FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Daytona 500, Page 3
February 20, 2011 Daytona International Speedway
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Black Ford Fusion – “We were pretty beat up and it was pretty hard to control. I should have known better. I should have just stayed in the back and hoped for a lucky dog or a wavearound, but Mark did a wavearound that time so we were trying to race him for the lucky dog. I was driving up there in traffic where I knew I wasn’t capable of doing with a car pushing me. Greg was trying to help me out to get me back on the lead lap, so we were coming up through the middle and he was pushing me. Logano put on a big block, so I had to get on the brakes and slow up for him and Greg couldn’t quite slow up and just got me turned around.”
WHAT HAPPENED? “First of all, I shouldn’t have gone up there to start with. I asked him to try to help me get the lucky dog or get back on the lead lap and he was staying with me, but in all that dirty air my car was so beat up and the suspension was so bad that I could hardly make it through the corner. I had to let off the gas all the time. I couldn’t run up there in all that turbulent air, but we caught the 20 and a couple of other cars. The 20 was by himself, slow and saw us coming. I was gonna split the middle and he went up to block so I had to slow up and when I got slowed up, I just got turned around.”
HOW MENTALLY CHALLENGING IS IT OUT THERE? “It’s just aggravating because you’ve got to either be shoving somebody or get shoved and it’s just kind of an aggravating way to race. You’ve got to watch your mirror and keep riding the brakes and try to get to somebody, or you’ve got to be in front of somebody and hope they slam the brakes so you can just slam them. It’s just a difficult way to race.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I don’t know what happened there. I got a little sideways off of four. I don’t know if the 42 wasn’t pushing quite straight or what. I went sideways for awhile and got it gathered back up. Right when I got it gathered back up he hit me again and sent me into the fence on the outside. I just have to watch the replay. There is only so much you can do trying to drive these cars. I hurt my teammate four laps earlier the same way. You don’t mean to do it but you have to push to stay up with all the cars. Unfortunately that is what happened.”
HOW IS THE RACING OUT THERE AND WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND KENSETH? “Matt’s car was moving around, the air was moving it around. He was kind of stuck behind the 20 and I was trying to be easy. It looked like I bumped him and he got going and got straightened out and I started to go against him and he wasn’t quite done moving around. It just takes a touch at the right time when a guy is moving and you will turn him. Just like what happened with Montoya and I. He probably thought I was gathered back up and tried to push and we weren’t quite straight yet.”
WHEN YOU COME BACK IN JULY DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE MORE OF THE SAME OF THIS, OR WILL YOU GUYS FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THIS OUT HERE? “I think we know what we are doing. We were tore up and it is unfortunate. It is luck of the draw. You have to have a good guy pushing you and your car can’t be tore up. The 99 and I worked great together; the 6 and I worked great. Matt’s car is torn to pieces and I don’t have an excuse for Montoya at this point.”
