Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Pure Michigan 400 Sprint Cup Qualifying (Michigan International Speedway)
Friday, August 16, 2013
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st JOEY LOGANO
9th BRAD KESELOWSKI
14th ARIC ALMIROLA
16th GREG BIFFLE
18th TREVOR BAYNE
19th CARL EDWARDS
22nd RICKY STENHOUSE JR.
23rd DAVID GILLILAND
24th DAVID RAGAN
26th MARCOS AMBROSE
33rd CASEY MEARS
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) – “That felt faster that practice. I think it was better than what we had in practice. I don’t know if it will be enough to hold up though. I thought a teen would be what it would take. I think it should hang in the top-five I hope. Track position is really big when you come to Michigan and we have a really good Ford in race trim and I feel like it is really good. I think we have a shot to win this weekend. We have to be smart and play the right strategy but we should be starting up toward the front and hopefully we can stay there most of the day.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Best Buy Geek Squad Ford Fusion (Qualified 19th) – “We just were tight. We worked on that in practice and just didn’t get it. We had more speed than that relative to the field in practice. The other thing is that sun really came out blazing at the end and I think that slowed Greg, Marcos and I all down. We will race better than that. We are better than that. We will see what happens.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 16th) – “I think the sun played into that quite a bit. I would hope to think it played into it quite a bit. It probably wasn’t the full half second but it was part of it. We just need more overall grip than what we just had there. I was also a little bit tight, so we will have to work on that and get ready for Sunday.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – “We certainly picked up a little bit. I think we were a little bit handicapped from going out so early in practice but were fortunate to catch a little shade here early in qualifying. Our Taco Bell team did a nice job. You always want more. If you pick up three-tenths you want four-tenths. That was a solid lap but I think we left a little on the table. We will have to put that in our notebooks and maybe it will help us the rest of the weekend or certainly next time here qualifying.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fifth Third Ford Fusion (Qualified 22nd) – “We were really loose. A lot looser than we had been earlier. I think it is a positive that we made some gains on it but I wish we would have nailed it a little better than that. I thought it drove, as far as balance, a little worse than practice but we still went faster so that is a positive. Overall we will keep working on it tomorrow and see if we can get it better for the race.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Qualified 18th) – “That was way better than practice. It kind of threw me off in practice because we were so bad. We were really tight in the center, hitting the splitter and not turning. We went out for that lap and now I feel like I under drove it because I didn’t expect it to turn that good. We got down in the corner and it never pushed and I never hit the splitter. I really wanted to run a second lap but it was getting too hot so I couldn’t. I don’t know. We will be good in the race here if we can make adjustments like that. They did a good job fixing it up to get us in the show and I am pretty happy with the adjustments we made to help us out for qualifying.”
DAVID GILLILAND, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford (Qualified 23rd) – “It felt good. We were a little too loose. We had been a little too tight where we ended practice, so I guess the positive we’ll take out of that is the car responds to changes, so that’s good. We were able to free it up, but we just freed it up a little too much and couldn’t get back to the gas the way we wanted to. All in all, I think it’s going to be a decent start for our Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion and I’m looking forward to it. The car was really good in race trim, which is what we focused on, and it didn’t qualify bad either.”
