Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
AAA Texas 500 (Texas Motor Speedway)
NSCS Friday Cup Qualifying Quotes
Friday, November 1, 2013
EDWARDS, KESELOWSKI COMPRISE ALL-FORD FRONT ROW WITH QUALIFYING EFFORTS AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY FRIDAY.
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) – “This is huge. My guys did a great job. We had a test here and the guys spent six days here with three days being rained out and we came back the next week and this is just cool. This is so awesome. That was Jimmy Fennig and all the guys at the shop and the engine department. My guys worked so hard here on the test. I think we were the last people to leave the race track that test and the guys worked really hard and it paid off today. It is awesome for Aflac and Ford and all of us. I have wanted the pole here so badly for so long, it is just really cool.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd) – “We had a really decent lap for sure going but I thought I left a little bit out there. We will have a great starting spot for here which is so important. Track position is important for the pit stalls. You want to have a good pit stall here because that can be the whole race for you. I know we are starting up front but I also know we left a little out there so I am a little disappointed in myself.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING AT THE TOP OF THE PACK RIGHT NOW? “I think I will wait to comment when it is over because it ain’t over until it is over. We put a decent lap up, no doubt about that but not the best lap possible. I know there is more out there.”
YOU WERE ROCKETING AROUND ON THE WARM UP LAP BUT ON YOUR LAST LAP IT LOOKED LIKE YOU GOT OFF IN FOUR. “Yeah, the car got off line and that is probably why I am certain there is more left.”
WHAT DO YOU HAVE FOR THE RACE ITSELF? “I want to win. I am going to be very, very selfish.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED — WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF THIS PARTICULAR RACE TRACK. JEFF GORDON SAID YOU HAVE TO HANG YOURSELF OUT FARTHER AT THIS TRACK IN QUALIFYING. “He’d be the guy to ask because he qualifies really well here. He is probably right. You have to make it happen and make it count and that is so far, so good for the 2 team. The majority of the time he is going to out qualify me here and he is a hell of a racer.”
AS THE SEASON WINDS DOWN AND YOU LOOK BACK, WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT FOR YOU THIS YEAR? “I haven’t looked at disappointments, I have looked at successes. If you spend your time focusing on your disappointments you will get more of them. I have been focusing on the successes and how to repeat them. Opportunities, successes, those moments where things have come together. You can’t dwell on the things that haven’t gone your way. You have to just acknowledge them and move on.”
ANY IDEA IF YOU WILL BE BETTER IN THE 2014 CAR OR IS IT TOO EARLY TO KNOW? “Way too early to know about the car but I do know that Ford will be stronger this year. There are some key moves going on behind the scenes that I can’t really articulate but I am very confident that Penske Racing and Ford will be more successful.”
WAS THE SWITCH TO FORD THE BIGGEST FACTOR OR A BIG FACTOR IN YOUR YEAR THIS YEAR? “Everything is a factor and that is a part of the equation but there have been a lot of changes this year, much larger than our change to Ford. The change to the new car was a major tip-over of the apple cart and there have been some other things, whether it was personnel at Penske Racing or across the board. We haven’t had the year we necessarily wanted and I am not afraid to acknowledge that but I also know there were a lot of things outside our control that got us where we are at and the things that are in our control we haven’t exactly done the best job with but I think we will in the future.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “I think we were better than we were in practice but it is hard when you are the first car out there to know what is a good lap and what isn’t. It is a pretty big disadvantage going out first because you don’t know what is good and the track will keep getting more shade on it. There is already quite a bit of shade but as the sun goes down these times are going to get faster. It is definitely a disadvantage but it is what it is and it is all about Sunday.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “It was a great lap until we got to turn four and about plowed the wall. We were probably a top-15 run until that point. It is going to be really bad though because I had to get all the way out of the gas out of four with no front grip when I went back to the throttle. Hopefully we can figure that out for race trim and be alright.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I feel pretty good about that I guess. I had to come way out of the gas out of four. We haven’t gotten it to turn off turn four yet. Boy it was a super fast lap though. I need to see the replay but I felt really good about it. It was a super fast lap and I just had to come out of the gas off four and lost my momentum. It is probably right there. I will go take a look at it and see where we end up.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Farmland Ford Fusion – “That was a decent lap. I was surprised the track didn’t have as much grip as it did. I am a little disappointed but there is nothing we can do about it other than to regroup and go get ready for the race.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 34 SaferCar.gov Ford Fusion – “That was a good lap but not perfect. We made a few adjustments before qualifying and those did what we wanted them to but we should have probably gone a little bit more. The speeds here are super fast and it is a lot of fun out there. We just missed it a little in turns three and four. We have a good Safercar.gov Ford for the weekend. I am looking forward to it because it is always a fun race. It was a good lap but to qualify in the top-10 or 15 you have to have perfect laps and we just weren’t quite perfect.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Fusion – “One and two felt really good. Everybody had been running the bottom down here in three and four so I figured I would switch it up and try to run the middle. We still ran a good lap but definitely had a lot more in it. We had to lift quite a bit off of four. For the most part I am pretty happy with our Ford EcoBoost Fusion. It has been fast all day and we will see if we can’t leave the speed in it for Saturday and Sunday.”
