FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st Greg Biffle
4th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
6th Brad Keselowski
11th Joey Logano
12th Ryan Blaney
13th Trevor Bayne
14th Aric Almirola
25th Chris Buescher
28th David Gilliland
30th Brian Scott
32nd Bobby Labonte
34th Landon Cassill
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion – Qualified 4th
“It is a good day for the Roush Fenway Ford’s. It felt good in practice. The Fifth Third Fusion was pretty solid and the guys have been bringing really good cars to the speeways, really fast cars. The body shop has been doing a really good job and everyone putting the cars together – Roush Yates and Doug and all the guys at the engine shop. There are a lot of Fords in the top-12 and that is really cool to see. We are getting closer to a pole at a speedway. It would be cool to get that for this team but it is really cool that Greg got it for our organization. It shows we are putting a lot of hard work in and it is starting to pay off at every race track.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion – Qualified 5th
“That was the best we have been here so that is a really good feeling. I am really happy to see a Ford on the pole with Greg Biffle and I think we will be ready to race tomorrow night. It makes you feel really good to see all those Ford teammates up there in the front of the field.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – Qualified 13th
“We would like to be in the top-12 and have another shot at it and the wind can change enough to get us what we needed, it was three-hundredths or something like that. I feel good about our car in the draft and thought it drove really good today. This is the same car we had at Talladega that qualified 13th there so I guess this is the speed it has got. It drove great there though and led well, handled well and handled well today for us in practice. I am hopeful that is what we need and we will go to the front.” A LOT OF FUSIONS UP THERE IN THE TOP 12 “Yeah, we have Almirola right behind us too in 14th and Greg on top of the board. Joey and Ricky are there. A lot of Fords up there. We are excited about that.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Qualified 11th
“We had a good first run and it seems like everyone does a better job picking up in between runs than we do as all three of our cars kind of backed up from what they ran the first run. We need to figure that out. Overall I was impressed with the first round speed, it was a lot faster than we have been here. We are making progress, we just have to keep working at it.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – Qualified 14th
“Our Fusion has been driving good all weekend and has some speed in it. I am really proud of the guys for bringing a really fast Smithfield Ford Fusion this weekend. I am happy with that. I am really pleased with the speed we have brought and how good it is driving.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – Qualified 12th
“That isn’t a bad effort for us. It is nice being in the last round. We weren’t in it at Talladega and it is nice to go back, do our homework, and it looks like we got our speedway stuff a bit better. It is a great effort by everyone on the team and I am looking forward to going racing tomorrow for sure. We have a lot of Ford representation up there toward the front of the field, so it is going to be a fun night.”
GREG BIFFLE POLE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 EcoBoost Ford Fusion – Qualified 1st
TELL US ABOUT THAT FAST LAP. “Yeah, we knew the car had pretty good speed from our practice but we never made a mock qualifying run. It was a little bit of unknown and we thought the car had enough speed to be top-10 for sure. If you hit your shift marks perfect and not try to put too much wheel in it entering the corner and be as smooth as you can and not make any mistakes. It is a little uneventful at Daytona but a lot of pressure not to make any little mistakes. I made two decent laps and the car has a lot of speed. We are pretty happy.”
YOU AND RICKY HAD NICE QUALIFYING RUNS. DOES THIS SPEAK TO SOMETHING WE SHOULD BE PAYING ATTENTION TO? “Yeah, it is kind of weird. Things happen for a reason. When we qualified here in the Daytona 500 something happened to our car in qualifying and we didn’t show the speed we had. We thought we had a front row car then. We have made a little mistake on our part that cost us and then we got a flat tire in the race so we have had fast restrictor plate cars here and Jimmy Fennig, probably to note, Jimmy is heading up our restrictor plate program. This is a testament to his work. Back when we had really fast restrictor plate cars three or four or five years ago, maybe more than that as I am dating myself now, Matt Puccia was heading up the restrictor plate program. We have two really good technical guys back there working night and day, working their guts out to get us the fastest cars that we can. You take guys like that and put them in charge of a program and it shows that they are going to get every ounce of speed out of the car that they can. We are on the receiving end of that. We are thankful that Jimmy is back there and Doug Yates and the engine department, looking for half or one horsepower here at these tracks that makes a difference. All those little things add up.”
YOUR FIRST POLE IN 130 RACES. HOW BIG A DEAL IS THAT? “You know, a restrictor plate pole – I am not going to discredit winning a pole but we would sure like to win an open race track as well. We have been really close with a couple outside front row starts and just haven’t quite gotten there. It does feel good for our team though. Not only did we win the pole but the cars are technically in race trim right now so that tells you how fast of a car we have lining up tomorrow night. That makes you feel good about things. You go to a Kansas or Michigan or someplace like that and put the car in race trim and it isn’t as fast or there are changes, here you just really take the tape off it and adjust a few things and you are ready to go. The car has speed for tomorrow night and that is one thing we are happy about.”
HOW BIG IS LANE CHOICE HERE? “We will watch the XFINITY race and see how that goes off but my gut feeling is to choose the top lane for the initial start and see how that works and we can adjust from there if I get a chance later in the race to start up front again.”
IS THIS A RESURGENCE FOR ROUSH? “We have to be careful about not confusing restrictor plate racing with downforce racing because they are two completely different animals. We are extremely happy that our downforce program has made huge strides. We were running 25th to 30th and to be perfectly honest we are running eighth to 12th or 14th right now. That is not where we want to be but it is a heck of a lot better than where we were. We are working very hard to get to that top-five and on. We don’t have the finishes to show for it, the 16 team doesn’t, and we had a great run going at Michigan and Ricky had a flat in front of us on the last restart. On the other hand, restrictor plate program is the same thing. We are super excited that we have the speed back in our cars. We had good speed here in February and Talladega was a bit of an unknown as to why we weren’t as fast there but we have our speed back here again. We feel good about our restrictor plate program and our downforce program has come a long way. It isn’t as good as our restrictor plate program is right now but we have come a long way and we have a little more to go and we know that.”
DOUGH YATES SAID HE THOUGHT HE FELT THEY FOUND A FEW EXTRA HORSEPOWER. DO YOU FEEL THAT FROM FEBRUARY TO NOW? “It is hard to tell but it does show up on the racetrack with speed. We have been down here for year and years changing engines and restrictor plates out and it clearly shows up in speed. I can’t tell from February to now but you can tell on the straightaway when you are pulling up to cars that everything is right. It takes everything being right to have that kind of speed. Everybody has worked really hard. Our guys, Jimmy Fennig, Brian Pattie who is a veteran of the sport and has been around restrictor plate racing a long time. He is very smart. He came from working around Joe Nemechek which can teach you some tricks. I just have a great group of guys and am happy to be in the position I am in.”
DO YOU FEEL MORE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THIS RACE NOW? “I am not superstitious but I was thinking about all the stars lining up and it got me thinking about how neat it was to see Tony win last weekend. I was really happy for him and I thought it would be nice if we could win down here at Daytona and I have been thinking about it. This would be a good place. We run good here. We had a great run going in February for the win in the 500 and had a flat tire unfortunately so, yes, this is a huge boost of confidence that our cars have good speed and if we pick the right drafting lanes and stay near the front we could be in position to win this thing for sure.”
DENNY HAMLIN SAID THE FIVE TOYOTA’S WORKED THE BEST IN FEBRUARY. HAVE YOU GUYS IN THE FORD CAMP TALKED ABOUT THAT AT ALL? “We have tried. We probably need to do a better job of it. We have gotten together and talked about it. Let me start by saying that. Our philosophy is that we help each other when we can. When there is an opportunity. You have to look out for yourself as well. You work with your teammates and the Ford guys as much as you can but when it comes to the end of it you have to get in the right position to have a run at it. We will definitely work together, certainly our three cars, and Penske is usually on board for working together as well.”
WHAT DYNAMIC DOES FAMILY PLAY WHEN YOU COME OUT TO THE TRACK ON A LONGER WEEKEND LIKE THIS? “It is fun to bring your family. I went to Disney World this week. That was a hot, exciting time walking around Disney World with thousands of people. My daughter had a great time. I spent half a day at the beach today. It is nice to be able to do those things. The schedule down here is nice and allows us to do some things. I am looking forward to tomorrow night. There is nothing better than having your family in victory lane.”
YOU TALKED ABOUT KEEPING IN MIND THAT THIS IS A RESTICTOR PLATE RACE BUT IN YOUR MIND WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO COME OUT OF HERE TOMORROW NIGHT WITH TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT WHAT YOU GUYS HAVE DONE? “Well, lets face it, you have to ask me that tomorrow night after it is over. Really a top-five run is what you target and wish for every weekend. That doesn’t mean you want to finish fifth. I think there is a misconception of when we get out of the car and talk about it being great to finish fourth that it is like we wanted to finish fourth. We want to win but sometimes you are happy with fourth. Really, we need a solid finish. If we finish in the top five our team would be happy and it would be some momentum to take to Kentucky. Our focus at this point is to win the race tomorrow night and be in position to do that. We are starting in the best position and have arguable one of the best cars as long as untaping it and taking the qualifying stuff out of it doesn’t slow it down more than the other cars. We have had that issue at some of the downforce tracks but we feel like we are closer to them in qualifying but they are better in the race. We hope that does not rear its head here. There is less stuff here switching from Q to race. I feel good about my car having the speed it needs to win tomorrow night.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN TAKE FROM THIS POLE? MOMENTUM? CONFIDENCE? “Absolutely. It is a huge confidence builder and talking about the last question, coming out of here with a good finish, that is a lot of momentum for the team. Qualifying on the pole, getting a good run and moving on to the next race. We need that. We need those good finishes and momentum and encouragement. Winning the pole is all smiles on those guys pushing the car up there and getting the pictures. They are pumped right now. We will be ready to go tomorrow night.”
