Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes: Food City 500 – Bristol Motor Speedway
Sunday, March 16, 2014
EDWARDS WINS THIRD NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE AT BRISTOL
Carl Edwards captured the 22nd NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of his career with today’s victory.
Today’s win is Ford’s 620th all-time series victory and the 134th for Roush Fenway Racing.
Edwards’ third Bristol win ties him with Fred Lorenzen and Kurt Busch, who each won three times at this track for Ford.
This marks Ford’s 34th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Bristol, which is the second-highest total for the manufacturer at one track. Michigan International Speedway has been the most successful for Ford with 35 wins.
The last time Ford won consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races was 2012 when Marcos Ambrose and Greg Biffle won at Watkins Glen and Michigan, respectively.
The last time Ford swept the top three spots in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race was last season when David Ragan, David Gilliland and Carl Edwards finished 1-2-3 at Talladega on May 5, 2013.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW –
“I wasn’t sure about the backflip. First, I’ve got to thank the fans for sticking around. How about Ford? They’ve done so much in this sport. They make the greatest cars on the road and for them to finish tonight 1-2-3-5, that’s a big turnaround from the other night. I’ve got to thank Kellogg’s, they stick with me – Fastenal. Jimmy Fennig made some calls. Subway, Aflac, UPS, Sprint, the Eco Power oil, Wiley X, Cessna, New Holland.”
HAD HE NOT MADE THAT CALL WOULD YOU HAVE WON?
“I don’t know. Aric and those guys were really fast. I don’t know if I could have got by them. That’s a gutsy call with all the tire trouble. Goodyear makes great tires. We didn’t have trouble at the end, but it was just a bad matchup with the track. I’ve got to say get well to my Uncle Dan. He’s battling something real tough, but he’s an Edwards and he’s tough and we’re thinking of him. It’s just an awesome night. We’re in the Chase and we’re gonna go win this championship. I just can’t believe we turned this thing around. We were terrible on Saturday, so I’m just glad we turned it around. Jimmy is the man.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion
“It’s just a great night for Richard Petty Motorsports. My teammate Aric Almirola was a couple spots
in front of us, so we’re really proud of our team tonight and a great night for Ford tonight as well with Carl doing backflips on the frontstretch here. I’ve got thank the fans for sticking with us through all this rain this afternoon. I’m really proud of this Stanley team and can’t wait to watch this one on replay and look forward to California coming up.”
IT WAS AGGRESSIVE FROM THE START.
“You had to. These cars go a lot faster around this track than the old style cars and we had to really dig in our feet. The groove went to the very fence and we had to really watch ourselves there and keep adjusting the car all night. We got a bad set of tires where they delaminated and started to cord really bad, so we lost a lap and then got it back. I passed Kyle Busch to get the lucky dog and worked our way back up to the front.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Nationwide Insurance Ford Fusion
DID YOU THINK WHEN THAT LAST CAUTION CAME OUT IT WAS YOUR CHANCE TO WIN?
“I did until it started raining. I’m still not sure what the caution was for, but Mike Kelley got this Nationwide Insurance Ford Fusion rolling pretty good. We felt good about it all weekend because this was a track we were good in Nationwide, so it’s good to have him back and good to be running back up front. It’s good for our partners – Zest, Fifth Third, Nos – it’s just a lot of fun coming back up here and running in the top five. We got a 1-2 finish for Jack Roush. The Eco Power oil was getting a little hot under cautions there, but everything held together and we were able to come home with our first top five of the year. Hopefully, we can keep that going.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion
“It was a good run for us. The Smithfield Ford Fusion was good all weekend. We worked on it. Trent Owens and all these guys, we changed every part and piece on this race car throughout the weekend. I’m really proud of those guys. They did a great job and got a top-5 finish out of it. It was a good day for us. The first few weeks haven’t been great to us, so it was a good way to come back.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE A CAREER-BEST FINISH?
“It feels good. You want to win. I saw it right there at my fingertips on that one restart when I raced side-by-side with Carl, but he had a lot better car than we did tonight.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion
“It was exactly where I wanted to be, just not smart enough to take advantage of it. I saw the 4 was in trouble and we had new tires and the leaders didn’t. We were just making our way through traffic
and he broke something in front of me. Everybody – me and the cars in front of me – we all knocked the wall down running in behind him. It’s unfortunate and just one of those racing deals, I guess. I should have anticipated he was gonna blow up, I guess, but that’s just part of it.”
THE RACE SEEMED AGGRESSIVE FROM THE START.
“Yeah, I thought it was a typical Bristol race.”
