Ford Qualifying Results
6th – AJ Allmendinger
14th – David Ragan
19th – Marcos Ambrose
23rd – Carl Edwards
24th – Matt Kenseth
25th – Trevor Bayne
31st – Travis Kvapil
33nd – Greg Biffle
36th – David Gilliland
40th – Ken Schrader
41st – Tony Raines
KEN SCHRADER – No. 32 VAMortgageCenter.com Ford Fusion (Qualified 40th) – “It’s just cold today, but we struggled yesterday. The car feels good in race setup. We ran our fastest laps in race setup, so we’ll just have to see. We knew we would be struggling this morning, so we’ll just see where it winds up.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TIRES HERE? WILL THE TRACK COME IN? “It never has come in, so I don’t know that it will be much better this week. There are more marbles than normal. I guess there was a change in tires, but the tires are doing pretty good. It’s just another race at Martinsville. We deal with this all the time.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified 25th) – HOW IS IT RACING HERE IN THE WOOD BROTHERS HOME AREA? “This is really, really cool. We actually did an event last night at their shop and it ended up lasting four hours longer than we thought. We thought we would do a couple hours from 6-8 and we ended up signing autographs until midnight last night for 4,000 fans, so it was a really good turnout. It’s awesome to see the hometown support here. We had a little bit of a pickup today in qualifying, so that’s good for us. This isn’t a track that’s normally easy for first-time drivers and I saw the effects of that yesterday, but I think we’re getting better as we go.” HOW WAS YOUR LAP? “I’m shaking, so that should tell you something. I talked to Jimmie Johnson this morning and he said that every year it seems like after you take the checkered flag your tires finally get grip, and that’s exactly what we had. You just kind of spin the tires as hard as you can on the backstretch, slide the front tires for the first two laps and hope it hooks up for the second lap. That’s what we did. It didn’t really gain grip until the very last corner of the last lap, so that’s your biggest battle here is just tires.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – “It wasn’t real great, but it was better than what we ran yesterday. We were just trying to get some heat in the tires and trying to get the balance where we want, but it was better than yesterday. That will probably be about 20th, hopefully, when it’s all said and done. We still need to be better, but it was a good pickup from yesterday.” WILL THE TRACK RUBBER IN? “I don’t think so. If it gets a little bit warmer, that rubber might build up like it usually does here, but it will be interesting to watch the truck race. There’s no practice today or anything, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the truck race.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 23rd) – “I was trying to decide how to make these tires work. I thought I warmed up mine a little too much. It’s just so hard to get the tires to go right away. I don’t know if it’s the construction, I guess it’s got to be the compound because once they get warmer, they seem to go faster. Everybody is kind of chasing this ghost out here, trying to figure out what exactly it takes to go fast on the third lap of qualifying. I think we’re good after six or seven laps in race trim, but that’s all I’ve got in that Aflac Fusion. I thought that was a pretty good lap.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 6th) – “We’ll take it. Hopefully, that will be inside the top 10 or top 12. This place is so tough and lap times are so close. I feel like everybody is struggling to get rear grip in their car. I just felt like the car is turning really good, it’s the best that this thing has ever turned. Mike Shiplett and everybody on the team has worked hard together to focus on our weak spots the last time we were here. We’ve done that and now we have to work on rear grip. I was a little hesitant off the corners and was a little bit loose, but as long as that keeps us inside the top 10 or top 12 I’ll be happy, and then we’ll just pray for a good race tomorrow.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 19th) – “I’m disappointed. We had a great car and I got a little greedy out there trying to get more than I should, but I’ll take it.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 14th) – “That’s not bad. I felt like it was a little better lap than that. It felt good and I didn’t feel like I gave up a lot of ground and didn’t really get out of the race track anywhere, it just wasn’t quite as smooth. Here at Martinsville, a tenth is the difference between a pole or 15th. If you just miss it a little bit here and there, you can’t really feel that. Yeah, it would have been fun to sit on the pole or qualify in the top three or four, but we can still win from a top-15.”
