Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Cheez-It 355 (Watkins Glen International)
Sunday August 10, 2014
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
2nd MARCOS AMBROSE
5th CARL EDWARDS
6th JOEY LOGANO
8th GREG BIFFLE
18th ARIC ALMIROLA
19th DAVID RAGAN
20th RICKY STENHOUSE JR.
22nd DAVID GILLILAND
35th BRAD KESELOWSKI
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Kellogg’s/Cheez-It Ford Fusion (FINISHED 5th)
“I am glad Jimmy Fennig put us in a position to be up there for the win. I am sure like everyone up there that you want the last few laps to do over again. It was a blast and a lot of fun. Thanks to Cheez-It and thanks to all the fans for coming out and making this a record crowd. Congrats to AJ, that is awesome for him. Marcos did a great job too. Both those guys are amazing to watch. I had the best seat in the house to watch that and if we couldn’t win, at least I had a great seat to the show.”
MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (FINISHED 2nd)
“First of all, congratulations to AJ and the 47 team. They deserved that win. I left nothing on the table. I tried to rattle his cage and couldn’t shake him. We raced fair and square to the end there. It was a tough couple laps but it was fair. We were both giving it to each other pretty hard. No harm, no foul. We just came up a little short. I am just really proud of my Stanley team. We put a lot of effort into this race and really tried to win it. We won yesterday and came up one short today.” HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE INSIDE LANE ON THE RESTARTS? “Yeah, you can snooker the guy from there. It is like a game of chess and he was one step ahead of me. I had a few shots at it but I couldn’t quite close the deal.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (FINISHED 8th)
“The racing was really good. We were able to make up a lot of ground. It is aggressive and as people got more comfortable it got nuts. We went into the bus stop three-wide and that is pretty tough to do here two-wide. That is the first time in my career I have been in there three-wide. The car got the fender beat in a little bit and we got tight coming off the bus stop and got off the race track. Stuff happens. I hoped we could work our way back up.” HOW DO YOU STAY PATIENT BEHIND THE WHEEL KNOWING WHAT LIES AHEAD AT THE END OF RACES HERE. “You just try to do the best you can and protect your position and race hard. That is about all you can do.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (FINISHED 6th)
“That was crazy to say the least. We had about a fifth place car and had to go through a lot to get back to that point. We had a pit road penalty that was very questionable and definitely wasn’t to our advantage to take a pass through penalty there and we lost a lot of track position. WE fought hard with this Shell Pennzoil Ford and put tires on it late and was very aggressive on the restarts and got a few spots back. I wish there were more laps. The tires were worth a few there at the end but I needed a few more laps there at the end.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 95 K-Love Ford Fusion (FINISHED 42nd)
(Involved in multi car accident that brought red flag on lap 57) “I am good. I thank the good Lord above. That was a bad wreck. It seems when I do it they are usually fairly big. I am not sure what happened. I saw the 16 get wide and the 39 come back across the track. I didn’t have time to adjust or move. I tried not to hit Ryan in the door there. That was pretty much it. I was just along for the ride. We had a good K-Love car today but we were off on strategy. It was going to work out. It was going to cycle out. I am glad to walk away from it. I am very thankful. I feel blessed.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – (Behind the wall with brake issues ) (FINISHED 35th)
“We had something in the brakes that broke. The team is trying to fix it. At Watkins Glen you can’t run without brakes. We nursed it around as best we could and had the yellow flag period to work on it and we came in to start working on it but it took longer than we had hoped and we were sitting in the garage here when that horrible accident happened. We will have to hang out here until the red flag is rescinded so we can finish up repairs on the Miller Lite Ford Fusion and get back out there.” WHAT WAS THE RACING LIKE OUT THERE? “I thought it was great racing. Unfortunately there was just a little bit of aero issues for us in the high speed corners otherwise it would be phenomenal. I thought all in all it was great racing and we had a fast enough Miller Lite Ford to contend for the win. I was hoping that would play out but unfortunately it didn’t.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – RUNNER-UP PRESS CONFERENCE — THAT WAS A HECK OF A BATTLE OUT THERE TODAY. “First I want to congratulate the 47 team. They are good friends over there. I drove for those guys a long time and I was never able to seal the deal with a win for them. I am pleased that they were able to get a win and I am thrilled for AJ too, that is a big win. I am disappointed for me. We threw everything we could at it. We knew what was at stake. We had a great race car and led a lot of laps, just came up a little short.”
HOW DO YOU GET YOURSELF BACK PREPARED MENTALLY AFTER LONG RED FLAG BREAKS LIKE WE HAD TODAY? “I think about fishing. No, when you jump in a car, whether it is practice or a race or after a red flag, you go through your own routine. What are you after? What do you need to do? You cycle through where you are at and what you need to do. We are all paid professionals out there and we should be able to turn it on and off like a light switch.”
CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THE EXCHANGE OF LEADS ON THE SECOND TO LAST LAP? “I can’t remember much of it but I know there was a lot of door banging going on and a lot of corners where we were side by side. I got my tires really hot during that and slid coming off turn 11 after I got the lead and he got it back before the caution dropped. That was probably the difference between winning and losing. If I could have had the lead when the caution came out I probably would have had the advantage on the restart and probably would have been able to fend him off. That is just racing. That is what it is all about. You try to take a couple chances and I am just pleased we got through the esses side by side without wrecking the whole field. It could have easily happened.”
IT IS COMING DOWN TO THE WIRE NOW TO MAKE THE CHASE. WHERE IS YOUR BEST SHOT AT NOW? “Man, I just finished the closest race of my life. I haven’t thought about points or anything. I will look at it Monday. We are decent in the championship position. I think we are 16th or something. We need to score points but we really need to focus on winning.”
YOU HAD A GREAT FINISH WITH BRAD HERE A FEW YEARS AGO. TODAY LOOKED EQUALLY EXCITING. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT LAST LAP TODAY AND HOW IT COMPARES? “I ran him really hard up off turn one. I was on the outside and tried to run side by side through two and had to pull back in line. I knew that I didn’t have long to try to get the lead back and he had a really bad run through the bus stop and got loose and out of shape. I had a shot at the inside thinking he would slide up the hill. He tried to check it and we got into each other and I was able to slide under him to take the lead. I had to give him some room on the outside too because I knew he would come back on the track and he leaned on me getting into turn 10 or six, whatever you want to call it. He pushed me wide and I shook the front tires and ran wide. That was my bad. It was just tight racing. We were running on worn out tires and racing for a lot. You just do whatever you can to try to get the lead and rattle the guys cage.”
WAS IT AS EXCITING AS THE RACE WITH BRAD? “Not for me personally.”
