Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Hollywood Casino 400 – Kansas Speedway
Friday, October 14, 2016
Greg Biffle, hit the track Friday at Kansas Speedway sporting a new FordPass paint scheme on his No. 16 Fusion. Biffle met with media members along with David Loftin of the U.S. FordPass Team, to discuss FordPass and the upcoming race weekend at Kansas.
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 FordPass Ford Fusion – YOU HAVE BEEN WITH FORD FOR A LONG TIME NOW, FORD PASS JOINS ECOBOOST AND OTHER TECHNOLIGIES THE COMPANY HAS INTRUDUCED ON YOUR 16 FUSION. “I have seen a tremendous amount of technology and behind the scenes stuff from Ford over the years. Probably one of the most impressive things I have seen, I am a truck guy, and the backup assist on the F-150 is great. Then I see this FordPass app and I have been reading about it and seeing all the cool stuff it does. It is just another step of innovation from Ford. It is pretty exciting to see the things you can do and connect. The world today is all about connectivity and what everybody is doing. We are all married to our smart phone. To be able to make our life easier, I know one thing that is a complete pain is trying to schedule your car to go do something. I just found out about and read about the parking and what FordPass can do with that. That is one of the things I dread. I think about going downtown to a Panthers game and having to deal with the traffic and finding a place to park but with FordPass I will be able to get a parking space and navigate straight to it through the vehicle navigation. All of the stuff that FordPass does and is going to do in the future is pretty neat to see. It is great to see that Ford is going to be the leader in that area.”
DAVID LOFTIN, U.S. FordPass Team – I GUESS THE SIMPLE QUESTION FOR YOU IS, WHAT IS FORDPASS? “As Greg mentioned, FordPass is our new mobile experience designed to connect customers with their vehicle, with their preferred dealership and directly with Ford. Greg mentioned some of the great features. Customer will be able to schedule service appointments through FordPass with key vehicle information. You can pre-reserve parking in select cities prior to traveling as every day driver or traveling to a special event. If the customer gets stuck anywhere along the road we have a team of Ford Guides that are there to assist the customer with their mobility journey. Everything available with FordPass is designed to improve the overall experience of being a Ford owner and make our FordPass members lives easier.”
HOW DO OWNERS GET THE FORDPASS SYSTEM? “FordPass is a free download through the Apple iTunes store or through Google Play. We encourage all Ford owners to download it. This is an app that will make their lives easier and make their journeys everyday easier from point A to point B.”
IS THERE A MONTHLY FEE FOR ANY OF THAT? “No, FordPass is a free app to the consumer and is available as a free download for most of the smart phones out there for our Ford owners.”
I HAVE A CARFAX APP THAT TELLS ME WHEN MY LAST OIL CHANGE WAS AND WHEN MY REGISTRATION IS DUE. IS THIS SIMILAR TO THAT? “It is similar to that but does go into more specific detail. Through your My Vehicle tab, I have a 2015 Edge and it will tell me all the service history I have on that Edge through an algorithm we use with the motor company we can predict the mileage and has my warranty information in it as well. It is fantastic information and every owner should have it.”
GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOUR PRACTICE WENT THIS MORNING, IF YOU GUYS ARE FASTER THAN LAST WEEKEND AND WHY THAT IS? “Well, that is a mystery in itself why we are faster this weekend and we weren’t last weekend. It has been a bit of a struggle for us this season but on a bright note we have good speed here and we are happy with that. Historically as the track rubbers in that has affected our speed a little bit. Off the truck on Friday’s at some race tracks we have had pretty good speed but here we have better speed than normal. We do have a few updates on our car from aerodynamics and geometry and things so we are hoping that is playing a factor in why our cars are better than we have been. I feel like we are better than we were here in the spring and it was the exact opposite last week. Last week we ran 10th to 13th all week and had a good run qualifying sixth and then we went back and the car didn’t have the speed and struggled for speed all weekend. That was mind boggling why that condition existed. Then this week it was kind of a turnaround again. We are happy the car has speed. I feel good about qualifying coming up and that we are really close to making that final round on speed. We will see where we end up but I am looking forward to the practice tomorrow. We haven’t been in race trim yet. Off the truck, this is the first time in probably two years where we didn’t change anything all three practice runs. Nothing. We didn’t change tire pressure, we didn’t change a wedge bold. We didn’t move anything. We made three runs and did not touch it. Right out of the truck is exactly how it is sitting.”
IS THIS A NEW CAR? “No, this is not a new car.”
CAN YOU KIND OF SIZE UP WHAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN WITH BRIAN PATTIE THIS YEAR AND IF HE IS THE GUY YOU THOUGHT HE WOULD BE COMING IN? “Yeah, Brian and I have a good relationship and you are always hoping for miracles, right? We needed some intervention. We needed to go in a different direction at our company and try to bring some outside information in. Brian is only one guy and only able to bring so much information with him. We did add a few other engineers and mechanics but he has overall made an impact for all the teams. I think that was clear at the beginning of the year. He can’t run everything. I think that in the middle of summer we may have gotten behind a little on aero development and some of the other teams might have been a little better than we were. Brian has done a tremendous job on the team itself. It has taken up until now to really get integrated into the Roush Fenway system and how we operate. We had a lot of pit crew challenges and pit stops and things in the beginning. Our company runs a little different than places he has been in the past and Brian has stepped up to the plate and really helped us all around. I think he has been good for our team and good for the company. It was a little bit of a slow start for us to get gelled together. We worked together a long time ago. I think Brian and I saw eye to eye it was just a matter of getting integrated into our simulation and process and car builds and things like that. It took a little bit to get going. It is a whole lot to undertake.”
YOU SAID WHEN YOU SIGNED YOUR LAST CONTRACT THAT IT WOULD PROBABLY BE THE LAST. ARE YOU STILL FEELING THAT WAY? IS THERE A RENEWED SENSE YOU MIGHT WANT TO KEEP THE TRAIN ROLLING? “Well, if I talk to you Sunday after the race in here maybe that will be some inspiration. I want to be competitive in races and run in the top-10. That is my goal and my focus. If I am not doing that, then I am probably going to do something different. I spend a lot of time and won a lot of races and running in the top-five and top-10. A race car driver knows and understands he isn’t going to run there every weekend. That is obvious. Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson – I actually get some humor out of when you listen to media or TV about how Jimmie has the sky falling in and they are terrible because he hadn’t won in so many races or something like that. I am used to being in that situation and standing on the outside looking in to where you want to be and where you want to compete is tough. If I am competing at that level, then I am going to keep doing this.”
