GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M/Scotch-Blue Ford Fusion (qualified 2nd) – THAT WAS A PRETTY GOOD LAP. WHAT DID YOU FIND? “Well, I don’t know what we found. It was a good lap for us. We were definitely not that good in practice. I was little concerned about that because certainly Denny [Hamlin] has laid down a huge lap, and we’ve split between first and third. I don’t know where all of these other guys are going to fill in at, but obviously the track has got a lot of speed with that lap that Denny put down, but I’m glad to get this 3M Scotch-Blue Ford Fusion up there near the front. We’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out.
Ford Racing
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (qualified 11th) – “That was okay. We just went a little faster and didn’t quite get the front end just right. I think if we had one more crack at it we could be really good. That’s okay. Hopefully, that’ll be top 15, top-half of the field at worst. It’s a long race, and if we’ve got a race car, we should be able to be up there, no problem.”
IT LOOKS LIKE ROUSH FENWAY RACING HAS BEEN MAKING SMALL INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS. IS THAT AN ACCURATE ASSESSMENT? “That’s correct. Yes, we have been. Dover was great; Matt [Kenseth] was super fast. Last week, I think Greg [Biffle] had the best car. This week we’ve got cars that are running fast, so far. We’ll have a little more practice tomorrow, and we’ll know what’s really going on. It seems like we’re making gains. It never can be too early for that. We need to get on it right now.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (qualified 31st) – “I don’t know if we changed anything to the car or not. It was just a little free, and just being a little too aggressive back to the throttle and had to get back out of it and then back in it. Just a bad first lap. The second lap was better but certainly not as good as what we could’ve run. I’m a little disappointed. It looks like we’ll probably be 20th, 25th or so, but our UPS Ford is pretty good, better than we’ve been, so I’m looking forward to the race.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 R+L Carriers Ford Fusion (qualified 17th) – “It didn’t drive very good. I guess it will be middle of the road for time. But it didn’t drive very good. I was kind of disappointed with it, really, with how our car drove all day, but our speed has been reasonable.”
CAN YOU COMPARE WHERE YOU ARE TODAY WITH WHERE YOU WERE AFTER QUALIFYING BACK IN FEBRUARY WHEN YOU WON HERE? “That’s hard to do, to be honest with you. We had a really good car here in the spring, we brought the same stuff back, but totally different theories and set-ups, and it seems like maybe the speed’s a little better, but it hasn’t been driving good yet today, so we have some work to do tomorrow.”
GREG BIFFLE press conference
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M/Scotch-Blue Ford Fusion – “It was a really good lap. I actually surprised myself, really surprised myself because we weren’t that good in practice. We really struggled a lot, and right there at the end we’re having a little bit of tough times getting it going, so the team really looked at what everybody else was doing and kind of re-worked it, and really didn’t know what to expect. And, drove off into turn one relatively conservative and that probably helped me – I see a lot of guys lost a lot of time in one and two. Got across one and two pretty good and then the car was really good in three and four, so I’m happy with it. Never would’ve thought it would’ve held up, but I’m certainly excited that it did.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS TRACK POSITION HERE? ONLY ONE POLE-SITTER HAS EVER WON HERE. “The closer and closer the competition gets, the more important track position becomes. But, less important on a race track of this size. You can pass and you can run the top and the bottom, but still track position is really important. And the other thing that comes with qualifying is pit selection. It’ll be important to pick an opening on pit road, and that pays off on Sunday all race long. A lot of times that’s very important as well.”
WILL THE RACING BE DIFFERENT BECAUSE IT’LL BE COOLER HERE THIS WEEKEND? “I think it’ll be a little more racy, but in the Nartionwide car at the end of practice the track was starting to get slick, so as it builds rubber and sun beats down on it it’ll get slick, but it’ll be nicer with a little bit cooler temperatures – certainly inside the car.”
WHERE DO YOU EXPECT TO PICK YOUR PIT STALLS? “Thank goodness they don’t let me do that, otherwise I’d screw something else up. You try and pick an opening. An opening is an advantage because there isn’t anybody else there. So at an opening, you’ll pick an opening-out, normally, first and then, obviously, you’ll take an opening-in. So both sides of an opening are an advantage because there’s never a car there that you have to deal with. So, getting into your pit box you can turn in really good and stop short and be kind of pointed out, or you can turn in and stop and you know that there’s going to be no one in front of you. So, all of the openings – as you go down pit road, some tracks have two or three, some have four or five – that is an advantage. There’s usually five or six good spots, and then you just take what you can get after that.”
DOES IT SEEM LIKE BECAUSE OF JIMMIE JOHNSON’S SUCCESS HERE AND OTHER TRACKS THAT HE’S THE GUY THAT EVERYBODY’S WATCHING? “I think there’s four or five cars that everybody’s kind of watching. It doesn’t matter where we go, those four or five cars are consistently good. I remember I was running Jimmie down here last year at the end of the race and couldn’t quite catch him, but I think those guys are going to have to slip a little bit in order for somebody to excel. Finishing ninth last week certainly was an indication; they had some kind of issue during the race. I know that ninth is not terrible for their standards or for people trying to gain points on them – ninth will allow people to gain points. This thing is so competitive. We’re all sitting up here talking about a ninth-place finish, that’s great, to get a ninth-place finish, but right now ninth gives an opportunity for somebody else to gain points on you, it really does.
- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release