Ford Qualifying Results
7th – David Ragan
11th – Trevor Bayne
16th – AJ Allmendinger
17th – Greg Biffle
20th – Carl Edwards
24th – Marcos Ambrose
25th – Matt Kenseth
28th – Travis Kvapil
37th – Andy Lally
39th – David Gilliland
44th – Terry Labonte
DNQ – Tony Raines
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Good Sam Ford Fusion (Qualified 11th) – HAS IT BEEN DIFFERENT AS FAR AS LOOKING FOR DRAFTING PARTNERS THIS WEEKEND? “It’s been a little different. Now we’ve got people asking us if they can be on our radio channel, so it’s totally different. We’ve got a good race car. I was kind of worried about our best car being in the Daytona museum, but this one seems to be pretty fast, too. We didn’t do any single-car runs yesterday, so we didn’t know what we would have in qualifying, but I think we’ve got a really good hot-rod when it comes to drafting. Talking to David Ragan and Carl Edwards and Marcos Ambrose, hopefully we can find one of them and go to the front again. If David and I qualify beside each other, that would be really good for us, so we’ll see what happens.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 20th) – “Our Aflac Fusion was OK. It looks like our teammates are pretty fast, but this is really gonna boil down to a two-car draft and how you work in the race, and being there at mile 480 when you’ve really got to go for those final 20 miles. Is this still the Aaron’s 499? I was thinking about that the other day because when I was in the fence that one time, I think I won the Aaron’s 499. So I’ve won the Aaron’s 499, but I’ve not won the 500-miler yet. We’ve got to make that extra half-mile or so to the finish line and hopefully we can do that.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) – “It’s kind of an easy day here. Our UPS team did a nice job yesterday. We made some drafting runs and really didn’t do any mock qualifying runs, so we didn’t know what to expect, but that’s a great lap for our UPS team. This is the same car we ran well with at Daytona, so it’s always fun to come back to Talladega. A lot of friends and family come over for the race and I can’t wait for Sunday.”
YOU WON A N ATIONWIDE RACE HERE. WILL THE SAME STRATEGY FOR THAT WIN COME INTO PLAY ON SUNDAY? “We were in a position to win the race and it worked out the last lap to win it, so that’s our strategy for Sunday. We’ve just got to take care of our Ford all day and if we can put ourselves in a position to win, anything can happen if you’re in those top five or six cars. That’s what we’ll be looking forward to on Sunday.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – “We were a little disappointed in qualifying trim and we thought we could have been a little better, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference around this place. It’s a quiet day for the drivers. There’s not much you can do out there to make any difference, so I’m looking forward to Sunday’s race. I’ve had good runs here in the past and some pretty bad ones too, so we’ll just see what it gives us and not get greedy.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 17th) – “You just hold it to the floor for two laps. Our team had a lot more encouragement coming here than what it looks like so far, so it’s kind of disappointing a little bit, but when you’re drafting and in the race it’s a lot different. On pure speed it looks like we’re off maybe a little bit.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 39th) – “It was alright. We just worked on all race stuff yesterday and two-car draft stuff, so I feel really good about our Taco Bell Ford Fusion heading into tomorrow. I think it pushed really well and I had really good speed, and it was very comfortable to drive, so those are three things you’re gonna need for a good finish tomorrow.”
DID YOU DO ANY QUALIFYING STUFF IN PRACTICE YESTERDAY? “Zero. We didn’t do one lap of qualifying because it really doesn’t matter where you start here. It all comes down to being there at the end when it’s time to go.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 16th) – “It was smooth. That was as fast as I could make the car go. You’re kind of just out there hanging out, so we’ll see where we start. The Best Buy Ford will be good and now we just have to go and start texting some people in the driver bus lot and get some friends.”
HOW MUCH STEERING INPUT DO YOU USE TO STAY SMOOTH HERE? “As little as you can. You’re just trying to take everything away that will scrub speed off. There’s not a lot of stuff the driver can do to help it, but there’s a lot of stuff he can do to hurt it, so it is what it is.”
ANDY LALLY – No. 71 Interstate Moving Services Ford Fusion (Qualified 37th) – “I’ve been really happy with the communication and everything that we’ve been getting from the Roush side. We’ve got a new crew chief this weekend who is obviously a really experienced guy. Doug has been great and coming to Talladega with a new car, new crew chief, new everything is tough, but we’re thrilled to be in this race. We’ve got some work to do. Anytime you’re racing any track in Cup you know you’re going up against some of the best guys in the world and it’s always a challenge, so making the race here this weekend is a huge shot in the arm for us.
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 28th) – DID YOU LOSE SOME TIME IN TURN THREE? “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. Yesterday was crazy. We were out doing our runs and there was a 400 rpm difference from the frontstretch to the backstretch. You watch the rpm’s and you don’t really know. It felt like we were hitting the wind over there for some reason, but I’m proud of my guys. Our Front Row Motorsports, Long John Silver’s Ford has pretty good speed in it after a disappointing week at Texas. It’s good to rebound back. I’m just excited to be in the race tomorrow and my teammate, David, proved in Daytona that anything can happen. So if we can keep our nose clean and we’re in the middle of it tomorrow, we’ve got a chance.”
