Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
GEICO 400 Cup Post Race (Chicagoland Speedway)
Saturday, September 16, 2012
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
13th Greg Biffle
17th Aric Almirola
18th Matt Kenseth
19th Carl Edwards
20th Trevor Bayne
22nd David Ragan
27th Marcos Ambrose
28th David Gilliland
30th TJ Bell
36th Casey Mears
38th Josh Wise
41st Scott Speed
43rd Michael McDowell
Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 18th) — “A shock fell off I guess. I guess it didn’t get tight. We had a brake line get loose at Bristol and a shock fall off today so obviously we have to get to the bottom of that.”
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THINGS FOR YOU GUYS GOING FORWARD? “I don’t think today has anything to do with next week and going on but we have to do a better job. We didn’t have a very fast car to start with. We had a real good qualifying lap and good track position and thought we could maybe sneak out a top-10 which isn’t nearly good enough but it would still keep you in the game. When we had that problem we got so far behind, thankfully we were able to stay on the lead lap. I was in the back and couldn’t go anywhere. My car just wasn’t fast enough.”
Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) — “We were really going good there at the end and we did our last stop and the car just went bad. It just got way too loose and we were hooking the bottom. I don’t even really know what happened. We were driving up through there and the car was getting better and better and it never fails – the last stop of the day we put our tires on and it went bad.”
Aric Almirola, No. 43 Farmland Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) — WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE PIT ROAD PENALTY? “That was very bizarre. They pretty much ruined our day. It was extremely tough to pass today. Track position was everything. To be running fourth and get a pass through penalty and lose a lap and then have them tell you that they are sorry and give you your lap back, but you are on the tail end of the lead lap so you go from running fourth to 23rd or 24th. That is pretty pathetic.”
WHAT WAS THE EXPLANATION? “They said a tire got away but I don’t think that is exactly true. They obviously were in the wrong because they fixed it and gave us our lap back. It is disappointing. All in all it was a good day though. I am proud of everyone, Todd Parrott and all the guys did a great job. Our car was so fast at the beginning of the race and we ran like we should have. I was proud of that.”
Trevor Bayne, No. 21 Good Sam/Camping World Ford Fusion (Finished 20th) — “It was a tough day. We kept getting bad positions on the restarts. We kept getting on the outside and it was tough up there. Everyone would lose position up there. If I could have ever restarted on the bottom and had some track position I think we had a decent car. It took so long for our car to come in that once we lost those spots I had to fight so hard to get any of them back. With track position I think we could have passed five more cars. I guess anybody can say it but we were tight and then loose and tight again. It seemed like we would free it up and then be too free. It was a rough day. We ended up finishing 20th. None of the Roush cars were very fast today. We were right there with Kenseth, Carl and then ourselves. I wish we could have got by them.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Ford Fusion (Involved in single car accident) – “We just blew a right front. I don’t know why. We ran longer than even that right there on the first couple runs. We don’t know why it happened but we had a pretty good car. We weren’t running, position wise, that outstanding but relative to everybody else it seemed like about 10th-25th were all running the same lap times. I feel like if we could have hung in there and got our lap back and maybe had some strategy to get back toward the front. It is unfortunate because with it being the GEICO 400 we would have liked to have a better day than this.”
IS IT TOUGH TO PASS OUT THERE? “Yeah, I don’t know why but for whatever reason it seems like almost the whole field is running the same lap times. It has been like that here the last couple of years and track position is really big. It isn’t like it is real difficult to pass anybody but you just can’t get a good run on anybody. If you do get a good run they can hang on you on because the track is so wide. It is difficult to clear them and if you do clear them you are all running the same lap time. That makes it really hard to pass.”
