Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Cheez-It 355 at the Glen (Watkins Glen International)
Friday, August 9, 2013
Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Stanley/CTC Jumpstart Ford Fusion, is the two-time defending winner of the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen. He stopped by the Watkins Glen International infield media center to talk about what it will take to win again this weekend.
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley/CTC Jumpstart Ford Fusion – WHAT IS YOUR WEEKEND OUTLOOK? “I don’t know much about what’s gonna happen, but I do know that I’ve got Tony Stewart covered. I don’t think he’ll be a challenge this weekend. We haven’t tested here. I know a lot of teams have, so I’m a little cautious going into Friday’s practice here, especially with the weather. We may not get as much track time as what we wanted to, so we’re gonna have to be on our toes here early on this weekend to try to get the car dialed in and get a feel on this new machine here. The new Gen-6 car we anticipate will be fast around here. It’s got more downforce and that should help us, especially through two, three and four and it will probably help us everywhere, but particularly up the hill where there is normally a lot of speed here when the car is dialed in, so I think you’re gonna see fast speeds and we’re certainly gonna have to have a different setup on the car than what we had last year. We’ll just have to make sure that our assumptions and our guesswork is right here in practice and hopefully it is and we can get focused on qualifying and qualify near the front to control the race.”
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE LAST LAP FROM A YEAR AGO HERE? “It’s obviously been very topical this week. We’ve done a lot of media around that last lap and, to be honest with you, until I really got to this week I hadn’t even watched a replay. The race was awesome and it was an incredible moment. I was there. I was behind the wheel. It was a great feeling to win that race against Brad and Kyle. If the circumstances had fallen the same way again, I may not have won it. It was quite a lucky break for me to get that win, but I’ll take it and I enjoyed it, but I haven’t thought anything about it since. There’s obviously been a lot of talk about it this week and we’ve done some media around that last lap, so I guess it’s been pushed back in front of my mind, but, to be honest with you, I look at that race and I wish I had won it by eight seconds and not by one car length at the end because that’s when you can dominate a race and feel like you’ve done the best job, so, for me, it was a great day. It was a great day for our team and it will go down in my racing history as one of my all-time favorite moments, but it’s in the past. As race car drivers we always look forward and this weekend will be no guarantee, so I’m just really focused on this weekend and trying to do a good job for my team.”
YOU DON’T RACE A LOT OF OTHER SERIES SINCE YOU’VE COME TO NASCAR. WHY? “It’s because I’ve got two kids under 10. The bottom line is I’m trying to balance pleasure, work and family, so, for me, NASCAR is a very heavy schedule and I want to make sure that when I have some days that aren’t directly involved in NASCAR competition that I spend it with my family. It’s a personal choice for me. I hope that Tony gets better soon. We all admire and respect Tony for who he is and what a racer he is. At the end of the day, we are race car drivers. We race and not that you want anyone to get hurt, but he got hurt doing what he does. He’s a race car driver. He races cars, so I hope it doesn’t come down too hard and heavy on him. He does it because he loves racing and we can’t forget that. Anyone who does race outside their direct day jobs they deserve the respect of following their passion. For me, my personal choice is that I’ve got a young family and they’re away from Australia and their grandparents and immediate family, so I just try to make sure I keep as balanced as I can. I would love to race three or four times a week. It would be fantastic, but life is not that simple.”
MARCOS AMBROSE CONTINUED — YOU’RE GOING FOR THREE STRAIGHT HERE, BUT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WITH THE GEN-6. WITH THE WEATHER FORECAST TODAY BEING IFFY, DOES THAT COMBINATION SET YOU BACK AT ALL? “It certainly won’t help. I think the teams that tested here will have a huge advantage if we don’t get much track time today. From my perspective, I probably only want or need five or 10 laps, maybe a two or three-lap run to get re-baselined and maybe a couple of changes to get a direction for the race. I would feel much better if we got some track time today. I’m not sure what NASCAR will do with the schedule if we don’t get practice today, whether they’ll give us practice in the morning or change qualifying. It’s up to them to decide what they want to do there, but I would love to get a little bit of track time. I don’t need an awful lot, but certainly it will be an advantage to the teams that came up here and did the hard work and tested, and that’s what makes our sport great. If you put the work in and you plan out your weekends and your season, it can really help.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHANCES OF WINNING THREE STRAIGHT HERE? “If you’ve played poker the chances of continuing to win get slimmer as you win, so I think it’s gonna be a really hard weekend for us. I don’t anticipate domination. I know we’re gonna be a contender. I know we’re gonna be up there in the mix, but there is certainly no guarantee of success here and we have to make sure we get going here in practice, if we get some, and get on the front foot and hopefully have a car that’s close that we can be ready. I feel like I’m a little behind coming into this weekend, especially with the inclement weather. We’ll just have to wait-and-see how it works out.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE FEELING YOU HAVE AT A ROAD COURSE VERSUS THE FEELING YOU HAVE AT AN OVAL IN TERMS OF YOUR CONFIDENCE AND HOW DIFFERENT THAT SITUATION FEELS WALKING IN? “It’s a question we talk about a lot, that I can come to a road course and generally run top-10 everytime we come, yet we go to ovals and we’re more hit-and-miss. The only way I can actually square that away in my mind is that when you go oval racing the setups of the cars are obviously very, very important. When you go road racing, it’s more about just getting the car even and not doing anything crazy. For me, I know when the car is sort of not feeling right that I can get it close, and then I’ll just do the rest. When I go oval racing, the cars are so twisted and contorted with their setups that if you miss it by a half-pound of tire pressure or 20 pounds of spring rate – or something like that – you can have a terrible day. For me, when you go road racing it’s not so much about setting the car up to the very edge, it’s more about just making it easy to drive and then I’ll do the rest. So I guess that gives me some confidence because I’ve been to these tracks several times and run well. I know what I need to feel and so I’m able to get their quickly, probably quicker than most.”
YOU HAVE A RARE CHANCES THIS WEEKEND TO RACE AGAINST A FELLOW COUNTRYMAN IN THIS SERIES. WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND WITH OWEN KELLY? “I do. I’ve raced against Owen Kelly since I was 10 years of age. We grew up about 50 miles apart from each other. We’re good friends and have been for years. He’s been calling me all morning and I’ve turned my phone off. I’m not helping him at all. (Laughing) He can help himself. I wish him the best. I’m just kidding. I’m going to give him a call here in a minute and I’ll tell him a lie or two.”
MARCOS AMBROSE CONTINUED — HOW DOES YOUR MINDSET OR APPROACH DIFFER INTO A WEEKEND HERE WHERE YOU ARE A FOCUS OF THE FIELD AND PEOPLE KNOW YOU WILL HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO WIN? “It’s actually a flip side for me. Last week I qualified eighth and finished 12th and it was a decent day, but not the day we wanted. Still, we were in the middle of the race. I come here and all of a sudden it’s like you’re expected to win, so, for me, it’s actually opposite. This weekend is actually more of a stress-out than last week and that’s hard to sometimes balance out the weight of expectation from our team. The sponsors know it should be a good weekend and the team expects a good weekend and you guys do and the fans do, so, all of a sudden, if you don’t perform on those days it adds even more pressure to what you do every other week. So, for me, I like these weekends. It’s great to contend, but it’s only one race out of a whole season, so I keep striving with our team to get better every week on the ovals and, hopefully, coming up here you’re gonna be talking about me on other weekends and not just road course races.”
I MET SOMEBODY FROM ALICE SPRINGS THE OTHER DAY WHO IS SPECIFICALLY HERE TO WATCH YOU ROAD RACE. ARE YOU AWARE OF THE SPECIFIC CONTINGENT OF PEOPLE WHO COME TO THE U.S. TO WATCH YOU RACE SPECIFICALLY AT WATKINS GLEN? “So if you’ve been to Outback Steakhouse, Alice did not cook the chicken. Alice Springs is actually a town right in the center of Australia. It’s probably one of the most isolated cities, hottest cities in the world. I’ve got some good friends there and it’s great that they’ve come this far. It must have been a long walk for them (joking). It must have been a walkabout, I guess, and got lost. It’s a great country but it’s only 20 million people. The V8 Supercars are fantastic. I learned a lot and did a lot of winning down there, but I’m here for a reason. NASCAR is the biggest form of racing and that’s why I love coming and competing in NASCAR at the Sprint Cup level. It’s the biggest form of racing from my perspective in the world and it’s great that Australians can come over here and enjoy the same thing as a fan. We do a lot of work behind the scenes to try to lift up the profile of NASCAR in Australia. There is a big fan base down there. It’s great that they can come across and spend their money here in the U.S. and boost the economy a little bit. Australia is going through a tough time, so you may see less of them coming across here, but certainly it’s fun to see Australians. I’ve got a few friends coming to cheer us on.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE AGGRESSION THAT TAKES PLACE HERE ON THE TRACK? “From our perspective we’ve had a rough year outside the top 20 in points, so we’re close to getting inside the top 20 and we want a really strong weekend to give ourselves a chance to get back in there and then anything can happen. You’ve got to put yourself on a macro view first and look at the whole year and what we need to do to have a stronger run home. The aggression side of it, everybody says that I’m aggressive, but actually I don’t feel that way on a road course. I actually feel like I’m more controlled around these places. Obviously, to pass cars you have to have strong technique and you need to be aggressive to get past that aero-push or the aero imbalance that you get when you’re trying to make things happen and wearing out tires and brakes and things like that. But generally when I’m doing a lap I don’t feel like I’m actually being too aggressive. I actually tell myself the opposite – to calm down and just try to be smooth.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite team, has helped guide the No. 2 car to back-to-back runner up finishes at Watkins Glen, including a thrilling final few laps versus Marcos Ambrose a year ago. Wolfe caught up with Ford Racing to discuss heading back to the Glen, this time looking for a much needed and coveted win.
PAUL WOLFE, Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – WHAT IS IT ABOUT WATKINS GLEN THAT BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN YOUR TEAM? “Since Brad and I have worked together, even in Nationwide, we have always run really well there. The last two years in the Cup car we have challenged for the win at the end. It is just a combination of a road course that Brad gets around really well and we have always had really fast cars there. The philosophy we use, at least over the last two years, has continued to work. We always really look forward to going there. It seems like Brad continues to get better as a driver and he puts in a lot of time testing and I think that is a big part of it. We are always fine-tuning on our cars. I think it is a race that we always look forward to.”
HOW MUCH CAN DRIVERS IMPROVE AT ROAD RACING AND HOW MUCH IS NATURAL ABILITY? “I think it is definitely something you can get better at. Brad has put the time in and run the laps in testing to continue to make himself better at it. I think we continue to see the progress each and every year. I think as a whole, all the drivers, the younger drivers continue to get better at it and Brad has done that as well. I think that is why each year we continue to be able to contend for the win there.”
WHEN YOU HAVE A FINISH LIKE LAST YEAR WHERE IT WAS SO CLOSE LIKE THAT, WHAT IS THAT LIKE FROM YOUR SPOT ON THE PIT BOX? “I am not saying a whole lot to him when it is close like that. It is obviously real exciting. The first part is having a good strategy the first part of the race to put yourself in position to challenge at the end. From there it seemed like chaos last year. I don’t think anyone knew where the oil slicks were and from pit road you don’t get to see a whole lot of what is going on. I was just kind of listening and following what I could see on the big screen. I was basically sitting and watching and hoping we would come out on top at the end. It was a very exciting race. I don’t know any race fan that couldn’t enjoy that.”
PAUL WOLFE CONTINUED — IS YOUR PREPARATION LEADING INTO A ROAD COURSE DIFFERENT THAN THE TYPICAL WEEK? “The biggest thing is just going back and refreshing and studying the last couple of years there and the things we have done and things we do well. It is a little different mindset than what we are doing week in and week out. As far as preparation we did a lot of our testing prior to Sonoma. In the past we have done a little testing prior to the Glen but with all the oval track testing we have done lately and what we have going on this week with a test at Atlanta, it is really hard for us to fit another road course test in. As far as preparation goes it is a pretty normal week as far as what we prepare. Obviously the transmission, gears and brakes will be very important at Watkins Glen, similar to last weekend at Pocono. We will carry guys from our transmission shop with us to the race this weekend, the same as we did at Pocono to be able to help us with changes we want to make or just to inspect the equipment after practice and change out transmission and gears. There are a few little different things like that we do at the track but other than that it is pretty normal.”
EVERY TIME WE GO ROAD RACING IT BRINGS UP THE DEBATE OF IF THERE SHOULD BE A ROAD COURSE IN THE CHASE. WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THAT? “It wouldn’t hurt my feelings. Obviously I guess it all depends on how good a road course driver you have. I think it is another style of race track and there is a whole assortment of different style race tracks in the Chase. I think when we go road racing, in my opinion, the driver makes up as much as the car does if you wanted to weigh our percentage wise of how much the driver versus the car from one discipline of racing to another, I think road courses definitely the driver can make a bigger difference than maybe he can at an oval if he doesn’t have a superior car. From that standpoint, if you want to see driver talent and ability I guess you could look at it as being good to have a road course in the Chase.”
