really good at this size of race track and I thought our Geek Squad Ford was gonna be really good. Qualifying was great, other than my mess up, but it was just a struggle all night. That’s a long race when you’re just hanging on to the lead lap and trying to make something happen.”
HOW MENTALLY HARD IS IT WITH THAT MANY LONG GREEN FLAG RUNS? “I like the long green flag runs because you really have to dig down deep and focus really hard. It’s kind of fun because you take your mind off everything else and it’s one of the most enjoyable parts of the job are those long green flag runs. But it is tough when your car is not that great. Kyle and those guys are so fast and Jason Hedlesky and Jimmy, I could tell when their voice gets at a higher pitch and they’re telling me, ‘He’s a straightaway back. He’s three cars back.’ It’s pretty stressful, but at the end I had a lot of fun on the restarts.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Meguiar’s Ford Fusion – “It’s a little disappointing. I know it’s different being out front. The car will drive a lot different, but we still don’t have the grip that we need. We’re missing it ever since the season started with this car. We’ve got to figure it out.”
IT’S DIFFICULT TO WORK ON IT WHEN YOU HAVE A RACE WITH SO FEW CAUTIONS AS WELL. “Yeah, but that wouldn’t have really helped. We’ve tested and practiced and are still struggling, so it’s something you can’t really fix on a pit stop. We’ll just have to keep working and try to figure it out.
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “We honestly weren’t that bad. We weren’t great, but I thought we were pretty good. Early on we had a tear-off on the front of the car that blocked the whole thing and we had to come in and get that off because it was overheating, so that put us a lap down. Then we left a right-rear tire loose and had to come in for that and were four laps down. And then there at the end we were just trying to get the wavearound and get a lap back and we got three-wide and I think the 27 got loose and got into us. It’s unfortunate, but the good thing about this weekend was that we had speed. I was pretty happy with the progress we made as a team. We just didn’t get a chance to show it.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “That’s not the result we wanted at all. That was a tough night. We fought hard, but just weren’t quite good enough. We were slipping and sliding all over the place, so we’ll regroup and go to Charlotte and have another go at it. It makes things really difficult when you don’t have very many opportunities to work on your car, but it is what it is.”
