Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen Advance (Watkins Glen International)
Friday, August 10, 2012
Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, held a Q&A session with members of the media at Watkins Glen International after the first practice session outside his team hauler. Biffle, who is third in the point standings, spoke about a variety of issues.
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I love this track. I like road racing. It’s a lot of fun. I like this track a little bit more than Sonoma. I like the area around Sonoma and doing all the fun things out there, but I run a little bit better at this race track. There is a little higher speed, I like it. We’ve worked on our cars a little bit since Sonoma and think we’re gonna be a little better here, so I’d just like to get on the track.”
HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU THAT YOU MIGHT NOT GET ON THE TRACK TODAY? “That would be really tough because we look forward to having track conditions as close as we can get it to the race, so if we go on the track at 8 o’clock in the morning on a green race track and that’s our only practice, it’s gonna be tough to compare that to Sunday after all the rubber is on the track from the Nationwide race, so it will be difficult to do a morning practice only.”
IS THERE AN AREA ON THE TRACK YOU LIKE OR DON’T LIKE? “I think the esses are really where a lot of the speed is at and key to a good lap time around this place is getting up through those esses, but the carousel after the bus stop is a real important corner coming back to the front stretch. They’re all important, but there are some spots where lap time can be made up quite a bit.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO IMPROVE OR MAINTAIN YOUR SPOT IN THE POINTS? “For us, winning races is really where it’s gonna be at to get bonus points. We’re not locked into the Chase by any means, but we feel like we’re in there pretty good. Last week was kind of tough. We thought we might come out of there leading the points but got put back a ways further than we expected to, so we’re still six points back, but the points really don’t matter right now until you get into the Chase and bonus points are what matter.”
IS THERE MORE MEANING TO IMPROVING YOUR SPOT IN THE STANDINGS? “When it resets to start the Chase the only thing that will reset are the wins, so if we go in there leading the points or go in sixth we’re gonna be in the same spot, so we need bonus points right now and that’s gonna be wins.”
THOUGHTS ON PENSKE USING ROUSH YATES ENGINES NEXT YEAR? “I think we all are so close on the power anyway right now I don’t think it’s gonna be a huge difference. It might help our engine program have a little bit more R&D money or things like that to help develop our engines, but I feel we’re pretty close on power right now.”
YOU DID THE RECENT TIRE TEST AT MICHIGAN. THOUGHTS ON NEXT WEEK? “I think Goodyear did a good job. They had a little bit harder tire, maybe a little bit thinner on the right side so it doesn’t get as hot. They seem like they ran really good. The speeds were down just a little bit, but not much. I think it’s gonna be good. I don’t think it’ll be a lot different than when we were there before, and I thought it put on a pretty good race.”
