Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Toyota Savemart 350 Qualifying (Sonoma Raceway)
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Ford Qualifying Results:
2nd – Marcos Ambrose
3rd – Carl Edwards
4th – Greg Biffle
8th – Joey Logano
18th – Brad Keselowski
21st – Casey Mears
23rd – David Ragan
24th – Boris Said
29th—David Gilliland
32nd – Aric Almirola
35th – Josh Wise
37th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
40th – Paulie Harraka
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion – “It was a pretty good lap. Our Front Row Motorsports team we always take a little bit extra time and effort coming to these road courses. David Gilliland and Josh Wise are both good road racers, so I try to lean on those guys a little bit. You’ve got new tires, cooler temperatures and you’re so pumped up that I probably overdrove a little bit in a few corners. I think whoever sits on the pole here today is probably gonna hit every corner just right. I think I hit 70 percent of them good, but I missed my mark on a few of them. Nevertheless, it was a solid run for our Ford team and we’re excited to be out here. It’s always a lot of fun to come out to Sonoma.” HOW WAS THE LAP? “It was pretty good. I told my crew chief Jay Guy before we went out if I could run three-tenths better I would be happy. It’s so hard to get in a rhythm here the first thing Saturday morning, but we picked up a half-second or so, so I thought that was a good pickup. It’ll be interesting to see what everybody else picks up on their qualifying lap, but I’m proud of our Front Row team. We’ve got some good race cars out here and, hopefully, we can just be in contention at the end. So much stuff happens during this race between strategy and luck and cautions and mechanical issues. You’re very, very hard on these things, so our Ford Fusion is running good and we’re ready for tomorrow.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion – “It wasn’t bad. I was a little disappointed because we didn’t have the forward drive that we needed. Overall, I think the track is in good condition. It’s something different. I think it’s a good idea and something more for the fans to be able to watch and hopefully connect with.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford Fusion – “The format is everything I’m used to because I’ve never done it the other way. In Nationwide we’ve always done it that way, but our first lap was still our best so I don’t know if it really helps here at Sonoma. It will probably help at a place like Watkins Glen, but the tires wear out so fast here that the second lap is normally not any good anyway, so it’s cool. The lap itself was not so good. We were faster than yesterday, but not near as fast as we wanted to go or thought we should go. I kicked up some dirt, which wasn’t good, for the first time this weekend, so hopefully that will be our last time.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Farmland Ford Fusion – “We certainly wanted better than that, but this road racing stuff is so tough and it takes me a little bit to get in a rhythm. I’ve gotten a lot better at road racing, but it still takes me that couple of laps to get in a rhythm. To come in here on Saturday morning and just bust off a lap without being in that rhythm is really hard for me. I’m disappointed for sure, but the car was real good in race trim. We didn’t make a qualifying run yesterday, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. We focused real hard on making our car better on the long runs, so hopefully that will pay off for us tomorrow in the race.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “I got a little greedy there a couple times and I got a little nervous, but I think that’ll be a good lap though. I think that will stand up hopefully for a top-five. I have really messed up qualifying a number of times here, so with the group format I thought, ‘Great, I get a ton of laps,’ but Jimmy said, ‘No, we’re gonna only do one,’ but that was pretty fun.” WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FORMAT? “It’s fun. It’s a little less lonely out there with all your friends running at the same time. It’s a different format that does give you options to run two laps. Jimmy opted out of the conservative route and went for one lap only and it went pretty well. That’s a good lap for me and I’m really happy with it. Hopefully, it’s a top three or four. That would be really nice to start up front.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I’m extremely happy with that. It’s not over yet, but it looks like Ford is going to have three of the top four qualifying spots, so I’m not complaining about that at all.” YOU TALKED ABOUT MOMENTUM EARLIER IN THE WEEK AND YOU GUYS SEEM TO BE RIDING THAT. WOULD YOU AGREE? “I think so, definitely. We’re definitely riding that coming off a second-place finish at Pocono and a win last week at Michigan is certainly great for our team and we really, really needed it. We’ll just continue to work hard.” WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE QUALIFYING FORMAT HERE? “The format was great. I thought it was a lot of fun.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “I think it’s a good format. I think it’s better for the fans and better for the drivers. It’s probably a win all the way around, so it’s good. I thought I did an OK job driving, but it wasn’t really where I wanted the car to be. We’ve got some work to do because I don’t think we’re all that great right now.”
CARL EDWARDS AND MARCOS AMBROSE PRESS CONFERENCE
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – WHAT ABOUT THE QUALIFYING FORMAT? “The qualifying format was supposed to be easier on the drivers because we were supposed to get a couple of laps, but my crew chief went ahead and taped the grille off and said that we’d just get one lap, so I was really happy with the lap. I made a couple of little mistakes. I think I could have done better, but, still, it’s the best position I’ve had starting here and to be anywhere near Marcos Ambrose in qualifying at a road race is an honor for me.”
WAS IT STRESSFUL WATCHING THE FASTER CARS FROM PRACTICE FOLLOW YOU IN QUALIFYING? “Yeah, it’s always stressful to go out and put the fastest qualifying lap up and then watch the rest of the guys go because you obviously can’t affect what you’ve already done, so it is pretty tough. I went up to the hauler and I knew that I’d made a couple of mistakes and I went up there and sat with the guys and we watched Ambrose beat our lap and then McMurray, but, still, to start up front here in third position is good. We got the pole last week, so we do have one pole award and we’ll be in that Sprint Unlimited race, but this is a tough race. I’ve messed up qualifying a number of ways. I’ve screwed it up a lot of different ways and this is probably the best lap I’ve ever had here, so I’m pretty proud of that.”
CAN YOU SUMMARIZE THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING HERE IN SONOMA? “This is the most fun race of the year. I really enjoy the driving here at Sonoma and I think, for me, it’s fun because it’s such a challenge. I had never raced on anything like this race track until the first time I came here and I feel like I still have a lot to learn, so each time I come back I learn something. The area is beautiful. It’s much different than where I’m from, so it’s just a beautiful place to come and it seems like the fans really enjoy the race and everybody just enjoys coming out west and spending a couple of days here. It’s a nice area.”
THIS IS YOUR FIRST TOP 10 START HERE AT SONOMA. “I knew it was bad, but you didn’t have to say that. This is a really great format.”
DID THE NEW QUALIFYING FORMAT CHANGE ANYTHING AS FAR AS WHAT YOU DID OR DID NOT DO? “It gave us an opportunity to run a couple of laps and I was excited about that because I always screw up qualifying here. Then Jimmy Fennig said, ‘No, no, no. We’re gonna tape this thing up and run one lap.’ So it really didn’t change anything. I thought it did and it didn’t. See, this is really the tale of two road racers here. I’m just pumped to be in the top three and he (Marcos Ambrose) is ready to rip the table apart because he knows he should have been on the pole by about a second.” EDWARDS ASKS AMBROSE WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS CAR AND AMBROSE SAYS. “It stopped.” EDWARDS RESPONDS BY SAYING. “And you still beat me. That’s great (laughter). Just think how bad I feel right now. So now, thanks to that, he’s gonna take it out on us tomorrow and probably win by a lap.” AMBROSE RESPONDS BY SAYING, “No mercy.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – WHAT ABOUT THE QUALIFYING FORMAT AND YOUR LAP TODAY? “First of all, we’re thrilled to be on the front row. Anytime you get on the front row you have to be proud of it. We had a great Stanley Ford Fusion out there today. It was really hooked up and was good enough to probably get the pole position, but congratulations to Jamie and everybody over there at Ganassi. It was a really strong effort and you don’t get a pole position without deserving it, but in our case the motor quit running coming to the green flag so I lost all of my momentum coming to the green flag. I thought about just bailing out of that lap and trying to roll around for a second lap, but I wasn’t sure about engine temperatures and the tires go away so fast. I didn’t know if I had already stressed them out and if I could have made up time, so I just went for it. I pretty much lost my mind there and was really mad and just had to get my composure back to finish the lap off and it was good enough for the front row, so I’m proud of that but disappointed obviously that we didn’t get the pole position.”
WILL YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE ENGINE? “We’re gonna have to look at everything because I’ve never had that happen before. It was an uneasy time for that to happen. It was just bad timing for it to happen like it did. It came back on too, so it was like the motor quit and then it came back, so the mystery of it cutting out was just as surprising when it came back to life. But we’ll look at it. We’ll change probably switches and things like to make sure there’s nothing wrong there in the wiring and we’ll go from there.”
WHICH LAP DID THAT HAPPEN? “It was right here coming to the green flag. The motor had gotten going again before I hit the green flag, but I’d lost all of my momentum, so it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances there, but it doesn’t matter because we’re on the front row and have a chance to lead the first lap and that’s what we’ll try and do.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS GEN-6 CAR OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS? “Certainly it’s a pretty fast car and the tire and track combination here has been a real challenge to get a hold of. I’m certainly not throwing it down on the car. The car is a faster race car, but they’re not easy to drive around here. You’re gonna see a huge drop off in lap times throughout the course of a fuel run and, really, for us, practice has been about trying to manage the grip level of the tires and just try to get a car that’s consistent over a 30-lap run, which is not gonna be easy because they’re gonna lose three seconds a lap. That’s how it’s gonna go.”
DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM YOUR TEST HERE THAT HELPED YOU SETTING UP THE CAR? “We certainly did. We feel like it was a good thing for us to do and we’ve had an advantage so far this weekend. We had a much calmer practice than what other teams have had, knowing the limitations of the track, the tire and the car, and we’ve just really worked at fine-tuning the car as best we can to be ready for these long race runs. I think the race is gonna have a long green flag stint somewhere in the middle of the race and we want to be ready for that.”
