Richard Petty Motorsports

Annett, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, comes to Richard Petty Motorsports after spending last season at Rusty Wallace, Inc. He has posted 13 top-10 finishes in 105 Nationwide Series starts and drove to a ninth-place finish in the championship points standings last season.

“They say that when one door closes, another door opens, and that is most definitely true,” said Annett. “We were left scrambling a bit because of the situation with RWI and were unsure what the future held, but I couldn’t be happier with the way things have turned out. To have the chance to race for Richard Petty and to be under the RPM umbrella is amazing. It has all come together really quickly, but together with Pilot Flying J and Ford, this is the best opportunity I have ever had to race a Nationwide Series car. There’s a lot to be done before we get to Daytona in a few weeks and I can’t wait to dive in and get started.”

“It’s exciting to have the opportunity to partner with a brand as prestigious as Pilot Flying J,” said team Co-owner Richard Petty. “We are happy to welcome them to the Richard Petty Motorsports family and to our partner family as well.

“This has been an exciting couple of months for Richard Petty Motorsports,” continued Petty. “We are looking forward to getting back into the Nationwide Series full time and seeing what Michael Annett can do in an RPM Ford Mustang. Michael has improved every season he has raced in the Nationwide Series and has the dedication and drive to be a success.”

“Pilot Flying J is excited for Michael and our new partnership with Richard Petty Motorsports,” stated Mark Hazelwood, Executive Vice President, Pilot Flying J. “PFJ has had a longstanding relationship with both Michael and the Petty family. Richard Petty is a NASCAR legend and this opportunity further extends our commitment to Michael and the sport. We look forward to a great partnership.”

Born into a family with a rich racing heritage, Annett began his own racing career in 2007 competing in the ARCA Series. In only his fourth start, Annett drove his Pilot Travel Centers machine to victory lane at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. He drove to victory once again in the ARCA Series the next season at Daytona International Speedway and also piloted an entry in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in eight events that season. In 2009, he moved to the Nationwide Series with Germain Racing and posted four top-10 finishes en route to a 10th-place effort in the point standings. He remained at Germain through 2010 and in 2011 competed for RWI.

About Pilot Flying J

Pilot Flying J, the driver driven company, is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and has more than 550 retail locations across North America. Pilot Flying J is also one of the nation’s largest wholesale fuel providers, delivering over 500 million gallons of fuel to thousands of customers in 47 states and eight Canadian provinces. The company employs approximately 18,000 people and is the largest operator of travel centers and travel plazas in North America. Visit www.pilotflyingj.com for more information.

About Richard Petty Motorsports

Richard Petty Motorsports (www.richardpettymotorsports.com), co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty, Andrew Murstein and Douglas Bergeron, fields two teams in competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Aric Almirola pilots the famous No. 43 Ford Fusion and Marcos Ambrose drives the No. 9 machine with sponsorship from Stanley and DEWALT. In addition, Michael Annett wheels the No. 43 Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The team is headquartered in Concord, N.C.

- Richard Petty Motorsports Press Release

Ford Racing

The morning session on day two of testing at Daytona saw the Ford contingent run mostly single car runs with the exception of the two Richard Petty Motorsports cars. The 43 of Aric Almirola and 9 of Marcos Ambrose teamed up for drafting practice and third and fourth quickest laps of the session. Both talked afterwards about how the test is going so far and what they expect going forward.

Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM YOUR DRAFTING SESSION THIS MORNING? “It feels very similar to last time. NASCAR changed the rules to try to make it harder for us but we are still doing it. The speeds are up and the restrictor plate is pretty open. It is a lot faster and drafting the way we are, the technique and everything hasn’t really changed that much.”

DO YOU NOTICE ANYTHING DIFFERENT FROM YOUR SEAT WITH THE FUEL INJECTION? “Not really. You run these things wide open when you are drafting anyway. The switch over has been very smooth though and I have been very impressed by how all the teams and manufacturers have been able to adapt to the new rules.”

WHAT IS THIS PACK RACING THIS AFTERNOON GOING TO BE LIKE? “It is going to be interesting. We have a meeting to find out how they want to conduct it. We will just have to see.”

YOU HAVE A NEW TEAMMATE THIS YEAR, HOW IS IT GOING SO FAR WORKING TOGETHER? “Aric is really great. We are working well and drafting with each other and we will just take it a day at a time here and build that relationship. I know that he really wants to do well for Richard Petty and his 43 team and I want to do the same.”

Aric Almirola, No. 43 Smithfield Foods Ford Fusion – HOW IS IT GOING SO FAR OUT HERE? “It is going well. Our Smithfield Ford is running pretty good. We have been working with Marcos this morning on drafting and that has gone really well. Our cars are drafting really well together and are really fast. They are really stable too which is important. I am gelling right along and it has been fun to work with Greg Irwin and all the guys on this team. Richard Petty Motorsports has a great group of guys. I have learned that in the two weeks I have been here. It has been good.”

YOU GUYS WERE THE FIRST TWO FORD CARS TO GO OUT AND DRAFT. WHAT DID YOU LEARN? “Well, our cars are fast and they are stable. I think that is the biggest thing, making sure that your car is stable now with this smaller rear spoiler and the softer rear springs. That is going to be the biggest thing, making sure you can hang on when you are being pushed at 200 miles per hour. I think that is the biggest thing.”

HOW LONG WERE YOU ABLE TO PUSH? “It felt like we could do it for quite awhile. I think everybody is a little different but I felt like we could go for a good five or six laps with no problem.”

YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO GO OUT IN A BIG PACK THIS AFTERNOON. HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT GOING? “I don’t know. I think it will be pretty calm to be honest. We are testing and nobody wants to tear their stuff up. I think it will be pretty calm. I think you will see some people come and go in the pack but for the most part it should be relatively calm. I am sure it will get three wide because it should be really easy to get three wide but I don’t know, it is a big unknown at this point.”

WHAT IS THE GOAL FOR YOU FOR THE REST OF TODAY? “Just to keep on working on speed. We have to keep working on getting speed out of our car and getting me and Marcos to keep switching. That is going to be important. If the rules stay the way they are we are going to be able to swap and be able to keep our engines cool. We are working on our switch and making sure we are very comfortable drafting together before we get back down here in February.”

Greg Biffle, who only participated in single car runs in the morning session, talked about what he has learned from the test thus far and how he anticipates the afternoon session will be.

Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE FROM THIS BIG PACK RACING THIS AFTERNOON? “I anticipate somebody crashing. I don’t know who and I hope it isn’t us. We have to get out there and figure out what the car is going to do and we will be bumping and shoving a little bit and be in the big pack. We already saw in the two-car pack someone get turned around and some people squirrely. With the shorter spoiler and increased competition or whatever you want to say with the speed, we are going a lot faster and something is going to happen.”

HOW MUCH FASTER ARE YOU GOING TODAY WITH THIS NEW RESTRICTOR PLATE? “About six-tenths or something like that, so a bit faster. What is weird is that it doesn’t slow down in the corner as much as it did yesterday. Yesterday you would go 195 on the straightaway and 190 around the middle of the corner, 189 to 190. Now it goes 196 or 197 and then 195 in the corner. So the more power keeps it up against the aero. It is almost like the more plate you give it the constant the speed stays. It doesn’t slow down to speed up like a car normally does. It is interesting to see how the dynamics of the aero and the more power equate to each other.”

WHAT HAVE YOU NOTICED WITH THE FUEL INJECTION? “The biggest thing I notice every time I have driven it is that it runs so good in the garage. Letting the clutch off, driving off, driving down pit road. I know it sounds stupid but that is part of it. My hat is off to these guys because these race engines don’t like to run below 4000 RPM and now they run below 4000 RPM really, really good. It is a matter of getting air and fuel right and with fuel injection you can do that.”

Source: PCGCampbell for Ford Racing Press Release

Richard Petty Motorsports

Consumer Packaged Foods Giant Inks Multiyear Partnership with NASCAR’s First Family 

Daytona Beach, Fla. (January 12, 2012) – Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NYSE:SFD) and Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) announced today that the consumer packaged foods company headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia has entered into a multiyear, integrated partnership with the legendary Richard Petty Motorsports NASCAR team starting in 2012.

As part of its agreement with Richard Petty Motorsports, Smithfield will be utilizing a number of its core brands as well as unique and engaging promotional initiatives throughout this racing season to communicate with existing customers and introduce others to the company’s many fine products. In addition, NASCAR fans will see a variety of Smithfield brands adorning the legendary No. 43 Ford Fusion as primary sponsor in fifteen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events in 2012, including the first event of the season, February’s Daytona 500. Smithfield brands include Farmland^®, Eckrich^® and Curly’s^®, among others, as well as Helping Hungry Homes™, one of Smithfield’s premier community-outreach brands.

Smithfield^® and Helping Hungry Homes™ will be Smithfield’s featured brands for the Daytona 500. Helping Hungry Homes™ is Smithfield’s initiative focused on alleviating hunger across America. The initiative provided more than eight million servings of protein last year through food banks, school nutrition programs, disaster relief, and community outreach programs. “Making a positive impact on our communities is one of our core values at Smithfield,” said C. Larry Pope, Smithfield’s president and chief executive officer.

For Smithfield Foods, partnering now with the Petty organization is a natural fit. “We had been in discussions internally about entering NASCAR with the Petty’s as so many of our customers are true blue fans of the sport and of the Petty’s,” stated Mr. Pope. “However, with the recent events that have affected the Petty organization, we felt it was only right to step up our efforts now to support them, as well as dedicate time and resources to bring some exciting initiatives with our brands to NASCAR fans,” said Pope. “In the coming months, we will be announcing plans and programs both on and off the track to reach and engage our customers and local communities that are so important to us,” added Pope.

“This partnership with Smithfield Foods is part of the beginning of a new chapter for the No. 43 team,” commented Petty. “We appreciate that they saw something special in the Petty family and in Richard Petty Motorsports as a whole and made the decision to take the partnership to a higher level right out of the box. The folks at Smithfield have a solid plan in place to utilize their sponsorship in some very exciting ways and we’re looking forward to working with them in 2012 and beyond.”

Aric Almirola was recently named as the driver of the famed No. 43 Ford and will make his debut in the Richard Petty Motorsports owned entry at Daytona International Speedway.

“I’m looking forward to representing the Smithfield brands,” said Almirola. “They have some great things planned and I am happy to be a part of it.”

About Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods is a $12 billion global food company and the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Farmland^®, Smithfield^®, Eckrich^®, Armour^®and John Morrell^®. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental, and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.

The Smithfield Foods, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=7622.

About Richard Petty Motorsports

Known to many simply as “The King,” Richard Petty is the most decorated driver in the history of NASCAR racing, winning a record 200 races and seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships during his illustrious career. In late 2010, Petty, inducted into the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, partnered with Medallion Financial and Douglas Bergeron. Richard Petty Motorsports (www.richardpettymotorsports.com) fields two teams in competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series out of its headquarters in Concord, N.C. Aric Almirola wheels the famous No. 43 Ford Fusion and Marcos Ambrose drives the No. 9 machine with sponsorship from Stanley and DEWALT.

- Richard Petty Motorsports, Press Release

Aric Almirola - Photo Credit: Elsa/Getty Images for NASCAR

Richard Petty Motorsports announced today that Aric Almirola will drive the No. 43 Ford Fusion during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Almirola, along with RPM Chief Executive Officer Brian Moffitt, were part of a teleconference this afternoon to talk about the upcoming season.

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion – “I’m very, very excited about this opportunity to not only drive the historic and iconic 43 car, but to work with all the people here at Richard Petty Motorsports. I had the privilege last year of sitting on the couch on Sundays and watching the races and I saw how competitive their race cars were on a weekly basis and that was a big factor in making the decision to come over here to Richard Petty Motorsports. Their competition on the race track was very, very high and that gives me an opportunity to get in a race car that I know is very competitive, and where I’ve just got to go out and do my job and the results will come. It’s a great opportunity for me. I’m a little bit sad leaving where I left. I had a good home there with Junior Motorsports, but it was important for me to have their support to come and do this. I talked with Dale and Kelley quite a bit throughout this whole process and they supported me 100 percent. Dale said that was the main reason for him having a Nationwide team was to get guys in the Nationwide car at his shop and to give them an opportunity to go and make a career out of racing in NASCAR. For me, that’s come true. He gave me a great opportunity to go there and drive the 88 car and that’s led to this opportunity here at RPM. Like he said, if anything, it gives JRM credibility as a Nationwide team that they can take not only Brad but now myself and move them into their program and out of their program and on to a Cup ride. I’m very thankful for everything Junior Motorsports has done for me in my career and I’m excited about my new adventure here at Richard Petty Motorsports.”

HOW LONG DID THIS PROCESS TAKE? “It was pretty quick, but I’d say it’s about a year-and-a-half in the making. I got the privilege to drive here at the end of 2010 when I ran five races in the 9 car and got to work with a lot of the people here at Richard Petty Motorsports then and had a lot of fun driving that car at that time and built a relationship with Brian and Robbie Loomis and Sammy Johns and RP and Dale Inman and all those people that were involved in Richard Petty Motorsports. I’d say that had a lot to do with it. Even though this process went rather quickly this time around, I’ve had a lot of experience working with these guys already in the past, so it didn’t seem as big of a whirlwind just because of the experience I already had working with them.”

WHAT KIND OF RELATIONSHIP DO YOU HAVE WITH MARCOS AMBROSE? “That’s actually funny. Me and Marcos actually started racing in the Truck Series at the exact same time, so we’ve been friends on and off the race track through that. We talked a lot when we were racing in the Truck Series together. I’ve watched him go on to Cup racing and have kept up with him and see him throughout the garage. I’ve always had a friendly relationship with him and I respect him a lot as a race car driver, so I’m excited to be his teammate now.”

BRIAN MOFFITT, CEO, Richard Petty Motorsports – WHAT DID YOU SEE IN BRIAN IN 2010 THAT MADE YOU LOOK AT HIM FOR THIS RIDE AND WHAT’S THE SITUATION ON SPONSORSHIP FOR THE CAR? “We saw a lot of potential in Aric and have watched him closely at Junior Motorsports throughout. Richard always said if we had an opportunity that he was somebody he would like to be in the 43. We got everybody together here at Richard Petty Motorsports – Sammy, Todd Parrott, who is still with us, and, of course, Greg Erwin, and went down the list and Aric was the top choice for us. As far as sponsorship, we will be making announcements in the coming weeks for the 43. We’re poised for a two-car operation as Richard mentioned earlier and we’re real excited about having Aric pilot the 43 for us.”

ARE YOU STILL LOOKING FOR FUNDING OR ARE YOU ALL SET? “We do have some open inventory on the car, but we will be announcing some new partners in the coming weeks.”

ARIC ALMIROLA CONTINUED – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE A FULL-TIME RIDE THAT IS AS STABLE AS ANYTHING YOU’VE HAD IN THE PAST? “Like I said, this is a great opportunity for me. You take the last couple of years, I felt like a few years ago I had the opportunity to go Cup racing, but it wasn’t at this level. There were a lot of moving parts going on and it didn’t end up working out, but I went back and went Truck racing and ran very competitive in the Truck Series and won two races and finished second in the points, and then that same year was the year I got to run five races in the 9 car and ran rather well for being, quite honestly, my first time at a lot of those race tracks in a Cup car. So taking all of that and then moving that to the Nationwide deal last year with Junior Motorsports, we didn’t run as great as we wanted to, but we ran good. I think we had eight top-fives and 17 or 18 top-10s and we finished fourth in the points, so we had a respectable year, and I think taking all of that knowledge and stuff I’ve learned over the last two or three years has done nothing but make me a better race car driver. So to have the opportunity to get in as good of equipment as I’m getting in now, I’m really excited about it. I feel like I’m a way better race car driver than I am now than I was three years ago, so I feel like I’ll be able to make the most of this opportunity.”

WHAT’S THE TOUGHEST THING ABOUT ADJUSTING TO A NEW TEAM? “I’m getting pretty good at it. That’s been the thing is I have been with quite a few teams, I’ve probably been with a handful of teams, and I think the biggest thing for me is I worked with Gibbs and I worked with DEI and now I’ve worked with Junior Motorsports and Hendrick collectively, and then now with Richard Petty Motorsports and obviously their affiliation with Roush Fenway. The biggest thing for me is I’ve been fortunate to work with really high quality teams. I’ve had the opportunity that most people would beg for and I’ve been very fortunate to get those opportunities. This is another one of those. I think even you guys in the media can’t discount what Marcos and AJ did last year. They were very competitive on the race track and ran in the top 10 a lot, the top-five a lot and Marcos went to Victory Lane. Me as a 27-year-old kid that grew up racing his whole life and wants to make a career out of this and do it at the highest level in the Sprint Cup Series, this is, by far, probably the best opportunity I’ve ever had to go and succeed at it and all the while doing it driving the 43 car is pretty special.”

TAMPA TO DAYTONA IS ONLY ABOUT 130 MILES, BUT CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS HUGE LEAP? “Growing up in Tampa watching my grandfather race dirt sprint cars all around Florida and the southeast and then myself, I started racing go-karts when I was eight, so I’ve always been involved in racing. When I was racing go-karts we would go over to Daytona. Every year right after Christmas they would have kart weeks there and I would go and race my go-kart there at the municipal stadium on the dirt oval. Everytime we went we would go and watch the go-karts run on the road course over at the big track. I can remember being a little kid driving over from Tampa to Daytona the night of Christmas, because everything usually started in Daytona the day after Christmas, so usually we’d open up our presents and hang out and do whatever Christmas day and Christmas night we were driving to Daytona to go race. I remember being a kid and driving through that tunnel many a times wondering how cool it would be to get on that race track and race and not just to get on that race track and race, but to race in the Daytona 500. Now, I’ve had the opportunity to do that once already, but to have that opportunity now with a team that’s committed to run for a championship and to go and try to win races and for the Daytona 500 to be our first shot at it, and to be able to do that in the 43, I realize I make a lot of driving the 43, but, for me, it’s really special just because I remember growing up as a kid watching that and realizing how special that was to witness everything the King did in that car. So to have that opportunity is gonna be really neat to go down to Daytona and be able to race in the Daytona 500 in the 43 car.”

BRIAN MOFFITT CONTINUED — WHAT ARE YOUR REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS YEAR? “Our expectations and what we plan on moving forward with is Top 20 and making the Chase this year. We set our goals last year with Marcos and AJ to be in the Top 20 and hopefully one of them make the Chase or Top-15 and we actually hit that goal, and we expect the same with Aric and Marcos going into this year.”

ARIC ALMIROLA CONTINUED – “Obviously, it’s gonna be my first year running full-time in Cup, so there will be some growing pains. I realize that I’ve got a lot of learning to do. I don’t expect to just go out there and win six races and run for the championship, but I do expect to be competitive. I do expect to run really good on a regular basis. Their equipment is very capable of that. I feel like Greg Erwin is among the best in crew chiefs, so I don’t really see any major reasons on why we shouldn’t be competitive. Obviously, being a rookie I’ll probably make my share of mistakes, but I don’t think from a sense of speed and being competitive on the race track, I don’t see any reason why we won’t be. I feel very confident that we’ll be competitive and run up front and we’ll have some weekends that are great and some weekends that are just okay, but, at the end of the day, I feel like on a regular basis we should run competitively and wherever that shakes out I’d love for it to be in the Top 15 and have a shot at making the Chase, but the reality is that it is my first year and if I go out there and run competitive and run in the Top Five and do the things that I need to do as a driver and take care of my race car and I’m there at the end of the races, the points will take care of themselves. I can’t really control that, so if I run good and finish good, the results are gonna show for that. If I finish bad every weekend and crash and stuff, then I’m obviously not gonna be where I want to be in the points, but if I drive these cars the way they’re capable of running and finish where I feel like we’re capable of finishing as a race team, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be competitive and finish decent in the point standings. Like Brian said, Top 20, Top 15, and maybe even having a shot at getting in the Chase.”

HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH RICHARD PETTY? “Richard is obviously always around the garage area, so I’ve seen him around the garage a lot. He’s always been very friendly to me. He’s always stopped and shook my hand and talked to me. My wife actually worked at Richard Petty Motorsports at one time, so I got to spend some time with him at that time and also with Brian and a lot of the people here at RPM, so I feel like over the last several years I’ve known Richard. I’ve been over to his motorhome a time or two and sat down and had discussions with him and when I got the opportunity to drive that 9 car for those five races he was always around and would always lend a hand as far as advice or tell me what he was thinking and also just being there helping out whatever way he can help out. I’ve always had a lot of respect for him as a car owner and obviously as a driver. He’s won over 200 races, so I have a lot of respect for any input that he has to give.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GET TO THIS POSITION AFTER BEING IN AN EARLY DIVERSITY DRIVER PROGRAM? “It means a lot. And I say that honestly. It means a lot to me. I was just home for Christmas and got to see all my family and when I was over with my dad went and saw my grandparents on my dad’s side of the family and they are the family that came over from Cuba in ’66 on the freedom flights. When I was younger I didn’t really appreciate it. I didn’t really think it meant anything, but the older that I’ve gotten and to now pay my own bills and now that I’m married and possibly thinking about having a family, I understand a lot better what they went through when they gave up everything they had. They gave up their house, their cars. My grandmother gave up her wedding ring. They gave everything back to the Cuban government to come to America and to live the ‘American Dream’ and to create a better life not only for themselves, but for their family. So I get to be living proof of that. I get to drive a race car for a living, so that means a lot to me – coming from where my family has come from and the sacrifices that they have made to get to the U.S., to create a better life for themselves and their family, and then for me to be able to live out that dream that they had in 1966 when they decided to give everything back to the Cuban government, that means a lot to me. Like I said, I took that for granted when I was a kid growing up. I didn’t really think anything of it, but the older I get the more that sinks in and I realize what a huge sacrifice that was to leave everything that they knew to come here to America and start over.”

WILL YOU RUN ANY NATIONWIDE OR TRUCK RACES? “As of right now my sole focus is to strictly run that 43 Cup car and do the best job I can in that, so the answer to that would be ‘no’.

HOW WILL YOUR WORKOUT AND CONDITIONING CHANGE BASED ON THIS NEW RIDE WHERE THE RACES ARE LONGER? “Honestly, I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in my whole life. Last year, being a part of Junior Motorsports, I worked out with the strength and conditioning coach at Hendrick Motorsports, so I’m gonna have to find a different plan now, but I worked out with a strength and conditioning coach down there, and I got a road bike and I’ve been riding my road bike two to three days a week and I run quite often, so I feel like I’m in the best shape that I’ve ever been in, and I stay in shape for me. I stay in shape because I want to be healthy and because I want to live a longer life and I think that will help me. And I feel better when I’m healthy, but I think Tony Stewart is a proven example that you don’t have to be in the best shape in the whole wide world to win races and win a championship, so I don’t think that’s gonna be a key factor. I realize that the races are longer and the season is longer, but being in shape is something that I do for me and I just enjoy working out, and I enjoy riding my road bike and stuff like that.”

DO YOU HAVE A TARGET DISTANCE OR WEIGHT THAT YOU LIFT? “Last year was probably my best year in the weight room. I worked out with weights three days a week and I did cardio either two or three days a week, plus the day in the race car I count as a cardio day, so I was doing cardio three days a week solidly and lifting weights three days a week solidly. Last year, I thought I was doing pretty well. I raised my bench max to the highest that I ever had. I think I benched 255 one time, which I only weigh 165 pounds, so they say that if you can bench your body weight that’s good, so I did a little bit more than my body weight, and I squatted 320, so from a workout standpoint I got a lot stronger last year than I ever have been. I put on five pounds. I was 165 pounds at the beginning of last year and I’m up to like 171 right now, and my body fat has stayed very similar to what it was going into last season, so that’s just six pounds of muscle. Basically, I’m a lean mean fighting machine (laughing).”

HOW MUCH PRESSURE IS THERE TO PERFORM RIGHT AWAY? “How many race car drivers have you ever asked that question to and any of them gave you the answer, ‘No, I don’t really feel that much pressure to perform.’ I’ve always put more pressure on myself than anybody else has ever put on me. I’m a very, very competitive person. I don’t like to lose a board game against my wife. I don’t like to lose playing cards and I don’t like to lose on the race track. My competitive spirit comes out when I’m on the race track and I don’t like to underperform by any means, so I put more pressure on myself than anybody else can put on me, so from that standpoint, I don’t feel like anybody at RPM or anybody else is putting any pressure on me to go out and do something that I don’t already put pressure on myself to go and do.”

EVEN THOUGH YOU WERE SET FOR THE YEAR, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN ALL THESE CUP RIDES CAME OPEN SO LATE? “I was content. I thought going into this year that over at Junior Motorsport after the year we had last year that we would be able to win some races and contend for a championship, but when this opportunity came up, like Brian said, they sat down here at RPM and thought of their list of drivers they were potentially looking at and my name was at the top of the list, so when they called I was dealt a dilemma to stay where I was at, where I was comfortable and where I felt like I had a home, or to take a chance and go and make a career in the Cup Series. Every race car driver, if they tell you differently, they’re lying to you, every race car driver wants to race in the Cup Series. That’s just the fact of the matter. Nobody wants to compete at a lower level. Everybody wants to compete at the highest level that they can possibly compete at and I’m the same way, I’m no different. I got offered the opportunity to compete at the highest level in NASCAR with a great team that has very competitive equipment, so that made the decision a lot easier. Obviously, there are probably opportunities out there that I would have gladly stayed at Junior Motorsports, but this opportunity with this competitive equipment and this group of people was too hard to turn down.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

David Ragan

It seemed that Ragan had been in the hunt for a job with Penske Racing after the mutual seperation with the organization and Kurt Busch earlier in December. Though David Ragan, David Reutimann, and Brian Vickers were considered the top drivers still without rides for the 2012 season, Penske Racing decided to hire A.J. ALlmendinger. Allmendinger had been with Richard Petty Motorsports, but there was no sponsor for his No. 43 after Best Buy moved over to Roush-Fenway Racing. With no sponsor on the hood, Allmendinger looked elsewhere.

The open position with RPM is rumored to be going to Aric Almirola, a NASCAR Nationwide Series driver. Though no sponsor has been officially announce, it is believed that the organization would announce the sponsor and the driver at the same time. If Almirola is leaving the Nationwide Series, then a spot at JR Motorsports will be open. Reports are the seat filling is between Ragan and Cole Whitt, a former Red Bull Racing NASCAR Camping World Truck series driver. With so few opportunies, Ragan is hoping that he will land in the drivers seat.

- Stock Car Spin

Ford Racing

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) –

YOU WERE SECOND FASTEST IN FIRST PRACTICE AND FASTEST IN FIRST PRACTICE. “That was all qualifying. We focused on our race runs the first practice and had a tire issue the second practice and only made two runs. It worked out great though. I just really appreciate Matt Kenseth’s help and all of my teammates helping me the best they could today to give us the best shot at this pole. I can’t believe we got the pole. We were just hoping to start in front of Tony somewhere and preferably the top-five. The pole is a gift.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 12th) – “That was okay. We struggled a little bit today with the Best Buy Ford. We’ve kind of struggled with getting into the corner and I’ve really struggled to run the top. I think the top is the faster way to go, but I can’t get there right now. It was a solid lap. You can always pick it apart and say it was a little bit better, but we’re working hard. This hasn’t been the best day for us, but Greg Erwin and all the guys are working hard. Hopefully, that gets us a decent starting spot because it’s a long race on Sunday.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 18th) – “I just didn’t know what line to take. I went a bit higher than what I probably should have, but we’ll take it. I’ve just got to thank Ford Racing for putting on this huge show here. It’s great to finish here at the big Ford event. We’ve got Carl with a chance to win, Ford as well, and I’m real excited about it. With Stanley and DeWalt, it’s just been a ripper year. It’s been fantastic to drive with the King and I just want to thank all of my boys and Todd Parrott on the box. It’s been a really strong effort for us.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) - “I think I have a great car for tomorrow. The lap was pretty good. We struggled earlier today in qualifying trim for some reason. Gosh, I let up the gas off of four and it started to slide and chatter a little bit. I lost a lot of momentum and I don’t know if I had to lift. It was one of those things where it was like; uh oh I am in big trouble. I backed off it for a minute and I don’t know. It is so tight up there. That is probably the top of the board but who knows if it would have stuck.

DO YOU HAVE A TOP FIVE CAR IN RACE TRIM? “Oh yeah. We were probably close to being the fastest in race trim. We are pretty dang good as a team. I would say we are all in that area of top-10 somewhere.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 6th)– “I think we just missed the set up a little bit. I thought I got a pretty decent lap. It wasn’t perfect. This is a tough place to get everything because the lines change the way the car handles so much. I think we missed it a little bit but I thought we got most of it.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Qualified 20th) – “I was pretty happy with that pick-up there. I didn’t expect to run a teen. I don’t know how good that’s gonna hold up. We’re fifth right now, but I think it’ll be a decent start. I’m really happy with the adjustments we made. We ran like a .60 in practice and I was hoping for a .30, but we ran a teen there. I caught a little cloud, so that was good for us, but I think we’re gonna race a lot better than we qualify either way. If we end up fifth, then we’ll really be good in the race, but I think there are obviously a lot of good cars still to go. If we can get a top 20, we can race from there. I’d prefer a top-15, so we’ll work on that, but I’m excited about this car so far and just excited to be a part of this all year long. Hopefully, I’ll be back in the 21 next year. We’ll see what happens, but I’ve just really, really enjoyed it so far. I remember a year ago when I was sitting on the pit box watching these guys and Bill Elliott was driving the car. It’s been a crazy year, but it’s been a really memorable one and I’m just excited to have been a part of it.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS My Choice Ford Fusion - “That was a good lap for us; it wasn’t perfect. We made some pretty big adjustments after that last practice because we knew the track was going to cool down just a little bit and maybe we went a little too far. I think we’ve got a great UPS Ford for Sunday. That’s in the top 15 and we’ll be able to go racing with that on Sunday.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 40th) – “It feels nice to be locked into these races because we didn’t really put any emphasis on a qualifying effort today. We really just worked on our race trim stuff. That’s a pretty good lap for us and we gained a lot of speed there, but it’s not gonna shake out very good overall. Still, I’m excited about Sunday.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion (Qualified 38th) – “We have struggled and have been nowhere close to where we needed to be. It’s a little disappointing when you unload that far off, but we made some good gains and we’ll just keep working on it. We’ve still got the race, but I’m a little disappointed. We’ve run really well here the last couple of years, but we’ve just struggled today. The track didn’t have a lot of grip and I know a lot of people are having issues, but hopefully we’ll get a handle on it.”

J.J. YELEY – No. 55 Ingersoll Rand Ford Fusion – “I think it’ll probably be pretty decent. The most important thing, obviously, is we’re in. We were really pretty decent the first practice and lost the balance in the second practice, so I was a little worried about what I had on the lap there. I think I probably gave it an 85 percent lap. I know I probably could have gained another tenth-and-a-half, at the same time I probably could have wrecked the thing, too. The good thing is we had a good run. I know these guys have worked their tails off all year long for me on this 55 car. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m glad that we’ve had a good run here for the final race at Homestead.”

CARL EDWARDS POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE –

ARE THINGS LINING UP LIKE YOU WANTED THEM TO THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, things are good. Today went really well. I felt like our car was very fast in practice in race trim. I wasn’t really sure what to expect in qualifying trim, but that was a very pleasant surprise to run that well. That truly is just one lap, though, and, I mean, the biggest thing is that pit stall selection. That’s gonna be a big help the whole race. That’s something that’s hard to put a value on, so it looked like there were a lot of fast cars in practice. It didn’t look like we were head and shoulders better than anyone else, so this doesn’t dampen the amount of effort we’re gonna go out and put forth. We still have to go out and race this race. I do think that of all the tracks it would be nice to have a big advantage in qualifying at some of them, but this one you can pass at, so if there are faster race cars out there, they’ll be able to make it through the field.”

YOU MADE TWO QUALIFYING RUNS IN PRACTICE. DID YOU JUST FEEL YOU COULDN’T GET IT ANY BETTER? “Yeah, we ran the first practice completely in race trim and we felt that was the best strategy for us was to focus on race trim there, and then focus on qualifying trim the second practice. We actually had a cut in the right-rear tire after the first run in the second practice, so we had two sets of sticker tires, which we would normally run three or four runs total – a couple on the first set and then one final sticker run – but once we looked at that tire we realized we can’t use that again, we just couldn’t do it, so we made one more sticker run, so it was only two laps in the second practice. In a way, it probably helped us from tuning the thing out of contention. It was nice to just focus on two runs.”

DO YOU BELIEVE IN FATE? IT LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE LINING UP FOR YOU? “I don’t know that I believe in fate, but I do believe that things happen for a reason. I do believe that whatever you encounter you have to treat as if that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. You can’t change things, I’ve learned that, so success and failure can both be good in the end, so you’ve got to be careful for what you wish for sometimes, but, yeah, this is going really well so far and, hopefully, this helps us all race. We didn’t need to qualify poorly, get a poor pit stall, have some little thorn in our side the whole race, so this will hopefully help us for the whole event.”

DOES TODAY REPRESENT A MOMENTUM SHIFT? “I don’t know. I didn’t pay any attention to them in practice and I didn’t see where he qualified, so I still don’t know where they qualified. I guess the deal is we’ve still got to go run this race and I know how tough those guys can be, so I’m not counting anything yet. We’re just gonna keep our heads down and work hard and go get the best we can. If anything, this is just good for our morale and for everybody to go sleep easy tonight and know we’re gonna have a good day on pit road, know we’ll hopefully be able to run out front and not get caught up in anything. But, truly, I understand that we still have to go run this race and anything can happen.”

IS TODAY A PRIME EXAMPLE OF YOU SAYING ALL THAT MATTERS IS WHAT HAPPENS ON THE TRACK? “I hope so, but, truly, it is just one lap and I know it could have gone any way. If we were out there and qualified 43rd right now, it wouldn’t change the way I’m gonna approach this race. I’m not just giving you all lip service. I’m here to do a job and to do it well and it truly doesn’t matter what’s said or what happens until that checkered flag falls.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

Carl Edwards, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion — PIT LANE INTERVIEW

THAT LAST PASS GOT YOU THE POINTS TO END WHERE YOU DID. “It was a long day. It was interesting. I was real calm but it is hard to watch that 14 crew and Tony do so well. They have really stepped it up. They are making us perform the best we ever have and we are doing the same to them. I followed him for about 40 laps. It felt like I was working him over and really paying attention to what he does. I determined he is a pretty good driver. If we can win this thing beating him that would be really cool.”

Bob Osborne, Crew Chief No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “We finished in front of Tony. We would have like to increase the points lead but we didn’t because he was able to lead so many laps early on. We had a great car and they had a great day too. It is going to be exciting going into Homestead. We were guarding against cautions and getting caught there staying out a little longer, guarding against a caution and that let the 4 car get in front of us. It felt like we had a better car than they did. Kenny just juked me today. I will have to congratulate him on that when I see him. I can’t say enough about them. The 4 car had a great car actually. They were very fast all day long. My hat is off to them and the 14 also. It is going to be a lot of fun at Homestead.”

YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOU STAND FOR HOMESTEAD. WHAT IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF YOUR MIND FOR THAT RACE? “We will go there and try to repeat what we did last year. I feel like we have a good opportunity to do that this year. The car had the speed to do it today. The way the race played out here and my decision to wait a little bit longer cost us the win today. I think we will go into Homestead trying to sit on the pole and win the race and put a dot on this championship hopefully.”

Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Crown Royal Ford — WALK US THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED. EVERYONE IS SAYING IT WAS RETALIATION FROM MARTINSVILLE. “Well yeah, obviously it is retaliation for retaliation I guess. I was out of brakes and I was up on everybody and I saw him coming and I lifted at least 10 car lengths before where I would normally lift and he drove in there at 165 miles per hour and cleaned us out. I don’t know. If NASCAR is going to start parking people for being mad 25 second after you wreck and wrecking somebody then you would park somebody for that. You have someone that has been telling everybody for four or five that as soon as he got a chance at a fast race track he was going to make it hurt and wipe us out and they do nothing about it. It was so premeditated it just surprises me that they didn’t do anything. I am disappointed but I expected it. We aren’t racing street stocks at a quarter mile track so they need to figure out how to get the drivers to settle their difference in a different way and talk about it or figure it out or do something instead of using your car as a battering ram somewhere this fast.”

WAS THERE ANY TEMPTATION WHEN YOU WENT BACK OUT TO TAKE IT UP ONE MORE NOTCH? “No, not at all. I don’t stoop to that level. When we had our problem at Martinsville it was heat of the moment and he hit me eight or nine times and he hit me once. Hindsight I should have let him go and left him alone because you realize who he is and what he is and all that. You probably should leave him alone and go on. I would never sit down there and wait for somebody and take a cheap shot like that. You can hurt someone like that and that isn’t sportsmanlike and that isn’t something I would do.”

WHAT NOW? DO YOU TALK ABOUT IT? “Nothing. We go race at Homestead.”

Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 DeWalt Ford – “We had a good car today. We just needed a bit of clean air to get the nose down and feeling good. I am proud of my DeWalt team, they did a good job and we were solid all day long.”

THIS CONTINUES A REALLY GOOD SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON FOR YOU. “Yeah, it bodes even better for the first half of next season.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 WIX Filters Ford – “It is a credit to all the guys on the 43 and at RPM. The test was really good and we came back really good. Man, I don’t know. We lost on that one restart. I don’t know. The tires chattered a little bit. The tires were so sensitive and they chattered and got hung out. I overdrove one lap and got in the dirt and that killed us from there. Sixth is okay but I feel like we deserved better. We have to work on our pit stops. Thanks to the 6 guys, our Ford teammates coming over and pitting the last two stops. That was a big difference.”

WHAT WAS BEHIND THAT CALL? “We were bad. We were losing four or five spots on a stop. You can’t do that and win a race and those guys are pretty good. They did a good job.”

J.J. Yeley, No. 38 Vampt Ford Fusion – “The guys did a good job with our No. 38 Vampt Ford Fusion all day. We had a terrible qualifying run so we had the challenge of starting in the back. And we knew that was going to be tough with the single-file racing that we’ve seen so far here. But the guys kept making it better all day, gave us some good pit stops, and Jay Guy made a good call on two tires at the end. We were all really proud to have Scott Bates here with us. It was a really special day for him, seeing the paint scheme that he created, in person, and also being recognized on stage during pre-race ceremonies. We’re all very grateful to veterans like him for their service to our country.”

David Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford – “That was a tough race. Starting from the back of the pack, we knew we had to have a pretty good car to be able to move up at this place. But we had some issues with the suspension. The car was bouncing and we were just adjusting on the shocks and stuff all day. I’m really looking forward to going to Homestead, though. I love racing there and we’ll look to end our season on a high note.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

CAN YOU GIVE US OPENING STATEMENT GOING INTO HOMESTEAD WITH TONY THREE POINTS BEHIND YOU, YOU ARE THE ONLY TWO IN CONTENTION AND THIS IS THE THIRD CLOSEST CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE GOING INTO HOMESTEAD IN NASCAR HISTORY. “That is cool. I couldn’t ask for anything more. It is going to be fun. It is neat to go to Homestead and race it out. I am sure these guys are going to be good down there. They are fast at the mile-and-a-half tracks. I love that place. I am proud of my guys today. They did a great job on pit road. Tony was really fast and we got our car tuned in and we were able to race with them and compete. It was a good hard fought day. I am really pumped for Homestead, I think it is going to be a good time.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW THE TRACK WAS TODAY? “I think what Tony said is absolutely correct. All those guys that came out here and spent that time helped a ton. I think Brian recognizing the issue we were potentially going to have and addressing it was huge. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. The groove moved out wider and wider. I started to remember the old Phoenix when I would drive down in one and slide up and catch some rubber. I believe after it sits awhile and we come back here for the Subway 500 in the spring, and even a year from now, I think it will be awesome. I am a convert. I was ready to put a tombstone up and say goodbye to the place, but I think it is going to be good.”

I NOTICED YOU FOLLOWED TONY FOR A BIT, WAS THAT PART OF YOUR STRATEGY AND WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR THE LAST RACE? “That is exactly what I was doing, just hanging out back there trying to keep his blood pressure up. No, I was having fun. I think our car was a tick faster right then. I was watching what Tony was doing and searching around and doing what I could. That was really fun. It was neat to be able to race like that. I think if it would have gone green from there, which I know the chances of that are virtually nil, that would have been a fun race. We would have battled it out. The way this has turned out for us to be running 1-2 and racing like this is really cool.”

GIVEN YOUR SUCCESS AT HOMESTEAD, IS THERE ANY PLACE YOU WOULD RATHER HAVE THE SEASON FINALE? “There are some dirt tracks I grew up on that would be fine with me. (laughter) If we tie, we should go to one of the dirt tracks down in Florida, that would be pretty fun. Homestead is going to be a lot of fun. I really enjoy racing there. The cool thing about Homestead is we are going to go there and you will be able to move around and pass and you won’t get hung up as badly in traffic as you would at other race tracks. For the sport in general, I don’t know that there is a better place to go than Homestead to fight for this championship.”

LAST YEAR JIMMIE JOHNSON WOULD STAY OUTSIDE WHEN DENNY WAS TALKING. YOU DID COME IN HERE AND ARE SITTING WITH TONY. HOW IS YOUR MINDSET AND NERVES RIGHT NOW? “They are really good. I am fortunate I guess. There is the potential for me to get really nervous there at Homestead, you never know what will happen. The thing for me is I have always been fortunate enough to just get in the race car and go race and there is no time for me that is more calm or I feel better than in that race car. I understand what all this stuff is. I understand we come up here and answer questions and that is part of our sport. When it comes down to it though, both of us know we have to just go race each other. It is truly neat, like you said it is my first time to come into this not just tied but with a little points advantage in this final race, it is fun. I am just enjoying it. It really, truly doesn’t matter what anyone says or what anyone’s predictions are. It gets done on the race track and that is when we will see.”

WHAT WILL YOU DO THIS WEEK? “I don’t know what I am going to do this week. I don’t have a very busy schedule so that is good. I can always find something to do. I will just go hang out and do what I normally do. I will spend a little time hopefully with the guys and talk a bit with Bob and keep doing what we have been doing all year and go down there and enjoy it.”

HOW COOL IS IT TO BE BATTLING EACH OTHER FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND ALSO BE SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER AND RACING EACH OTHER SO TIGHTLY THE LAST FEW WEEKS? “This is kind of strange to say right now because we are battling and it is a zero sum game, one of us will win and one of us will lose, but it is neat to me that Tony and the guys on the 14 have been running so well and have won so many races and are performing at such a high level. It is going to mean more if we are able to beat them in this championship because of that. To be racing these guys at their peak, for us I can say completely truthfully this is the best Chase we have ever had. We haven’t gone out and got the trophies we have in other Chase’s put we have performed better than we ever had. If they beat us they are beating us at our best and that is pretty neat.”

YOU’VE BEEN A PART OF ALMOST ALL THE CHASE’S. HOW WOULD YOU RATE THIS BEING ON THE INSIDE LOOKING AT IT? “It’s the best points battle I have been a part of at this level. It is fun for me. I still don’t understand why we are both running so good. It seems like subconsciously we are both able to dig down and our teams are able to give us what we need and everyone is performing at a real high level. It has been neat that this battle has brought out the best in us.”

YOU GUYS HAVE RACED HARD WITH EACH OTHER. HOW MUCH HARDER DOES IT GET. WHERE IS THAT LINE AT? “Heck, I’m gonna trip him when we walk out of this room. No, I think we are going to go race as hard as we can and both of us I believe want to win this thing because we are the best out there next weekend and that is all we can do, go out there and race hard like we have for years. There would be nothing better than coming down the last lap, side by side, racing for the win. That would be really fun.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON’S RUN OF FIVE STRAIGHT TITLES CAME TO AN END TODAY. CAN YOU PUT THAT IN PERSPECTIVE? “I would say that if anyone is going to go out and do it again it would be those guys. They have as good a shot as anyone at starting again next year. It is very impressive. I agree with what Tony said.”

KASEY KAHNE HAS SCORED THE SECOND MOST POINTS IN THE CHASE. HAVE YOU NOTICED HIM TURNING IT UP? “He kind of snuck up on me as well. I didn’t realize that statistic. We got to work with those guys really closely when he was driving a Ford and he is a really impressive driver. Those guys are going to be tough for a long time if they can find a groove and he can stick with one team and have people rally around him. I think he is going to be really tough for a long time.”

AS PRECIOUS AS THE POINTS ARE. WAS IT AT ALL DEFLATING WHEN YOU REALIZED AT THE END THAT KASEY HAD THE RACE AND YOU DIDN’T? “Yeah, but I felt that the strategy we went with, we had to do it that way. To pit early with him and leave the opportunity be to be a lap down and mired back in the field if there were a restart I believe Bob did the right thing. If we would have had a caution there at the end, I felt like our car was a little faster than his and we would have had a good shot at the win still. I would have loved to won this race for sure. That is what we all do this for. We still did our jobs. I think we did a really good job today. I am not certain if we had the fastest car but we performed well with it and got a good result.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

Carl Edwards, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 9th)

WERE YOU HOLDING BACK AT ALL WITH HOW CRAZY IT IS OUT THERE? “Yeah, it is definitely slower. It was pretty exciting out there. I saw David Gilliland, I was most impressed with him. He almost hit the fence, went all the way back and almost did it again. This is pretty neat. If it were like this tomorrow it would be a really fun race. I think it is going to cool off tomorrow and be a lock down high speed race track. Now it is up to the crew chiefs.”

Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 DeWalt Ford (Qualified 3rd) “It felt horrible, treacherous and nasty. I hope the sun comes out. I think we will start in the first half of the field. If you can beat the championship leader it is pretty cool. I tell you what though, I am really thankful for DeWalt, Stanley and Ford and everyone else that supports me. Our team is getting better and better each week. We have had a good couple of months and I am looking forward to 2012.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 WIX Filters Ford (Qualified 2nd) “That was insane. The track is way different than what we had yesterday and the Wix Filters Ford was fast. Greg Irwin and everyone at RPM did a good job. Marcos put a good lap up and explained to us what the track was going to be like. I am not sure that will hold up, it wasn’t a great lap by any means but it will be a good starting spot at least.”

Travis Kvapil, No. 55 Aloft Hotels Ford (Qualified 37th) – “It is a whole different race track than yesterday. Even in practice yesterday at noon the track had a lot more grip. I guess it is just a little warmer and greasier obviously. That is the slowest lap we ran all weekend and I can’t believe it made the race because it was horrible and really slippery with the back end of the car. We squeaked it in so I am happy. We worked hard yesterday and had good speed.”

IF CONDITIONS MIRROR THIS TOMORROW, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? “The thing is I think it seems like the tire is really hard and the groove is really narrow, it is only like one and a half lanes. It is hard enough to get around in this heat by yourself slipping and sliding, let alone to try and run two or three cars wide through a one-and-a-half groove track. There are going to be a lot of wrecks tomorrow, I really think so unfortunately. It might spice up that championship battle.”

JJ Yeley, No. 38 Vampt Ford (Qualified 44th) “It was a slippery lap. There was too much Ford horsepower. I think we may have missed the boat. Yesterday as the evening went on it seemed like scuffs were the way to go but now the sun is out and the track is very slick. I am not so sure that we may have needed to be on stickers. The beauty of this weekend is the No. 38 Ford Fusion is locked in on speed and there was no need to put ourselves in jeopardy. We will work hard on getting a good lap and put ourselves in position for a good finish Sunday.”

David Gilliland, No. 34 Aloft Hotels Ford (Qualified 46th) “Our car was really good last night we felt like and it felt like there was no grip today at all. Something with our car didn’t like the sun at all. Hopefully it is sunny and not raining tomorrow and we get a race. We have some work to do but I think the guys will figure it out.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER PRESS CONFERENCE

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR LAP OUT THERE TODAY? “You kinda watch everybody out there to see how quick the race track is going to be and it was a lot different than yesterday. After being on a race track that had so much grip. I messed my first lap up and just tried to basically back my second lap down to get a clean lap in and see where that put me. I definitely knew there was a chance of it getting beat. I was surprised it held up as long as it did with the guys that were behind me. It is really cool to have Ford with the first three cars and I am excited about tomorrow. I think our car will be really quick. We were good in race trim and more than anything we have to see how the track plays out now.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH THE DEGREE THE TRACK CHANGED AND WAS IT A MATTER OF GUESSING RIGHT ON THE SET UP? “It was definitely a huge surprise. Obviously the sun is out and it is warmer but for as much grip as the track had yesterday you would think maybe it would be a little slower. At night last night I think the quick time was like a 25.50 by Carl so to be almost a second slower was a huge surprise. I was in the hauler watching the first 10 or 15 cars run and you see Jimmie go sailing off and almost get in the wall. Every car seemed to get looser and looser. At that point you have what you have. We tightened it up from yesterday. Marcos put up a good lap and fed back what the track was like so I went in there with an expectation and my first lap was worse than even I expected. It was definitely a lot different than yesterday.”

MARCOS AMBROSE PRESS CONFERENCE

TALK ABOUT YOUR LAP OUT THERE. “It was pretty sketchy. I was pleased to get through it really. It was a lot slicker than yesterday with a brand new surface and tire I don’t think anyone knew what to expect. I was pleased with my lap. We used our scuffs. I think the front two used sticker tires out there. All things considered I think we took a conservative approach to it and it paid off.”

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR TOMORROW? “It depends what the weather does. We have some rain forecast and it might clean that rubber off and we have to start again, who knows? We have to really watch the weather. It seems there is a lot of grip here when the sun is down. It felt great yesterday afternoon. The track was fast and we were and today with the sun out it was a disaster. It was really slick. I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. If it is cloudy then you can expect fast speeds and happy drivers. If the sun is out like this then it could be a handful.”

MATT KENSETH POLE PRESS CONFERENCE

TALK ABOUT YOUR LAP OUT THERE TODAY. “It was good. We watched everyone else and obviously there were a lot of people low on grip and it looked like the track and cars were a lot looser than yesterday. Everyone had a different strategy. Jimmy (Fennig) had a strategy to go fast in the first practice to go out late. Even though we knew the temperature would be hotter he thought the track could be faster with more cars having run on it. A lot of people chose the opposite strategy and worked on race setup in the first practice and did their qualifying stuff in the second practice to go out early. He had a plan and made the right adjustments. He thought it would be looser today. I didn’t get all there was to get out of the car. It was just that good. They made all the right choices there.”

WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE TOMORROW? HAVE YOU SEEN A GROOVE COME IN? “You know, it has been kind of a moving target, at least for me it has. The first practice yesterday I thought the track was different than the last practice when it was almost dark. Conditions were different today being in the middle of the day and warmer. It is a moving target I think. It depends if it rains tonight and a lot of things. There is still basically one good groove and it has widened out center of one and two and off. You can run side by side there. The middle of three and four is getting wide but I don’t think you can run side by side all the way around at a competitive race. Hopefully after the Nationwide race when cars are forced to run out there with two-wide restarts and lap and traffic and things like that, hopefully it will come in.”

BASED ON WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN SO FAR, DO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE GUYS THAT HIT IT AND GUYS THAT MISS BASED ON THE TRACK CHANGING SO MUCH? “I am not really sure to be honest with you. I didn’t expect qualifying to be as all over the place as it was today. That surprised me a little bit how different the speeds were and everything. You always have that risk at a new track that a couple guys will hit it. The biggest keys to this race are going to be I think you start with qualifying and then after that it is pit stops and restart strategy. The tires don’t fall off at all. They don’t really drop off in speed at all. It is going to be who can figure out how to keep their car up front. Who can be in the bottom on restarts and get good restarts and take advantage of the restarts when someone is in a bad position. I think that is going to be a big deal. I caught cars yesterday. You get two or three car lengths behind them and you just can’t do anything more. Hopefully that will change if the track widens out.”

HOW MUCH OF A FAVOR DO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE DONE FOR CARL BUMPING HIM FROM THE OUTSIDE LANE TO THE INSIDE ON THE START? “I have no idea where Carl qualified. That was my plan. I thought man if we can sit on the pole, that will really help him. (laughter) I have enough problems to worry about. I can’t really worry about his. The bottom is probably going to be an advantage to get started but it is still 300 miles and I think at some point in the race every car is going to be in the top groove for a little bit.”

AS IT TURNED OUT, YOUR QUALIFYING RUN PUT TONY (STEWART) ON THE OUTSIDE AND CARL ON THE INSIDE. “Yeah, I planned that. I am that good.” (laughter)

IS THIS ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT MAKES YOU THINK MAYBE YOU STILL HAVE A CHANCE TO SNEAK BACK INTO THIS THING? “I don’t know. It feels good to sit on the pole and qualify that good. We have won three poles and I think that is more than half of my career total I think. Jimmy and the guys have been giving me really fast cars and in a way that is encouraging but in a way, I hate to say is disappointing, but if you look at Martinsville and how I self-destructed there and Talladega with David breaking on the last restart. All that stuff happened and knowing our stuff is fast enough to be in the hunt but we aren’t in the hunt which I feel is my own fault. It is frustrating yet it is fun to have fast cars every week. Each week we have had a car capable of running top five and we haven’t done that ever since the Chase has been implemented, especially with this car. One lap is going to be different that 300 or whatever it is tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow. They still have to have a problem. If they have a problem and we run in the top three then you can say we maybe have a chance. If neither of them have a problem and run like they have the last 10 weeks then we are out of it.”

I KNOW YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ON TWITTER MUCH THIS WEEK. KASEY KAHNE ASKED IF YOU ARE TAKING THE INSIDE OR OUTSIDE TOMORROW. “Kasey tweeted me before Martinsville and we were going to try to hook up as drafting partners at Martinsville. I am going to surprise all you guys tomorrow. I will let you know on the one to go lap. I can’t let my strategy go til then.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

AJ Allmendinger - Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

November 8, 2011 (Charlotte, NC)–

But between his testing duties at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week and his return to Phoenix International Raceway this weekend for the 500-mile race, Allmendinger took some time out to say thank you as the nation prepared to celebrate Veterans Day this Friday.

Allmendinger, who has carried the colors for both the Air Force and the Paralyzed Veterans of America on his Richard Petty No. 43 this year, counts himself lucky to get to know some of the amazing individuals who have served the United States in the past, and countless others that still do today.

“I don’t really have a history of military in my family, so getting to meet so many good people in the armed forces has been really cool for me,” said Allmendinger. “What they all do every day, as a team, for our country is so important. The more I learn about what they do, and the more people I met, the more impressed I am. It’s humbling to have so many people with such talent out there representing and protecting me. It’s important for us to think of all the sacrifices that our veterans and their families have made through the years. Not just on Veterans Day, but every day.”

AJ Allmendinger started both rounds of competition at Phoenix from the front row in 2010, and will look to make the most of the recent test on the repaved surface as NASCAR heads west for the penultimate round of the 2011 season. The Best Buy Racing driver will sport the WIX Filters paint scheme this weekend as he looks to build on his run to 10th place at Texas last weekend.

About Walldinger Racing, Inc.: Walldinger Racing was formed in 2006 to support AJ Allmendinger’s motorsports career by developing commercial opportunities and partnership programs.

- Walldinger Racing, Inc, Press Release

Ford Racing

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU SAY TO TONY WHEN HE DROVE BY.

WHERE DID YOU COME UP SHORT TODAY? “I think Tony said it there. On that last restart, I think if I could have stayed in front of him, I’d have been able to get him. The restart before that he spun his tires and I felt really good about that one, and he timed it just right on that last restart and hung on my door. I give those guys credit, they’ve done a good job, but now we get to kind of pull out all the stops here. Our Aflac team, we’ve been hanging on. We’re leading these points. We get to pull out all the stops for these last two races and there couldn’t be a better place to finish it than Homestead. I think folks ought to stay tuned. It’s gonna get pretty exciting and I’m just glad Tony and I are out there and we can race for this thing.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “We had a pretty good car. I got the car off a little bit on Saturday, I have to admit. I probably didn’t have the right front swaybar in it, a few other things. The car was just real twitchy and hard to drive. I couldn’t drive it at all when the sun was out. When it cooled down and got dark, my car really took off. The last pit stop of the day when you’re trying to make up, that extra little inch made me slid through the box and that probably cost me a third-place finish or a couple of spots anyway. We fought hard and came back and that’s what a championship team is made of – not giving up and fighting back.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – “It’s hard to be disappointed when you run in the top five. I was a little disappointed in our performance. We just dropped the green and we weren’t really that great. We led some in the beginning having the track position and clean air. We kept fighting it, but we just could never get enough rear grip in it off the corner all day and really kind of struggled. So I’m happy to get a top five. I wish we could have performed a little bit better, but that’s all we had. We had great pit stops. Jimmy made great adjustments. I thought we did everything we could possibly do, but we just weren’t fast enough.”

ROUSH FENWAY WAS STRONG TODAY. “This has always been a pretty good track for the organization. You always want to win. It’s fun to be disappointed to be fourth, but all of our stuff seemed to run okay.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – “That was probably the most comfortable I’ve ever felt on a mile-and-a-half, especially one like this. It was fun. From the start we were just passing cars and making good adjustments. The track was tough because the sun would keep popping out and the track would change a lot, but, overall, I felt like it was definitely the best I’ve ever felt in a car around one of these places. We just got a bad break there on the two tires. We didn’t need that extra caution. I got back into sixth on the restart and we were good, and then the yellow came out and we went backwards after that. It was a good fight to get back to 10th, but, overall and more importantly, that’s something to build on.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – “We had to battle there all day long. We missed it to start the race because the track freed up a lot, but we didn’t really expect it to be that much freer. We knew it would free up a little bit, but we just didn’t adjust enough. And then every time we would make a change the track would change more and we never got ahead of it until the very end. Once it started cooling back off our car was really fast. We had one bad run after the 20 car blew up. I don’t know if we got his oil on our tires or just garbage or something was wrong, but that run we were 14th and I thought we were gonna be able to drive to the top 10 because our car was strong, but it was just slipping and sliding and it drove like a different animal and I fell back to twenty-something. At the end we had a good car again and I was able to rally back to 17th.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE –

“I’m proud of our cars for turning what looked like was gonna be a bad night overall, or a disaster really in the points, to something that is real manageable and something we can move forward with. Obviously, we definitely wanted to beat Tony tonight and pad that lead a little bit, but at the end of the day we can walk out of here with our heads up. We’re still the points leaders and the third and fourth guys, I’m not sure how far back they are, but we had to open up a little bit of space on them, which is good. Man, we’re gonna hold Tony to it. They’re gonna have to run that well to beat us these next two races and I think, really, it’s gonna be a great battle. I’m really excited about it.”

WHAT CHANGES DID YOU MAKE THROUGHOUT THE DAY? “We struggled a little bit with the balance. The car was kind of all over the place and I was really proud of the guys for getting it tuned back in at the end. I think if we would have had one more stop, we could have made another adjustment and made it a little better, but I’m sure everybody could say the same thing. We never got it quite right and, like I said in here on Friday, we gave the best performance we could and we lost a little bit of ground, but it could have been a lot worse, so I’m really proud of my guys and, if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t do anything differently. That was a good, solid race for us.”

WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE AT PHOENIX? “I think that Phoenix is still a huge unknown. Tony was out there for that tire test with us and I got to see how good those guys were. I feel like we’re gonna be pretty good, and, really, I think the surprising thing for all of us today was how well Tony ran here. I didn’t expect him to run quite that well, so those guys did a really good job and it makes me think that Homestead could be a lot closer than I expected before this race. We’ll go to Homestead with the same package, the same ideas and, hopefully, have similar performance and it looks like Tony might be in the same boat. Their mile-and-a-half program is good, so we really think that next week at Phoenix has a larger opportunity by a landslide to change the outcome of this Chase. That one will be a very important race. If Tony and I go run one-two at Homestead, there’s not gonna be much of a points change if we run like we did tonight, but Phoenix has the potential to be huge.”

WILL YOU ENGAGE TONY VERBALLY? “I don’t plan on it. I go out and compete as hard as I can and it is fun to joke around a little bit, but, at the end of the day, any extra energy I spend thinking about other stuff or worrying about other things is not spent in the right place. I’m focusing on what I’m doing and it would be really fun to be standing up there the last one on stage at the banquet, and I might have a couple of jokes then. That would be a good time for them, but I learned early in life that you’ve got to be careful about throwing the jabs out there because somebody might get you.”

WHY WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH TONY’S EFFORT TODAY AND THEY HAVE GAINED POINTS ON YOU THREE STRAIGHT WEEKS. HOW DO YOU ADDRESS THAT WITH YOUR TEAM? “I think we’re very fortunate to have led the points for as long as we have this season. I think the guys, I know myself, have a certain comfort level with it. We’ve watched guys make runs at us and fall away, and make runs and fall away. At the end of the day, it truly doesn’t matter what the 14 team does or what Tony does or what anyone else does, all we can do is just go do the best that we can do. It might feel comfortable to them to be in the position they’re in, to be gaining points, but, truly, the past is history. We’ve got to go out and run these next two races and, yeah, I don’t underestimate them for a second. I know how good they are, but we’re gonna be good as well.”

WHAT SURPRISED YOU ABOUT THEM TODAY? “I was just surprised they were able to put together two weeks like that that were so good. That was really good work on their part and there’s nothing saying that will play into another solid two weeks after that, but it very well could, so we’re just gonna go home and work hard and put all our notes together from our test at Phoenix and do the best we can. But I figured from the way practice went and everything, I thought we would have a little bit more of an advantage, or I thought we’d have a little advantage tonight. They did all their jobs very well.”

HOW DO YOU THINK THE EXPERIENCE CHASING NNS TITLES THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS HAS AFFECTED WHAT YOU’RE GOING THROUGH NOW? “I forget about those things, but I guess you keep the lessons with you. I think, at least to this point, the story of our season and the story of this Chase for us has been just never quitting, never giving up. No matter how well someone runs, we’re always gonna be right there racing them every lap, racing them hard and I think having those championship battles in the Nationwide Series and a couple in the Cup Series lately, I think they’ve made us tougher in general and a little wiser. I guess the best way to sum it up is I feel more comfortable right now in this points battle than in any other points battle I can remember. I feel like we really only have to worry about one other guy. We still have the advantage in the points. I’ve raced Tony long enough. I feel comfortable with him. He’s not gonna surprise me with anything, and I’m grateful for all that experience. I hope I can turn that into a championship.”

DID FRIDAY NIGHT’S INCIDENT CALM THINGS DOWN TODAY WITH THE DRIVERS? “This track lends itself to clean racing. It’s so fast and it’s easy to drive a little bit sideways – you don’t lose control as quickly. It’s a fun race track. There might have been a little more restraint on the part of all the drivers just because of what happened. I can say for myself I didn’t really think about that much during the night tonight. I think Phoenix will be the test. Everybody is gonna be fighting for a place in line on the bottom and you’ll see a test of how big a message NASCAR got across there at Phoenix.”

WERE YOU AWARE AT BURTON’S FUEL SITUATION? “Yeah, I never cheered so hard for Jeff Burton in my life (laughter). If I could have loaned him some fuel I would have, but that’s what they had to do. I thought that was a good move. They had to do that. I’m sure Bob thought about doing that, but as early as he ran out I’m glad we didn’t. I think we did the right thing to stay out there. I’m really proud of Bob. I think, on a side note, he’s been a really good leader throughout this whole thing. He’s not letting me lose my head. He’s not flailed and tried for something crazy, and he’s a huge part, if not the most important part, of why we’re leading the points right now.”

DO YOU STILL THINK TONY WAS STILL ALL WORKED UP FROM WINNING THE RACE? “I think he was. I think he’s calmed down a little bit this week, but it didn’t slow him down any. I’ll have to maybe bring him some lunch over before Phoenix. Maybe that will help. I hope this roll doesn’t last much longer, otherwise this is gonna be really tough.”

WHAT DIDN’T GO RIGHT TODAY. THIS SOUNDS LIKE A PATTERN. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? “We haven’t had a dominant car since Dover. That’s been the last time we really had a dominant car. For us to finish the way we’ve been finishing without those dominant cars, I think, says a lot about our team. I’m still waiting. Once we get that dominant car again, I hope we can use it and make the most of it. Tonight, really, as frustrating as it is to see Tony go out there and win that race and close in on us, the biggest thing that I’m gonna go back and talk to my guys about and think about when I leave here is, ‘Hey, take a breath. We’re leading the points. We’re fighting hard, and two races is a long time. We can’t look in that mirror. We have to keep moving forward’ and hopefully all of these experiences of making the most out of something, hopefully we won’t have to do that the last two races. Hopefully, we’re just a little bit faster.”

IT LOOKS LIKE JIMMIE IS OUT OF IT. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO KNOW THERE WILL BE A DIFFERENT CHAMPION? “I still refuse to count anyone out. I think from what you saw go on this weekend with everything, including the Truck race and NASCAR making rulings, literally anything can happen in this sport, so until somebody is mathematically out of it, I can’t let myself count them out.”

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TIRES TODAY? “It kind of surprised me as loose as were at the beginning that Bob said we had a little problem with the right-front, so for a few runs there I was kind of babying the tires and just being real careful. I knew how much we had to lose if we had a tire failure, but I’m assuming it was something we did with the setup because I don’t think a lot of people had trouble with tires. Did anyone pop a tire or blow a tire? I imagine we were a little aggressive on something and we might have missed something there, but that’s not a good feeling after the first stop, ‘Hey, you’ve got to be easy on the right-front tire,’ because I felt like I already was being easy on the right-front tire.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion –

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – “I think it’s okay. In race trim we were okay. I wasn’t real happy with it in qualifying trim, but there we had it pretty decent. We were just missing the balance a little bit. I just didn’t quite get it, so somebody is probably gonna run a little quicker than that, but, overall, it was a good lap.”

NICE TO NOT KNOCK YOUR TEAMMATE OFF THE POLE. “I think that lap is okay. I know all the fast cars are still behind us, but I felt like I got all of it, but we just missed the balance a little bit and I couldn’t keep the gas down as long as I needed to. Overall, it was a good lap. It was a lot better than what we were in practice.”

HOW HARD HAS IT BEEN TO BOUNCE BACK AFTER MARTINSVILLE? “It’s never easy, especially when you don’t know what’s gonna happen the last three weeks. We had some bad luck at Talladega with David breaking, so you never know, but in a way you feel like you blew up a whole season of work in 20 minutes, so it’s hard to get over that. Yet, there are three races left. We’re down but not out and we’re gonna go work as hard as we can, try to run up front, try to win some races and hopefully climb back in it.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – “I wish I would have gotten more out of that run. I thought for sure I had a top-five run going, but the track gained so much grip through one and two everybody picked up a lot and we only picked up a little bit. We went faster than practice, but it just wasn’t fast enough. I’m frustrated with that a little bit and that’s good because we’re still top 10, but I thought for sure it would be top five. Still, that’s all right.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “We wanted to be a little better than that, but I came to the green and I was a little loose. I thought, ‘I better be a little careful my next time through here,’ and I was probably a little too timid down there through three and four, but it is a good starting spot. We focused hard on qualifying here. We had an opportunity to go out there and sit on the pole. We’ve got the top three spots are Fords, so now we’ll just work on the race trim. There couldn’t be a better race track for us. This is a fun one. We’re gonna work hard tomorrow and run that Nationwide car and hopefully learn a little bit for the race on Sunday.”

YOU LIKE THIS TRACK. “It’s nice to be sitting here disappointed in seventh. I think my average qualifying is steadily increasing. We were 21st average for years and now we’re getting better and better, but I think it’s the Ford power. The Fords are so great here and Jack Roush’s Fords run so well. I’m the odd man out there. I got shown up by my teammates pretty bad, but, hopefully we’ll have a good, solid race.”

TONY IS A COUPLE SPOTS AHEAD OF YOU. “Five hundred miles, we’ll see what happens. I think it is gonna be a good race. Those guys have been good. A lot of the guys up there in the Chase have been good. You couldn’t pick a better place to come to to just race it out. This is gonna be a good one. I love this place.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – “I just had to look at the speeds after qualifying because we didn’t quite get to the bottom on either end of the track. I’m proud of my guys though. We’ve had a good day here. We’re gonna start in the top 15 and I’m looking forward to seeing if we can make it stick.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion – “The track temp is close to the same as practice, but we were too free. I was too loose on the gas, but, overall, it was a good pickup for us. I think we picked up over two-and-a-half tenths, so that’s good. As long as we keep going in that direction all weekend, it’ll be a good weekend for us. The car drives really well. It’s in the race track good and I feel like we have an opportunity to have a good weekend here.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion – “We made a few adjustments there trying to make it a little better and I feel like we kind of stepped over the edge. We were too tight at the end of practice and right there the car was just way too loose for qualifying and we just didn’t have any speed. We actually slowed down from where we were in practice and everybody is picking up quite a bit. Luckily, we’ve got tomorrow to work on it and we’ll go after it hard and get a good result on Sunday.”

J.J. YELEY – No. 55 Ingersoll Rand Ford Fusion – “I’m really proud of all the guys that work on this Front Row No. 55 with Ingersoll Rand being on the Ford this week. We unloaded and the car was really comfortable to drive and had a lot of speed and because of that we didn’t run too many practice laps. I was very happy with our last run of the day, which fell down to about 27th overall in practice, but I knew the car had some more speed. To me, it was still a very conservative lap out there. That’s hard to say when you go out there and you barely lift when you go around this race track, but with the cool temperatures the race track has a ton of grip and makes it a lot of fun to drive. I’m just real happy for these guys. They continue to make it better for me every time I come back and drive the 55, and I’m looking forward to when we go to the next mile-and-a-half.”

MATT KENSETH AND DAVID RAGAN PRESS CONFERENCE (2nd and 3rd-place press conference)

DAVID RAGAN – “I didn’t expect to have a shot at the pole. We had a pretty good car in practice. I thought we’d be comfortable inside the top 10, but just had a good lap and hit my marks. Our team made a few small adjustments prior to qualifying and it just paid off, so it’s cool to see all of the Fords up front, but, hopefully, we can be up there at the end of 500 miles. That’s our goal.”

MATT KENSETH – “My lap was pretty good. It was better than practice. We were tight the whole time in practice and changed some stuff and was just a little too loose in qualifying, but, obviously, it was a good lap and a good spot to start Sunday.”

ARE YOU GUYS BETTER IN PERFORMANCE AT THIS KIND OF TRACK AS OPPOSED TO SHORT TRACKS? “I don’t think we have an incredible advantage. I don’t think we have any advantage. I’m sure all of you guys have done it, but if you guys ever stand in tech it would be hard to argue that anybody has an incredible advantage over anybody else as far as the car or templates or aero or horsepower. But our stuff does run well at these tracks most of the time. It seems everybody groups the mile-and-a-halfs, but I hate grouping them together because we run pretty good at Dover and Michigan and those tracks as well, so it seems like the higher speed tracks we run maybe a little better than some of the other tracks, but I don’t think we necessarily have an advantage.”

DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED – “I don’t think we have an advantage. Certainly, I think these style of tracks fit our engine package, they fit our cars, we have good notes, good simulation to make good, quality adjustments. The races that are one mile in length or more are on the schedule more than any other, so we certainly pay attention to those more, but we’ll see how that advantage looks tomorrow and Sunday.”

HOW DO YOU RACE AGAINST JIMMIE AND CARL AT A TRACK LIKE THIS? IT’S NOT MARTINSVILLE. “Hopefully, we’re in front of them and we’ll let them play their own games and we’ll be up front worrying about ours. I think Matt’s still in the championship hunt, but we’ve got to go out and just try to win the race and we’ll let them do whatever they want to do. Hopefully, we’re in front of them and don’t have to worry about their race.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – “Yeah, I didn’t know I was out of it yet, but every Sunday when they drop the green it’s one against 42 and I don’t think that changes where you are in points. If everybody’s got equal opportunity and the same rights out there for real estate and to race and to try to win and get the best finish they can for their respective team and sponsors, then you wouldn’t want to be raced or race anybody any different just because it’s coming down to the championship. It’s still a race.”

DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED – HOW HARD IS IT TO BE SO CLOSE TO A POLE AND HAVE SNATCHED AWAY BY A TEAMMATE? “I’d rather a teammate beat me than anybody else. At least it stays in the family, but anytime you’re close to a pole you want it bad. Anytime I’m close to qualifying 10th and if I get beat by one-thousandth I’m still mad, so, obviously, it’s cool to sit on poles, but it’s even cooler to have fast race cars and have a good starting spot for Sunday and that’s what we did. A top five starting spot, we’ll get a good selection on pit road and hopefully have some momentum into tomorrow’s practice and into Sunday. We’ve been fast the last few weeks and we’ve had some crazy things happen to our 6 team, so we just need to get that off of our backs and get a solid run. This is just the start of the weekend and I’m proud that we got a good qualifying effort and I can’t wait until Sunday.”

GREG BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE (Pole-winning press conference)

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “It was a great lap for us. Our car was really, really fast right off the truck. That’s just a tribute to my team and how hard they’ve worked and how far we’ve come as a team this season. It was a great lap. We had been fast all through practice and made about six qualifying attempts at it, but it was a pretty uneventful lap. I felt like I could have got back to the gas a little bit sooner in three and four. I’m sure everybody felt like that, but one one-thousandth of a second is not a huge margin to beat David by.”

WHAT ABOUT ROUSH GOING 1-2-3. “That’s really exciting that our race cars are that good. It’s just a tribute to our driver lineup, the guys at the race shop, Doug Yates with the engine shop how far they’ve come with this FR9 – all those things are a big factor in our cars being up front at these mile-and-a-half race tracks. We had a really, really fast car at Charlotte a few weeks back and this car is really no exception.”

HAVE YOU PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON QUALIFYING THIS YEAR? “Ever since Matt (Puccia) came on board we’ve put a little more emphasis on qualifying and also there are two things that play a factor in that. One is the draw for qualifying goes off practice speeds, so it kind of forced our hand to come here on Friday and start in qualifying trim, which we never do. We come here and start in race trim historically all the time, and then switch to qualifying – make two or three runs and be ready to qualify. Then wherever you drew, you drew. It was luck of the draw. You could go out sixth or you could go out 43rd, so, basically, not NASCAR but the rules have forced us into getting a good draw for qualifying, so it’s up to us and we have to come here in qualifying trim. I made a total of seven laps today – now eight – the whole day. That’s all I’ve done today and I get a little apprehensive, I get a little aggravated because I want to make laps and I like to drive the race car more than eight laps, but I understand what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to get a starting spot for Sunday, we’re trying to get a good qualifying draw and have to wait for tomorrow. It’ll be a restless night tonight waiting for tomorrow to when I can go out and make 10-lap runs, so that’s been a factor in us qualifying better. We’re spending more time on qualifying because of the way the qualifying draw is.”

SO YOU HAVE NOT BEEN IN RACE TRIM TODAY? “None. A lot of guys do that now. I think probably over half the field probably.”

IS IT A PLUS TOMORROW THAT YOU CAN JUST CONCENTRATE ON RACE TRIM? “Yeah, that definitely can be something we can focus on. We kind of anticipate that tomorrow is all race trim and getting the car to drive really well is the most important thing. We’ve got to keep an eye on weather and all those things in case it looks like we might lose some practice and it forces our hand to practice some today in race trim, but that didn’t look like it was gonna be an issue, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

-PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE 18 CAR?

TALK ABOUT THE TEAM REPAIRING THE CAR AND GETTING YOU BACK OUT THERE? “It’s disappointing. I obviously did a poor job today. We were really bad on used tires if we had a restart like we were in practice and we kept getting the outside every time and that’s such a disadvantage on the outside, unless you have a real fast car, which we really didn’t. It was a struggle all day. Obviously, I didn’t make good decisions and we ended up in a bad spot. I wish I could do some things over and try again, but we can’t do that. We raced hard all day. I thought we had pretty good track position at times and just couldn’t capitalize on it.”

WHAT GOT IT STARTED WITH VICKERS? “With Brian he just kept hitting me in the door. I mean, we’re at Martinsville and I gave him the bottom. Obviously, I’m not gonna roll over and let him go with 40 to go or whatever it was and he just kept driving in harder and harder and he slammed me in the door at least five times and just ran me up in the marbles and I was just tired of it, so I spun him out. I don’t know how you can’t pass somebody here without running into him every single time when he gives you the bottom and the fastest lane, but obviously he couldn’t and I was trying to get every position I could at the end of the race.”

YOU WERE RUNNING IN THE TOP 10 MUCH OF THE DAY. DID THE VICKERS INCIDENT RUIN YOUR DAY? “Well, that didn’t help anything, but that didn’t really do it. We kept getting restarts on the outside and on used tires our car would not restart fast. I really don’t know why, we would just be extremely loose and I just couldn’t get going. We were really falling back in that run. After that I thought maybe we were gonna be okay and when I got under the 18 there, like I said, I honestly don’t know what happened. I thought I left him enough room, so I don’t know if I slid up into him or what happened, but somehow we hit off of two and it cut my tire. Of course, that ruined my day, along with his and whoever else got unfortunately collected in that mess.”

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR MIDWAY THROUGH? “On the longer run we were pretty good once we got past halfway through the race and then that particular run when we had all of that stuff happen we just got real loose and I couldn’t keep up and I couldn’t get off the corner and kept falling backwards.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “It was crazy. We just got back to 15th and I’m so thankful. I got it backed into the fence on my own, the brakes just didn’t work. People were just rooting and gauging and everybody knows it’s late in the year and we’ve got to go. That’s why they’re driving like that. I didn’t put a scratch on my car, except for myself when I backed it into the fence. We finished 15th, so I’m pretty happy.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scotts Ford Fusion – PRESS CONFERENCE

“That’s just a gift to have finished in ninth and have the day we had. Did Tony have to come in and pit? I saw on a replay it’s like he cut a tire or something and had to pit and came back through the field somehow. That was our strategy. We were gonna do the same thing we did last week and just cruise around the back and wait for everything to work out. It was a lot of work. We did not deserve to finish ninth. I’m just proud of my guys for sticking with it. Bob did a good job of keeping me calm and now we go to Texas. I’m really excited about Texas.”

IS THIS A BIGGER MIRACLE THAN KANSAS OR EQUAL? “It’s unreal. We were so bad. With about 200 laps to go I was thinking, ‘Okay. The Cardinals didn’t give up the other night.’ That was a little motivation. ‘The Missouri Tigers didn’t give up the other night.’ That was more motivation. I had become okay with the fact that we were probably gonna finish 20th or 25th. I was thinking already about Texas and how we were gonna have to go there and everything we were gonna do, but my guys stuck with it and we got very, very fortunate. I’m just glad we can move on.”

THOUGHTS ON TONY FIGHTING HARD TO STAY ON THE LEAD LAP EARLIER IN THE RACE. “I think credit needs to be given to his crew chief because I raced around Tony for the first 100-150 laps and I thought his car was as slow as mine was at that point, so they did a really good job of turning the balance of that car around overall. It looked like he was struggling a lot.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT WENT WRONG AND WHAT WENT RIGHT, AND IN VICTORY LANE TONY SAID YOU BETTER BE WORRIED AND YOU’RE NOT GOING TO HAVE AN EASY THREE WEEKS. DO YOU HAVE A REBUTTAL? “He’s wound up. He won the race. We’ll see what happens at Texas. I feel like we’re gonna go there and we’re gonna have as good a shot to win as anyone. This track has just been really, really tough for me, so I think this is one of those days where everything went wrong and everything went right as well, and, fortunately, the timing of all those things worked out so we finished ninth. I think Tony and those guys, they’ve obviously won three Chase races so when I sat in here on Friday I told you guys I thought he was one of the guys that could win this race and be a guy that you’d have to beat for the championship and I think he’s proving that right now. But, yeah, we’ll have fun. We’ll go race hard. They’re gonna have to race us, too, so I’m excited about the next three races.”

WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN THE BLACK FLAG CAME OUT AND WAS THEN RESCINDED? “I had forgotten about that. My spotter, Jason (Hedlesky), NASCAR was telling him for me to pass the 31, so Jason was yelling at me, ‘You’ve got to pass the 31,’ so I drove around the outside of Burton right as the green was coming out. I’ve got to give credit to Burton because he probably had no clue what was going on. I could tell by the way he was driving me that he thought about turning me around down there in turn one, so I’m grateful that he didn’t do that and I’m grateful – whether or not there was a communication error or what was going on – I appreciate NASCAR looking at it and realizing they told me to do what they were black-flagging me for. It’s not very often they rescind the black flag like that.”

A LUGNUT ISSUE, YOU WERE LAPPED TWICE AND YOU FINISHED NINTH. IS THIS LIKE A VICTORY? “Yes. We talked about it beforehand. If we could just come out of here with a top 10 and the points lead, that’s like a win, so I’m very happy with the result. I’m not happy with the performance. We struggled in a bunch of different ways today, so we’ve got to work on this. We’ve got to figure out exactly what causes us to struggle here. It looks like a couple of our teammates figured it out and we’ve got some homework to do before we come back next time.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “That’s Martinsville. It was a really good car. I think we just needed something small to win the race, but the car was so good. It was really good. I was proud of all the guys. We’ve got to work on our pit stops a little bit because we kept losing a couple of spots, but what really hurt us was I got put three-wide on the outside and got into one and that shoved the fender over the tire and we got a yellow, and from there on back we were at the back of the pack and everybody is just gauging back there. Doug gave me a great motor and everybody at the engine shop. The car was good and that’s all you can say.”

A VERY PHYSICAL RACE TODAY. WHY? “It was unbelievable. It was insane. That’s the way NASCAR is now. Everybody is desperate. We’ve got to fight for everything we can get out there. Sponsors, points, money, etc., so everybody is trying to get everything. It’s the end of the year. It just seems like if it’s just me, but it just seems like this year is tiring. Everybody is tired and you put that combination together at a place like Martinsville and things are gonna happen.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – “It was just a real crazy race. I felt like we had a top 10 car. We were able to pass some cars from the get-go and made good adjustments from our practice on Friday, but just didn’t have the luck. We were just cruising around there and someone wrecked someone on the front straightaway and bumper-tagged and we had a small piece of sheetmetal go through our radiator and we had to go behind the wall and change it. But, other than that, our car was fast. Our team did a good job. We just didn’t have luck today.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion – “We were in good shape. We didn’t have a scratch on it. We were just trying to keep the fenders on and blew a right-rear tire. We had to pit. We tried to stay out and do the wave around, got our lap back, we had to pit under green but it looked like it was going to make the cycle. We were making up a lot of track position there, but we just blew a tire and our day is done.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

David Gilliland, No. 34 World Hunger Relief Ford (Qualified 42nd)

TONY STEWART SAID THAT YOU GUYS AREN’T GOING TO BE ABLE TO HOOK UP LIKE YOU HAVE IN THE PAST. “Yeah, we aren’t. It is such a tight points battle right now and we are going to try to help the Ford guys out all we can. We are going to go that route. Our teammate Travis made the race and in the past he has had to do stuff to ensure he made the race and had to go behind the wall sometimes and change the oil and stuff like that. This time he is not doing anything like that so we can make a plan to work together and stick together. We are One Ford. That is the goal for this weekend. I feel good about it. Tony was great to work with those last couple of races and you never know what will happen. If you get down to the end and he is out of a partner and something happens to Travis, we are 100-percent comfortable working together, with each other. You never know what can happen on into the race. As far as our initial plan, it is to work with Ford.”

SO WILL YOU HELP IF CARL OR SOMEONE LIKE THAT NEEDS IT. WILL YOU HELP THE CHASE GUYS? “Yeah. I worked with Carl at Daytona and we worked really well together. He was really comfortable with us working together. We have kinda built a rapport with those guys. So much can change throughout this race as you guys know. When it gets down to the end, we are going to leave our options open.”

SO YOU CAN HELP SOMEBODY IN THE COURSE OF A RACE. YOU AREN’T BANNED FROM WORKING WITH ANYONE? “No, we aren’t banned. When you lay out your initial plans you have to think of the big picture and Ford does a lot for us and we would really like to see a Ford win this championship.”

DID THAT DIRECTIVE COME FROM FORD RACING? “You know, obviously they would like to see that. We are here to help them just like they help us if we can.”

Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Jeremiah Weed Ford (Qualified 11th)
“It drove good. I hope it drives good going that slow. Qualifying is pretty uneventful here for the driver. It seemed like our speed was reasonable and that should probably get us 15th or so hopefully.”

David Ragan, No. 6 UPS My Choice Ford (Qualified 8th)
“Our UPS Ford has some speed. Drew and the guys, this is all about them on qualifying days at Daytona and Talladega. Our job is to try not to go out and make a mistake. Our car was fast and drives real nice. The engine shop has been doing a good job, it has good power. I think we have a fast car and it will be in the top-10 for sure and have a good starting spot for Sunday.”

FOR THIS RACE THERE IS A RESTRICTOR PLATE CHANGE AND THE VENT FOR COOLING. HOW HAS THAT AFFECTED YOUR RUN HERE? “Zero. No affect. We will be able to push all day long and run like we have all year at these restrictor plate tracks.”

YOU HAVE BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL AT THE RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES THIS YEAR. WHY SHOULDN’T I BET THE FARM ON YOU FOR SUNDAY? “Because there are 42 other cars and the B factors come into effect. Anything can happen but we will have as good a shot to win as anyone this weekend. I guarantee we will lead some laps and we are going to be fast. We are going to have some fun but crazy things do happen. Mechanical problems do bite you sometimes but we will be fine. We’ve got good race cars, good teammates, good engines and it is a lot of fun here being at Talladega.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 Best Buy Ford (Qualified 24th)
“That was pretty much all skill by me right there. Actually no, we didn’t qualify very fast so that was all the car then. It was pretty stable. We got on the back straightaway there and there are a couple people partying pretty hard so that was pretty good. I was pretty impressed. I think they were left over from last night. I heard them last night as well. Other than that it was Talladega qualifying. The Best Buy Ford should start mid pack to start with and end up front. That’s the plan.”

WHAT’S THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THIS TO YOU? “Yesterday it seemed like all the stuff they did to make us not be able to push as long still didn’t help. NASCAR will figure out how to do something but the teams are so smart now that they figure out a way to still make it better. I think it is honestly how long you can run in a tandem group and whether we will do that all race or all pack up for awhile and then get with our partners and try to race at the end. We will see.”

WOULD THERE EVER BE A SCENARIO WHERE A MANUFACTURER WOULD SAY YOU AREN’T ALLOWED TO PUSH ANOTHER MANUFACTURER? “I haven’t been told that yet. Maybe I will be told that after this now. Maybe they forgot to get to me. I could easily see that though. The biggest thing is that first off, I want to win the race for myself, Best Buy and Richard Petty Motorsports. Secondly we want to get one of these Fords to win the championship and Matt and Carl are right there for it. Anything we can do to help them is what is always going to be our focus.”

Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford (Qualified 19th)
“Me and Todd Parrott have been through a lot together. I have a lot to thank him for. He has been a great crew chief for me and we get on well. We’ve had a really good month with three top-10s in row and that run will put us somewhere around 15th here. We are close to AJ, our teammate, so we should be able to find each other pretty quick on Sunday and get to the front.”

YOU HAVE ‘NO BRAKES’ WRITTEN ON YOUR HAND, WHAT’S THAT ABOUT? “That is just a cue for me when I jump in the car I always tend to test the brake pedal and here that will push the pads back. I didn’t want to be that guy that pumped the pedal and forget about it. It is just my mental cue before I put my gloves on to make sure I don’t touch the brake. This stuff here is unique. The car has all this stuff in it to make it run fast and produce drag.”

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST THOUGHT ABOUT THE WEEKEND’S RACE? WHAT IS STILL ON YOUR MIND? “I just want to get to the finish. It is one of these deals here where I have had trouble finishing lately being caught up in weird accidents. Our goal here is to be in contention coming to the checkered flag and hopefully put ourselves in good position.”

DO YOU SEE A SCENARIO WHERE YOU WOULD PUSH A CHEVY? “If it is Kevin Harvick then there is no chance. We are trying to help as best we can our Ford drivers win the championship. Carl and Matt Kenseth have had a great year so far and I don’t want to get in the way of the championship and don’t want to change the outcome, I don’t want to be in the way. I think pushing a Chase contender in a Chevrolet would probably not be the best thing for your career if you have blue blood, and that I certainly have.”

SO YOU PAIR UP BASED ON WHERE THEY ARE IN THE CHASE AND WHAT MANUFACTURER IS ON THE CAR? “In the end you want to have a dance partner already set. If you can’t find your teammate or person you want to work with then it will be a scramble and you have to do what you have to do to get your car as high as you can. I don’t think that if there are 43 cars out there that I will be looking for anyone but a Ford driver to get me to the line.”

Carl Edwards, No. 99 Subway Ford (Qualified 9th)
“You know, it is Anytober and we are promoting Subway. They will sell any regular foot long sub for five dollars. Here comes the other six inches of my foot long sub, the 16 of Greg Biffle. He is 17th? Okay, we will be probably eighth or ninth and Greg will start back there and that will make it easy for us to meet up and work together. I was just talking to Mark (Martin) and the driver can’t do much on these laps. You have to just not make a mistake and get through the gears correctly. Our car was pretty good and the great thing is that working with Greg I felt like we could pass anybody yesterday. This is going to be a fun race.”

Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M/O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Ford (Qualified 18th)
“It was a pretty uneventful lap, always is qualifying here at Talladega. We got a pretty good gust of wind down the backstretch and I could feel it slow the car down. The wind is starting to pick up a little bit and I think it hurt us a little bit. Carl and I, we have a marriage made in heaven and we are going to work together in the race. The 21 car was really fast in practice, so we will see if he can knock Mark off the pole. We will have to wait and see. We didn’t qualify quite where we wanted. I think we lost a tenth with that gust of wind and Carl’s car and my car really match up on speed pretty well.”

Trevor Bayne, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford (Qualified 4th)
“I think that shows how much work the 21 guys put into these cars and they do a great job at the superspeedways and the work shows up here. It is all about speed and our car has it. I think it is a solid run for our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford. Hopefully we can keep it up there all day. Qualifying doesn’t really matter once the green flag drops with all the drafting that is going on. You will move around from the back to the front and back again. We will hang out and see who we hook up with.”

Andy Lally, No. 71 TRG Motorsports Ford (Qualified 33rd)
“It means a whole lot to the manufacturers and we have a good strong motor here. This Ford is pulling real well. We are a small team and this is a real good effort by these guys. There is no wind tunnel time on this car. We are relying on the Roush Yates Ford power under that hood and some little tricks these guys learn along the way. They have been learning a lot and we have been working behind the scenes as hard as we can. I am proud of them. They have done a good job.” DO

YOU HAVE A PARTNER STRATEGY FOR TOMORROW? “I got to work with Terry Labonte at Daytona and had a blast. To get to work with a veteran like that, you just want to keep coming back and doing it some more. If he will have me I will certainly be willing to push him all day tomorrow. We have a couple other guys we are talking to in case things get shuffled around but Terry is good people and a champion and it would be very cool to get to do that with him again.”

Travis Kvapil, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford (Qualified 17th)
“It was a good run. It is hard to really do anything as a driver here. It is all on the team and Front Row Motorsports did a good job. This is a different car than we have had for speedway races. We wrecked our Daytona car earlier in the year and we brought this one here. I have to give a big thank you to Ford and Doug Yates for the great horsepower. The guys at the shop pay attention to all the details and so far, so good. Surely it won’t hold up for a pole but we are solidly in the show and that was objective number one for us.”

DO YOU HAVE A PARTNER FOR TOMORROW? “I think so. It all can go out the window but myself and David Gilliland are planning to work together and be there for each other all day long. We are looking for a good solid day tomorrow because that can go a long way for our fight to get back into the top-35. We want to keep chipping away at it. That is the plan.”

JJ Yeley, No. 55 Front Row Motorsports Ford (Qualified 28th)
“It was good. The most important thing is that we are locked in now. The biggest disappointment was that we were in full qualifying trim and had really good speed yesterday. We thought we would pick up a couple tenths today. The first lap wasn’t bad but we didn’t pick up those extra tenths on the second lap. I’m not exactly sure why but again at the end of the day the goal has been achieved and we are in the race.”

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR TOMORROW? “I think you almost have to shoot from the hip. You can sit there and plan but as soon as the green flag drops there are 40 other guys out there to disturb your plan. It is tough because there are 43 cars starting this race so there will be one guy left out, as long as you aren’t that guy you will be okay.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

A year ago at this time, nobody knew what the future held for Richard Petty Motorsports as the team searched for investors to try and keep the operation running.  Since then, Richard Petty, Andrew Murstein and Doug Bergeron have come together and brought stability to an organization that has one victory and both of its drivers in the top 20 of this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.

            Robbie Loomis, chief operating officer, and drivers AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose, spoke to Ford Racing about the state of RPM and the goals it has for the future. 

ROBBIE LOOMIS, Chief Operating Officer, Richard Petty Motorsports — COMPARING WHERE THE ORGANIZATION IS AT NOW TO A YEAR AGO, THINGS ARE A LOT BETTER AREN’T THEY?  “Yeah, I think the foundation the owners have put under us with Richard Petty, Doug Bergeron and Andy Murstein has put us on a lot more solid footing as we have tried to put the pieces into place for the team and build it up. We still have deficiencies at certain race tracks that we need to work on, namely at the mile-and-a-half tracks. We think we made some gains in practice atKansas. When you look back at a year ago from where we came from to where we are at today it feels good, but we still have miles to go before we rest.”

HOW MUCH DID THE TURMOIL OF LAST YEAR AFFECT YOUR DRIVERS?  “I think that anytime you have uncertainty going on it is hard as an athlete or a professional to block it completely out of your mind, especially when you are having a rough day or something is going on. That is what AJ was able to do though. He was able to still manage through a difficult time and not let it eat at him. I think he relies a lot throughout his career on his talent. That is a big part of what has gotten him to where he is at today. For Marcos to be a winner in everything he has drove and believe in us and still come to the organization through all that meant a lot and I think to Ford as a whole.”

WHAT WAS THE TURNING POINT FOR THE ORGANIZATION?  “I think the turning point was atCharlotte last October when we found out that we might have trouble finishing the season and Richard Petty stepped up himself and said he was going to make a commitment to finish the year and worked with his partners at the time to get to the end of the year. That worked out and from that point it gave Andy and Doug something to be able to come in to. I think that was the real turning point, and I remember atCharlotte when we talked about the possibility of maybe not finishing the year out. Richard said then that, ‘This has been my life, my whole life and this is what we are going to do. We are going to finish it and start working on next year.’ Then he said, ‘We have to finish this year so we have something going into next year.’”

THAT MUST HAVE BEEN A HUGE SHOT IN THE ARM FOR EVERYONE TO HAVE HIM MAKE THAT STATEMENT.  “It really pumped the guys up. I know from AJ Allmendinger especially, he stepped up. If you look at his performance those last five or six races or whatever it was when we found out we were in some trouble. He really stepped up and was a team leader to the guys and drove the car ten-tenths, which he always drives the car ten-tenths, but he was the leader during the week also for them which helped and he has carried that into this year and now he sits 14^th in points. To have Marcos still believe in us and come into the deal was big too. We felt like for sure we could win one of the road course races, if not both of them. We missed atSearsPoint pretty bad, but we were able to capitalize at The Glen.”

WHAT HAS MARCOS BROUGHT TO THE ORGANIZATION OTHER THAN HIS ROAD RACING PROWESS?  “I think his strength obviously is with the road racing, but we went to Vegas and qualified on the front row with him and ran fourth in that race. He has brought a fresh perspective and describes what he wants in the car really good. We all have the same things in our trucks that we need to get in the cars; it is about making sure we have the right stuff in the car when we put the car on the grid. That is the thing we are working on the hardest.”

AJ HAS HAD A CAREER YEAR WHEN YOU LOOK AT HIS POINTS, WHAT DOES HE NEED TO DO TO MAKE THAT NEXT STEP AND GET A WIN?  “AJ is very dedicated and passionate about racing. He is getting where he handles and manages the bad days and bad moments of the race better. That is what has helped him be 14^th in points. I think for him to excel and be in the Chase we just have to keep managing and minimizing those days when we are off and how big those mistakes are so we can take a 25^th or 27^th place finish and turn them into 15^th place finishes. That is what will propel us forward. It is time for us as a team with the 43 to step up and win. We need to win.”

ARE THERE ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES TO RUNNING A TWO-CAR SHOP?  “Due to Ford and the way Ford structures their engineering program and as strong as Ford has been in supporting us through it, there are some definite advantages to being two cars. The model is you want to be four because from a financial standpoint it gives you more resources. With Ford’s support it helps us be as strong of a two-car team as probably anybody out there.”

WHAT IS THE FOCUS FOR RPM IN THE FINAL STRETCH OF THIS SEASON?  “We have big tasks ahead of us. We have struggled a lot at flatter, mile-and-a-half, lower grip race tracks. We tend to run great atAtlanta and some other places but the flatter they get and lower the grip level the more we struggle to get the right parts and pieces and feel for the driver so that he can have confidence and capitalize on it from there. We will continue to work on that for sure. I think looking ahead that we are looking forward toMartinsville, which has been a great track for AJ. Marcos was a top-five car atTexas. Last year atHomestead we finished fourth and fifth down there, so we have a lot of great race tracks coming up. We just need to finish up strong because it is that momentum you end the season with a lot of times that carries you into the next year.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – WHAT’S YOUR RECOLLECTION OF HOW YOU GUYS WERE ABLE TO MAKE IT THROUGH LAST YEAR WITH ALL THE TURMOIL SURROUNDING THE ORGANIZATION?  “I don’t want to remember it (laughing).  It was a tough time and it was right about this time when everybody started feeling the pressure and hearing things about what was going on.  Ultimately, some of it was selfish.  I thought we had a good thing going and I didn’t want my guys to leave.  All of these guys in here have a lot more at stake in a certain way.  They have families and they work so hard.  They’re gone from their families a lot and the way this sport is right now it’s a tough time and I didn’t want them without jobs more than anything, so I was trying to just focus on keeping them updated with what was going on and trying to keep them here if that was what was gonna happen and, if not, trying to let them know as soon as possible if not because they had the right to know and those guys are usually the last to know, so, at that point, it was just about trying to get us all together and when the time was right let them know the information I knew.  Most of the credit goes to them because they could have easily just packed it in and said, ‘screw it,’ but they showed up to the race track and they jumped through hoops to get the race cars ready when they weren’t allowed in our own shop and out in parking lots of race tracks, so most of the credit went to them.  They showed up.  They’re racers.  They knew all they could do was show up and try to run as good as possible and we did a good job.  We were really fast every weekend and, at that point, luckily it worked out.”

DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM IS A TIGHTER-KNIT GROUP THIS YEAR BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU WENT THROUGH AT THE END OF THE YEAR?  “I think so.  We had a couple of minor changes on the race team from last year, but I felt that all of the core guys were really tight.  We were really tight anyway.  I try to do my best to let them know how much I appreciate them.  Maybe I don’t do it enough, but I try to do everything I can to show them that.  I feel like if they consider me a friend or somebody that’s close, maybe they’ll work just that little bit harder.  There’s no secret that my life is in their hands whenever they want it to be, but I feel like we all get along pretty well.  I think the team going down to two cars really helped the whole organization because I feel like everybody is a lot closer, so, overall, it was tough to go through but I think it did make us stronger.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – HOW FAR HAS THIS ORGANIZATION COME IN A YEAR?  “It’s been a fairytale year forRPM and all of us associated with the company.  We didn’t know what the future held.  It was completely out of most of our hands.  We had to rely on good faith and judgment by people smarter than me and AJ and I’m just pleased it has all worked out so well.  We’ve got a lot of momentum and a lot of good things to talk about.  We’re competitive.  I would say we’re the best two-car team right now and it means a lot to all of us.  It’s a privilege to drive for the King and to have the King’s support and have him treat me like he did.  He could have walked away.  It’s not as if it’s his first season of racing and he’s got the blinkers on.  He knows this sport and it can cost a lot of money when things go wrong, but he put his money where his mouth was and shored the team up.  He found the investors to make it happen and we’ve come out the other side a lot stronger.”

DID YOUR WIN AT WATKINS GLEN VALIDATE YOUR DECISION TO MAKE THE MOVE TO RPM?  “Yeah, definitely.  You’ve got to take chances in life and I knew it was a gamble. I didn’t know how much trouble was going to happen when I signed the contract withRPM, but we had Stanley and DeWalt who were committed and they were happy for me to be their driver and we made it work.  I’m really happy with it.”

IS THIS RACE TEAM STRONGER AS A RESULT OF WHAT HAPPENED?  “No doubt.  We’ve been through a lot together and racing is a tough sport because no one remembers what it took to get to where you are, they’re worried about the next race.  None of us can rest easy saying, ‘Now we’ve made it.  Here we are.’  We’ve got a lot more to strive to do and we’ve got more goals we need to reach.  We’ve got a lot of coherency.  We’re a great team.  We get on well and communicate well and we perform well.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion –

HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT? “This tire wasn’t that hard in the spring, but it got really hard tonight. The bottom seemed to be the place to go and you just couldn’t get guys out of the way. It was a tough night. We were around the 29 a lot and around the 11 a lot, around Carl a lot and around the 18 and 17 as well, so we were up with the Chase guys. Next year, we want to be one of those guys that gets looked after.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “It was a solid night for us and congrats to Matt. This is a big night for Ford. We have five times the points lead we had coming in. We went from one point to five points, so that’s something. We didn’t know what to expect coming in here, but our Aflac Fusion was fast. My pit crew did a good job. Bob made the right calls on the box and it ended up being a good night. I’m just glad we didn’t tear anything up. We dodged a bullet here. This has been a tough track for us. I’m excited, well, I’m stretching the truth there, I’m not too excited to go to Talladega because you never know what’s gonna happen there, but it will be fun one way or another.”

WHAT DOES A FIVE-POINT LEAD MEAN? “That’s five more spots. If we can slowly build a little bit of a lead, that’s the best thing we can do. It’s so competitive right now. Everybody is so fast that you just take everything you can get. I’m happy with this run. I’ll go to bed tonight and sleep well and I’m just glad we didn’t make any big mistakes. This is a really treacherous place.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – “That’s a bad feeling to run out of gas, especially when you’re not expecting it. We weren’t even pushing it. It wasn’t time for that yet and I think that 21 was just fast. It must have been sucking up more fuel than we thought being that fast, but I think something just had to be funky in the fuel cell or something messed up on the can because it just wasn’t taking all the fuel we needed it to. We had an easy top five car tonight. I feel like this would have been another shot to win a race. That thing was just so fast. It was that way all weekend. On the long runs it was that good and the whole race we didn’t adjust one thing and we were really competitive. There aren’t many nights when you get to do that and be that fast. We didn’t get the finish we deserved, but it’s definitely a confidence-builder for the whole team to run that good all night. We want results, but they’ll come if we keep running that good.”

YOUR BEST RACE SINCE DAYTONA? “This is probably our most competitive night we’ve had. I’d definitely say that for sure. At Vegas early in the year we were this competitive. I was running eighth and I sped coming to pit road, so mistakes have taken us out of it. But the Fords are just so fast on these high-banked mile-and-a-halfs. At one point I looked up and I think all but one car in the top seven were Fords and that was just really cool to see them that dominant at a track. It’s cool that they got the win, but I wish it was the 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion in victory lane instead.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WRECK WITH TONY? “I’d have to watch the replay, but it sure seemed to me that he ran me into the fence.”

IT LOOKED LIKE AFTER YOU HIT THE FENCE THE FIRST TIME YOU CAME DOWN ON HIM TO MAYBE RETALIATE, BUT WE COULDN’T TELL IF THAT WAS MOMENTUM OR ON PURPOSE AND HE WASN’T SURE EITHER. “I hit the fence and I came down and hit him in the left rear and then we were hooked together, but I wouldn’t have hit the fence if I had enough room. He ran me out of room. I had a run coming and there was nowhere for me to go. I either hook him in the right-rear and wreck him or I hit the fence, so I hit the fence. I could have just turned him into the fence the wrong way, which, in hindsight maybe that’s what I should have done, but I know he’s a Chase car and I’m trying to be a little courteous out there. He just didn’t quite leave me enough room. I’ll have to watch the replay before I really get the whole deal, but I was coming with a run on the top, which I had done on all restarts. I was killing them down there and he came up off the corner and the hole wasn’t big enough, so I stayed off of him but I hit the fence. There wasn’t anything there, but I’ll go back and watch it and see what it looks like.”

YOU HAD ONE OF THE BEST CARS AND IT MUST HAVE FELT LIKE YOU COULD PUT IT WHERE YOU WANTED. “Oh, you can. I could drive anywhere, but he didn’t expect me to be coming on the top, I’m sure. He felt like he drove by me. I’m sure he did. I’m sure he never planned on me to be there because the top was so effective for me down here. It’s funny, I could pass on new tires on the top down there, but not on old tires. New tires it would just stick and go around the corner like crazy. It just wasn’t enough room, but that’s racing with 40 or 30 to go. And then that momentum carried me down into him and we were kind of hooked together. I was turning to the right and I don’t know if my splitter was hooked in his quarterpanel or what. I don’t know what happened. I kept turning to the right and finally came off of him, and then when we went down into the corner the left-front was flat.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – “It’s not what I wanted, but the end result is good. I’m happy there were so many Fords in the top 10. I’m just a little confused on what we need from practice to the race because we’ve had a few races where we’re really quick in practice, but I was complaining running inside the top 10, so it’s getting better than usual. I’m just a little disappointed that we weren’t quite there. I’m not sure where we’re missing it from practice to the race. I don’t know if it’s me and what I need to feel better. The car was decent all night. We’ve got to work on our pit stops on these track position gains. You can’t lose that much time, but the guys fought hard. Greg made a good call at the end for four tires. It was a good result. I’m happy for Ford. There were a ton of Fords in the top 10. I’m not sure we were the seventh-best car, we might have been the ninth or 10th, but we’d get to about seventh or eighth and be really tight – the back end would be wiggling a little bit. It just wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. The result was good. It was a good night for points. To win these things we’ve just got to be a little bit better.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE –

“It’s huge for us. We’ve had this one circled on our schedule as one that our whole Aflac team was nervous about. We qualified well. We weren’t that fast at the beginning of the race and Bob did a really good job dialing it in. The car and the track kind of came to us, so, overall, it was a really good night for Roush Fenway. It’s great to see Matt get a win. Those guys, I guess it’s great as teammate, it’s not great because now he’s only seven points behind us in the Chase, but it was just a good race. It’s a lot better finish than I thought we were gonna have, so I’m happy with it.”

SHOULDN’T THE GUYS RACING FOR SECOND AND THIRD BE RACING HARD? “Yeah, we should definitely be racing each other hard, it’s just that there’s a difference between racing hard and just cutting across the guy’s nose. What I told Kyle is I just wondered why coming off of turn two, when I got underneath him, he drove down instead of going up to the wall like we’d normally do. I just let him know that the next time that happens, I’ll just stay where I’m at and he can drive across my hood and wreck himself. It just surprised me. He told me that he didn’t mean to do it, so I’ve got to believe that, but I don’t know what else there is to say about it. It’s just racing and we didn’t wreck. We’re gonna race hard like that and that’s just how I saw it.”

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU HEARD JIMMIE WRECKED AND WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? “It can happen to any of us. Obviously, the more points we can get on the guys in the Chase the better, but it’s obvious that could happen to anyone. He could go on a tear and be leading the points in three or four weeks, so that could happen too, so I will never count him out.”

MATT SEEMS TO BE OVERLOOKED FOR THE TITLE. IS HE A THREAT? “He’s the only one of the three of us with a championship. He’s doing really well and tonight that car was really fast and he drove it really well. I spent a little time behind him and he was wheeling it, so I don’t think you can count him out at all.”

WAS THERE ANY KEY ADJUSTMENT YOU MADE TO THE CAR AND HOW WAS IT THIS WEEK? “The car was a lot better this week than it was last week, but we were still off a little bit. We weren’t as fast as Kyle or Matt. We’ve got to go back and look at it. Greg was really fast and Trevor was screaming fast at one point in the race. He was really good. I don’t know what happened to him, but I thought he was gonna be the guy to beat, so we’ll just go back and look at it and figure out what we’re missing. It might be something I’m doing driving that’s not correct here and there might be some setup stuff, but we’re slowly working on it. I feel better after this run. The All-Star Race, Coke 600 and this race were all decent for us, so that’s three in a row and that’s the best we’ve ever been here.”

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE CHASE AFTER FIVE RACES WITH ONLY ONE WIN THIS YEAR? “The wins matter, obviously. It’s great to win, but our goal is to win the championship. We’ve won nine races in a season and not won the championship and I’d definitely trade that for a zero or one-win season with a championship. Our goal is to win this championship. We’re leading the points now, which really doesn’t amount to much with five races left, but we’re on track. We’re doing well. There are some tough races coming up for us. Talladega is not my best track. Martinsville is not my best track, but after those I feel pretty good.”

THIS IS THE LATEST YOU’VE BEEN THE POINTS LEADER. WILL THAT CHANGE YOUR STYLE AT ALL? “I don’t know. I think right now you still have to get everything you can. I raced really hard tonight, not quite as hard as you. I’m racing as hard as I can trying to get every point I can. That’s how we’ve raced all season. It hasn’t worked out for some wins, but that’s mostly been strategy and stuff like that. I’ve found a balance where I’ve wrecked enough and made enough stupid decisions early on that I’m trying to be better at not giving them away. We’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing and if it works out, it works out. But the season isn’t like others. I think it’s gonna literally come down to the last few laps at Homestead. If you watched what happened tonight, anything can happen and it can turn quickly.”

IT’S SO HARD TO PASS. SHOULD THEY MAKE SOME CHANGES? “It would be fine with me if they took the spoilers off and the splitters off and we didn’t have any downforce. The cars are so close that the difference between them is smaller than the difference when you’re following somebody. NASCAR has done a really, really good job of making sure that the rules are close and we’re all about the same speed, but then when you’re going that fast and relying on downforce, it makes it really tough. This track is probably one of the toughest ones to pass on, but it’s overall tough almost everywhere we go.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion – “It’s obviously disappointing that we didn’t really get to race after we suffered the damage on that restart. The 5 car checked up and everyone behind him just wound up in a pile-up. There was nothing we could do. We were just starting to get the Tastykake Ford where we needed it, and then that happened. Peter (crew chief Peter Sospenzo) and the guys did a good job making our car better all weekend. It’s too bad we didn’t have the chance to do more with it.”

J.J. YELEY – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion – “It was a pretty good night for the Long John Silver’s Ford team. We had a lot of things go right for us with some cautions coming at the right times and a Lucky Dog, and we had a chance to lead some laps. I just wish we had a little bit more for them at the end. Jay Guy and the team did a good job adjusting as the track conditions changed, and the guys did a great job in the pits, too. It was a good points day for us, which is what this 38 team is really working for right now. ”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Fluidmaster Ford Fusion – PRESS CONFERENCE –

“It was an awesome win for us. We had a pretty decent car all night. I felt like we had a car that probably the last 150 laps or so that if we could get it to the front it would be hard to beat, but it was just really hard to pass tonight, especially if you had about 20 laps on your tires. You had to get it done right away and we got a little behind that one time and got back to fifth or sixth and, honestly, it took that last 150 laps or whatever to get back to the lead. It was a good race. I had fun racing with Kyle there. We had a pretty decent restart, the second-to-last one, and got by Denny and Carl and ran Kyle down. It was tough to get by him and I’m glad we could make it happen because it was challenging.”

JACK ROUSH, Car Owner – “I’m really proud of what Matt and Jimmy did tonight. Crew chiefs have a really hard job. He’s out shuffling the car through the tech line to make sure the height measurements are fair and everything works out the way he thinks they should. That’s the reason why he’s not here right now, but with all the engineering and all the technical support behind these teams, it comes down to decisions – the last 20 percent of the decision for what the setup is – that’s worked out between the driver and the crew chief. Jimmy is a championship quality crew chief. He won with Kurt Busch a few years ago and Matt won with Robbie, of course, and Robbie is our general manager now. But we’ve got a lot of depth in the organization. All of the Ford cars ran well tonight. It was just a matter of time until Matt broke loose from his obscurity in the back and middle of the pack and worked his way to the front, but what happened to Jimmie Johnson is a sobering lesson for everybody. You can’t afford to break apart. You can’t afford to put a wheel wrong. A loose lugnut on pit road with an extra pass at the wrong time to serve a penalty could be a championship losing event. There is just a lot that these guys have to do that has to really be done correctly and Jimmy and Matt got it done tonight and I’m sure they’re going to be a factor in this championship going down the stretch.”

JIMMY FENNIG, Crew Chief – “It was pretty good at the end there. We made another adjustment and it seemed like the car came to life a little bit better. We still didn’t get it totally fixed, but it was good enough to win tonight.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR IMPROVED QUALIFYING EFFORT? “It makes a big difference. It’s a lot different than it was five or six years ago. I used to probably not stress out quite as much about qualifying because if you started 25th and had one of the best cars, it wasn’t a problem to pass 24 cars in four hours. But everybody is a lot closer to the same speed, which obviously makes it a little bit more difficult to pass and track position is really important, so qualifying always helps. It helps you with your pit stall, it helps you with your track position. Hopefully, you can get out and get a bonus point and lead a little bit, so it’s always important.”

JIMMY FENNIG CONTINUED – “Qualifying is real important. For one thing, if you don’t qualify good you’re stuck back in the pack and you’ve got all that dirty air and it makes your adjustments for us a little bit harder racing against the dirty air and figuring out what to do, so it’s pretty important to qualify good.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – HOW WERE YOUR RESTARTS BETTER TONIGHT? “Restarts have obviously not been my specialty lately. If you watch many races, especially when we restart second on the bottom, and I’ve done an extremely poor job of that. I was kicking myself on the third or fourth restart from the end when I restarted alongside of Kyle and Carl got around me and then the 11 got around me on the next restart. I knew we had a shot to win the race if we could get in front of Kyle. I ran him down the last long run we had. I knew our car was a little bit superior to his and I was gonna feel pretty bad if I was the weak link and cost these guys a race again. Thankfully, on the second-to-last restart we were fourth on the outside and I could get rolling with Kyle right away and had a good couple sets of corners and got up to second, and then I was able to race him one-on-one so that was a big key.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT ONE RESTART WHERE YOU WENT THREE-WIDE? “That particular restart I ran three-wide through turn one and two, which isn’t really advisable, but it’s difficult to pass and what happens is there’s a lot of guys on two and you’ve got to take advantage of your four tires. Tonight it was real weird because you could run maybe 15-20 laps and you had an advantage, you can pass, and then it was like you flipped a switch and everybody was the same speed and you just couldn’t go forward anymore. We were real aggressive there and made our way back up to fifth or sixth and settled in right there. We had a good pit stop. Jimmy pitted me a couple laps early and we passed a couple more of those guys and got ourselves back up to third and that put us back up in the mix again.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED — WHAT IS THE SATISFACTION LEVEL TO WIN? “I don’t know if you saw the same race that I did, but we had seven of our cars tonight that ran in the top 10 most of the night, except for problems we had. We’re at the top of our game as far as our mile-and-a-half program. There are other teams that have got good programs, but nobody has a better mile-and-a-half program than us. Including tonight, there were three mile-and-a-half races left in the Chase, so I felt really good about that. Ford has given us great support for our Fusions. We’ve got a good aero package on them. Our kinematics work well based on the lab testing we’ve done and engines make a lot of power, so I’m not embarrassed that we haven’t won more races. We’ve had a lot of races that we’ve missed just because we made the wrong decision that worked out for two tires, no tires. We’ve been challenged with judgments about how much fuel was in the tank a couple of times, but we’re in championship form. In my 24 years I’ve never had better cars for the championship stretch than we’ve got and we’re anxious to see how it’s gonna work out. I don’t feel vindicated, I just think that the hard work everybody has done is paying off and we’re getting what we deserve.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – “I’m happy to have won, obviously. Like you said, it’s been 20 races, which doesn’t really seem that long because I don’t know how many it was before that, but I think it was 70-some before that. You’re always thankful. I’m always thankful to get to victory lane. You never know if you’re ever gonna win another race or when your last win is, and I’m certainly thankful for them all and I greatly appreciate being in a position to be able to win races and these guys giving me the cars and the crew and the opportunity to do that.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – HOW MUCH DOES JIMMIE’S ACCIDENT CHANGE THE CHASE FOR YOU GUYS? “For anybody that hopes to win the championship that has a wreck or breaks an engine or has a cut tire at the wrong time, you can’t expect to get a mulligan. You’ll be very lucky if somebody will give you back a chance to make up a whole race. I thought that Jimmie Johnson would be a factor in it and he’s definitely gonna have to stand in line and wait for the other folks that are in the top five to have problems for him to get back in it. He won’t race his way back in it. He won’t finish high enough above the top four or five cars to beat them on the race track. He’ll have to wait for them to have trouble, I think.”

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THIS SPORT WHEN A GUY WINS THE RACE AND HIS FIRST WORDS ARE ABOUT NEEDING A SPONSOR FOR NEXT YEAR? “We do need a sponsor for the 17 car. I didn’t hear him say that, but that’s a fact. The 17 car is secure in Roush Fenway’s livery. We will run it with or without a sponsor next year, but it would be a shame if we’re not able to attract sponsorship. We’re talking to people with some interest, but this is my 24th year of being in the business and this is the most difficult time that I’ve had. We’ve gone through a transition with our sponsors from a time when they wanted to compete for top car to where now the best sponsors want just enough of a car to be able to do their promotions and want to share the bulk of the expense of it if they can. It’s a really strange time. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m not sure what we’ll have coming out of it. It’ll be different than it’s been in the past.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT YOU KIND OF GET LOST IN THE SHUFFLE OF CHASE CONTENDERS? “It doesn’t really matter to me that much what everybody things. We’re in it or out of it or whatever. What’s important to me is trying to win races and trying to be competitive and go do the best job we can do every week. I don’t really care about Wii dance offs or how much coverage you get for doing certain things. If somebody wants to say I’m boring or whatever, I was hired to try to go win races and try to run good and that’s what I try to do every week. I take my job real serious when I’m at the race track. Jimmy and I and all the guys work as hard as we can on the common goal of trying to be the best and trying to win and trying to run for a championship and that’s who we are at the race track.”

IS THERE A SENSE OF URGENCY AS FAR AS SPONSORSHIP? “I’m not gonna get stressed out about it, especially right now in the Chase and with all the things we’ve got going on. I don’t know really what else we can be doing, except for trying to be competitive and run good. Those guys in the marketing and sales department need to figure that out and need to figure out how to get that done. Jimmy and I will keep working on the jobs that we were hired for and I’m sure it’s all gonna work out. I’ve been really fortunate through my career. We had DeWalt for over a decade. Crown Royal was involved at Roush for over eight years and have been great supporters of the organization and really thankful for all the time that they have been there and how much they have helped the whole organization – not just me, but a few different drivers there – so I’m certainly thankful for that and look forward to whatever is next.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT JOHNSON’S ISSUE TONIGHT? “I have to be honest, I don’t know where anybody is at in the points, really. All we have any control over, and we always can’t control the whole outcome of that, but all we have any control over is our own car and ourselves and what we do, so I honestly don’t spend a lot of time to see where anybody else finishes or what they have going. We go out every week and try to beat the other 42 cars and finish as high as can and that’s how you get the most points and not really worry about what everybody else does. I think Jimmie, I don’t know what happened to him tonight or where he finished or anything, but a few weeks ago everybody thought he was out of it and he finished first and second and he got right back in it. I don’t know the whole points thing, where anybody is at, but certainly anything can happen at Talladega and I think Phoenix is gonna be quite interesting as well. There’s a lot of racing to do. We’re halfway through it, but five races is a lot of races.”

WOULD WINNING A CHASE CHAMPIONSHIP HOLD ANY SPECIAL MEANING FOR YOU? “If we could actually do it I could probably answer the question better afterwards, but certainly no matter what format they come up with or what point system they come up with or how they do it your goal every year is to try to win a championship and your goal every week is to try to show up and win. That never really changes. Yeah, you’d love to be able to win another one, but, I tell you what, they’re hard to win and you’ve got to have everything go right and you’ve got to have a lot of nights like we’ve had here the last two or three weeks, and the next five I think you’re gonna have to run in the top five every week to have a shot at it. That’s just the way I feel with the way those guys are running, so we’ll just keep taking it one week at a time. If that happened, that would obviously be great. The same guy has won it for five years straight, so I think anybody that could beat him, I think, would feel pretty good about it no matter what system or how they count the points or how they do that. I think it would feel good.”

JIMMY FENNIG CONTINUED – DO YOU LIKE HAVING THAT FIRST PIT STALL WHERE YOU CAN DICTATE STRATEGY POSSIBLY? “Picking back down there, I like dictating what people do. If we can control the race, then they’re at our mercy you could say, but I don’t really pay attention to what they’re doing because I’ve got that pit stall, I just kind of worry about what we’re doing.” MATT INTERJECTS: “He picks 43 so I won’t get lost.” (laughter)

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED — WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES THESE NEXT THREE TRACKS PRESENT FOR YOU? “Out of the first five, Loudon I feel is one of my worst tracks and Jimmy got the car rolling there good, and we finished sixth. That was one of our worst tracks and I felt like we did okay. I guess moving forward, I don’t know what’s gonna happen at Talladega. Certainly in July at Daytona David and I had a plan and stuck to it the whole weekend and it worked out great. We finished first and second. I think it would be expecting a lot to expect it to go that smooth again and for that to all work out, but the way that kind of tandem racing is there, hopefully, him and I will be able to finish and stay together and make something happen there again. I don’t think anybody has an advantage or disadvantage at Phoenix. Who knows what’s gonna happen at that one, and Martinsville we’ve gotten better at lately. I feel it’s one of my worst tracks, but the last few times we’ve actually run pretty competitively there, so I don’t feel our cars are limited to only being fast at the mile-and-a-half tracks. Certainly, the tracks with more speed and more banking seems to fit not so much our cars or style or whatever, but it seems a little easier for us maybe than some of those other tracks, but I think we’ve been pretty competitive at most of the tracks this season most times.”

HOW DO YOU NOT LET CHICAGO HANG OVER YOU OR THE TEAM? “It’s gone and the only thing you can do from that is learn from it. I know Doug and everybody has been working really hard at trying to keep power, but also get us fuel mileage and tonight I think we were closer to where we needed to be if we would have been like that at Chicago. I don’t feel like, as a team, what we do on the 17, we could have done a thing about Chicago. I don’t think we could have executed the race any better. We were on the pole. We led quite a few laps. We were leading on the last restart. He put me in position to win. There’s just nothing else we could have done. I would have had to go so slow that we would have finished where we finished anyway and probably went two laps down, so we just didn’t have control over that. That’s just when the caution fell and we were getting a few tenths worse mileage than most of the field and couldn’t do anything about that. All you can do from those things, I think, is hopefully learn from it, work on it and try to be hopefully closer or better if the caution flag falls at that point again.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE THOSE YEARS WHEN IT WAS AN UPHILL BATTLE? “I probably meant more you’d kill for a couple wins. I think we’ve contended for some wins, even toward the end of last year it seemed like as an organization all of our cars started running better and by the end of last year I think Jimmy and I, we’ve always understood each other, but I think after you get to work together for awhile you kind of work better together and know more of what each other is saying. I felt good about things when we finished the year off last year. We had some really good runs. We were in contention a few times. Our finishes didn’t show, I don’t think, how good we ran, so I felt like the potential was there. You have to learn to enjoy these. Like I said before, you don’t know if you’re ever gonna get another win or if it’s your last win or not and I’ve certainly gone a long time before in my career without having a win at all and the longer you go without one, the more it weighs on your mind about if you’re ever gonna win another one or not. As you get older and you do this longer, I think you realize how hard it really is and I think you appreciate the wins and the success probably more so than when you first start.”

HOW IS THAT APPRECIATION IN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP RUN? CAN YOU APPRECIATE THIS? “Yeah, we’re gonna appreciate it. I might even talk Jimmy into having a drink tonight maybe after he gets through tech. I think this is the first time we’ve ever won a race in the Chase actually. It seems like for some reason through the years we’ve been better in the beginning of the year than the end of the year, so certainly you appreciate running that good. I know you guys probably don’t believe me, but I honestly don’t look at the points that much. If you go out and do the best job you can do every week and you leave the track knowing that everybody did their best, you executed as good as you could, you did what you could do on the track, any points you’ve gained or lost you’re not gonna give them back and you’re not gonna get them back – the ones you lost – so I don’t really look at it much. If we can keep running like this every week, I think we’ll be in the mix toward the end, so I really just take it one race at a time. I’m happy about this. I’m already thinking about Talladega and how that is all gonna go and when we get there, we’ll have a plan and be able in this new kind of racing there get that all figured out where we have a plan and a backup plan and be there at the end.” WHAT DO YOU APPRECIATE? “Just winning. It’s hard to say exactly what you appreciate about it. I appreciate being with a winning organization, with a winning team, with Jimmy on top of the box calling the races and working so hard bringing me fast race cars every week. You just appreciate being in the situation. Never when I started racing did I dream I would ever be able to race at this level, much less be pretty competitive and be able to win a few races along the way and a championship. I just appreciate being able to drive that car.”

WHAT TRACKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO? “If I had to look at the final five, I probably look forward to Texas and Homestead the most. It’s weird going to Homestead because it’s the last race of the year and a really different layout and you only race there one time a year, so you almost get there and it feels like a new track everytime you go there, but they did a really nice job with that track with the configuration and everything. It’s a racy track and a difficult track because you’ve got to run so close to the wall for most of the race, so those are probably the two I look forward to the most, but I’m really looking forward to the challenge of all of them and looking forward to hopefully staying on this run that we’re on.”

IF YOU WIN THE TITLE DO YOU THINK NASCAR WILL CHANGE THE POINT SYSTEM? (LAUGHTER). “Jimmie had to win five of them before they changed it.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release