MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Wiley X Sunglasses Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) JIMMY SAID YOU MADE THE CALL FOR TWO TIRES. “Not exactly, honestly I was sitting on the track and thinking that we should stay out and get clean air and try it because I knew we wouldn’t win if we took four. Jimmy wanted four but as I was driving down pit road I thought maybe we could compromise. While I was on the jack I asked if he was sure we didn’t want to try two and he said to put on two. It was really Jimmy’s call and just a suggestion by me. It was tough to pass on top of that rubber out there. We had a lot of power and these guys did a good job with the car.”
HOW SLICK WAS IT OUT THERE TODAY? “That rubber was awful. It has been like that the last three times here. I was really a hinderance for me more than other people. I could really run fast on a green track but when the sun came out and the rubber started piling we went backwards. Through really good pit stops we were able to work our way up into the top five or six that put us in position to make that call at the end.”
DID THE SUN AFFECT THE TRACK THAT MUCH? “It did for me a lot because all that rubber was on there. I think the sun affected the rubber more than the concrete and it got really slick. It was a challenge, and we had our hands full all day. I am glad we had those couple of cautions to work on our car.”
JIMMY FENNIG – Crew Chief, No. 17 Wiley X Sunglasses Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) – “That was all Matt there. He figured we needed to have clean air and he called two tires and we did two and away we went.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scotts Ford Fusion (Finished 7th) “I didn’t have any choice in it really, that is up to the guys up on the box. That is too tough of a choice to make right there and I don’t blame Bob Osborne one bit. I thought we would be able to march up through there and I thought the race would be between Clint and I. I did see a couple cars go fast early on two tires but I really felt we were going to have something. If we had had a caution who know what would have happened. You can’t look back, you have to look forward. We still have the points lead and the fastest car here today. Everybody did a good job on the Aflac Ford and a teammate won, so that is good.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Dewalt Ford Fusion (Finished 3rd) “It was a great day and a really good call for two tires there at the end. I had a fast car today and we just lost a little track position. I thought I had something for ’em but the downforce went away and I wore my front tires out. It is a big day for Dewalt, my best performance for them and a career best for this program. I am really excited.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 28th) – “I just locked up the rear brakes a little bit coming into the pits during that green flag stop. It’s definitely something I need to look at and adjust for the next time we race here. That’s the first time I’ve ever wrecked like that getting on pit road. And I’m usually the conservative one, but I guess I pushed it a little too hard today and it’s very unfortunate for our UPS team. They prepared a great race car and I felt like we had a real good chance for a top 10 finish and just one mistake can change all that. I’m proud that we were able to finish and we didn’t lose a lot of points today. We’ll just go to the All Star race next weekend and try to get in and win that one.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 37th) WHAT HAPPENED? I don’t know, it was weird because it all happened at once and there was no sign of it. I was getting under the 6 car to lap them and we were running the leaders down. The track had gotten really slick. It was fun and you had to work really hard on finding the right line. It showed what drivers had to do. We were going to run them down and all of a sudden off of two it went. It was getting steadily worse. Doug Yates and all the guys at the engine shop do a great job. We had a ton of horsepower and this rarely happens. Honestly it sucks. I really wanted this for us and Ford and Best Buy and everybody, the King especially. I hate this.”
