2011 Carl Edwards LVMS NSCS Kobalt Tools 400 Victory

“This is an exciting win for Roush Yates Engines,” said Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines in Mooresville, NC. “We ran great all week long. I think this says a lot about our program and how we plan to run at 1.5 mile tracks throughout the 2011 season. I want to thank Ford again for their support as we continue to excel with the FR9 engine.”

This is Carl’s nineteenth career Sprint Cup Series win and the seventh win of only fourteen races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Roush Fenway Racing. Fellow Ford drivers Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and Marcos Ambrose each lead during Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500.

“The key to winning today was my team,” Edwards said. “These guys are unbelievable. It means a lot coming off Phoenix. I went home last week and didn’t know how things were going to go. You don’t get a good race car like that often. We had another one today.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers are off next weekend but you can still see powerful Roush Yates engines race at Golden Isle Speedway in Brunswick GA in the Super Late Model division with driver Scott Bloomquist. To learn more about Roush Yates Engines and how you can improve your race team’s performance with qualify race proven parts, visit www.roushyatesparts.com or call 1-877-798-RYPP.

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

YOU HAVE TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOW THE 99 TEAM IS PERFORMING. “We have been performing really well and it is just a joy to drive these race cars right now. You look at the way we qualified and ran, the Fords are back and are strong. It is due to the work of these two guys next to me and the guys back at the shop like Robbie Rizer. Everyone has worked really well together. It is great to drive these race cars.”

BOB CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW THE TEAM PERFORMED FROM YOUR STANDPOINT? “I think the team performed well but I don’t believe they performed their best. There is more to come. They did do what they had to do at the right time which I was very happy with but I think they will get even better from here. I believe that all the programs probably will. I know there is more potential in the crew that goes over the wall for me and the crew that works on these race cars so I am very excited about that.”

JACK, YOU MUST BE PLEASED WITH HOW THE 99 TEAM FINISHED 2010 AND THE START TO 2011. “We always look forward to coming to Las Vegas and I wish we could come a couple times instead of once a year. Las Vegas has been good to us and the track is comfortable for Carl and all the guys. The team worked especially hard over the winter on things that they knew were strengths and made them stronger and they worked extra hard to fix things that were lacking. Right now as I look at our program, except for the judgments we made and running over things on the race track our Fords have never run better. I can’t wait to see how things unfold. I am really excited about what we have in front of us.”

BOB, WERE YOU TAKING NOTES WHEN TONY TOOK TWO TIRES AND RAN AWAY FROM EVERYBODY? WAS THAT A SIGNAL TO YOU THAT TWO TIRES WOULD WORK? “It definitely didn’t hurt the decision making process to see them run extremely well with two tires. I guess I was taking notes. Their car was very good regardless of four or two and I thought our only opportunity was to leap-frog them on the track and hope we could hold them off.”

CARL, HAVE YOU EVER STARTED THE SEASON AS WELL AS THIS BEFORE? “This is the best start to a season that I have ever had and you know Daytona could have gone any way. That was a lot of luck involved in our good finish at Daytona. Phoenix was a very strong performance from everyone but we had bad luck there. I felt today we had a solid top three car all day. Those are three different types of tracks with success on all three so I am really excited about the season. This is a great start.”

CARL, OVER THE LAST 10 DAYS YOU HAVE JUMPED OFF A HUGE BUILDING, FLOWN WITH THE THUNDERBIRDS AND NOW WON A CUP RACE. “That is a really great week. I have had a blast. I don’t know what I am going to do this weekend (laughter). I really had a lot of fun and I am really excited to be able for our whole team to be able to give that trophy to the Thunderbirds. They were inspiring to hang around with.”

CARL, WE DIDN’T SEE MUCH PASSING OUT THERE. IS THAT THE NATURE OF THE BEAST OR SHOULD SOMETHING BE DONE TO PUMP UP THE ACTION? “I can tell you from the drivers seat that there are no more exciting tracks to drive on. This place has a lot of character. You slide the car at 200 mph through the corner and there are multiple grooves. I think striving to deliver a product that is impossible to deliver in auto racing is foolish. I think we need to be NASCAR. We need to be what we are. Some days we will have races that are more single file and some days we won’t. The true sport of auto racing is making your car fast, driving in perfectly and having the engine have tons of power. I think the fans can appreciate that without having to be in a giant pack with the restrictor plates. I think the savvy fans know what is going on.”

CARL, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 2008 AND RIGHT NOW? “We are making it through tech aren’t we (laughter). If we can come out of here with the points lead or be third or whatever we are in points now will be spectacular. We did not mean to cheat that day (laughter). I guess the biggest difference between then and now from my perspective is that I feel like I have a better understanding of how the sport works. I am more prepared to use these fast race cars and do a better job to try to win this championship. That is something Jack and I have talked a lot about over the years. There is definitely a process to becoming the best you can be at this level because all the guys are so savvy. I feel I am in a better position to get all the points we can and all the wins we can this year.”

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN TONY WAS PENALIZED AND WAS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR ENGINE WITH FIVE TO GO? “We will find out when we take the engine apart but I definitely heard a different sound at the end of the straight away. We are turning these engines really hard and I was trying to be careful with our engine all day. It very well could be just the five laps to go jitters when you are leading but we will find out about that.  With Tony, the first thing that went through my mind was that we would see him again in a minute because that car was spectacular. He did a great job driving it. That was a gift for us to have that penalty. In the end it really put him in a position where he had to take two to get to the lead. He had to take four when we took two. It may have been the difference in the race there.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS FOR THE SPANISH FOLLOWERS OF NASCAR? “Buenos dias, gracias, me coche is muy rapido and much denero today (laughter). I took a lot of Spanish folks but I did not pay attention.”

HOW HAS JUAN PABLO ASCENDED IN NASCAR OVER THE YEARS? “It was a big moment when Juan came to NASCAR. I still remember where I was when they made that announcement. I was in Phoenix going to an Aflac or Scott’s suite and it was on one of the TV’s and I thought, ‘Juan Montoya is coming to race here?’ and it blew my mind that he would make that jump. He is a very fierce competitor. When he is running fast like that we aren’t going to help him out. He did a really good job today and did a good job not only of driving the race car but he raced me really clean. We really had to battle for the lead right there when I came out of the pits. I got by him on the outside. He got really loose and gave me enough room. I really enjoy racing with him lately.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GOT SOMETHING BACK TODAY AFTER PHOENIX? “I really do but that is not how this sport works. When you are down it will just keep beating you down sometimes. It is amazing that it worked out this well. It isn’t something you can count on you know. It was a long week. I thought long about Phoenix this week, just because of how great our car was. You don’t get cars like that very often. Jack told me not to expect that at Vegas. This is a true gift.”

HOW HAS FATHERHOOD CHANGED YOU AS A RACER? “I don’t know if it has changed me as a racer or not. I don’t really think about my wife and daughter when I am in the race car. It definitely has been the best thing that has happened to me in my life. It has changed my priorities a little bit. It hasn’t made any less important but there is one big priority that is moved to my front and that is my family. I am truly blessed. It is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my life.”

JACK, DOES THIS SHOW THAT YOU GUYS ARE READY TO TAKE CHARGE AND THIS IS YOUR SEASON? “There were a lot of good cars out there. Tony certainly surprised me a little bit. I didn’t realize he would be as good as he turned out to be and the 42 car was really good. The thing I worried about was the fact that we had been so good at 1.5 mile race tracks that it is assumed we would be a factor and we concentrate on speedways more than we ever have and have tried to test for the short track everywhere we could. I was afraid the luster would be off the 1.5 mile. That is the reason why I cautioned Carl that we ran great at Phoenix but don’t assume that means we can keep it going. Based on the way we qualified it looks like it is still there. You look at the way you spend your time as a race team doing your testing, you have to work with your athletes to get your pit stops right and you have to work with your brakes and engine and cooling system and aero. In today’s world you use software and simulations and all the data acquisition and data reduction and analysis. If you have any of those things let you down it will affect you dramatically. As we have concentrated on the things we were weak on it has been my fear that we would miss something on the things we were assumed to be good at. I feel more confident on Atlanta and other 1.5 mile tracks since we have in a long time.”

JACK, GREG BIFFLE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT A DEVICE ABOUT HELPING WITH THE FUEL OVER HIS RADIO, CAN YOU COMMENT ON THAT? “I didn’t hear what Greg said. We will have plenty of time to talk about it though. He was frustrated that they didn’t get it full of gas. There is a big challenge for these teams with the new fuel system because it doesn’t fuel consistently from the bottom of the tank to the top. We can get the first gallon or two out of the can at two gallons a second and I am not sure but it is probably twice that long to get the last couple gallons out. For everybody that has to have a finger in this thing there is a learning curve that is not perfect. You need to know what your fuel mileage is before you have a reason to understand what it is and you need to be able to guess correctly about it. My guess is that we didn’t get the 16 cars gas tank full and either it had something to do with the exchange on the cans or maybe the jack man let the car down to early. Either way, we had some kind of a disconnect there that jeopardized Greg’s result. Early in the race the 99 was obviously a good Ford but early in the race the 16 looked every bit the measure of it. Greg was really frustrated but we will get that all calmed down and look at what happened there and look at all the things going right with Carl’s program and put it all together. As Bob said, it takes us longer to change the cans and we weren’t as slick as we should have been with our fueling operation even though we had a good result today.”

BUT ARE YOU TRYING TO COME UP WITH A DEVICE TO LET YOU KNOW HOW MUCH FUEL GET’S INTO THE TANK OR SOMETHING SO YOU KNOW SINCE THERE IS A BIG UNKNOWN OUT THERE? “I am sure it is Bob’s intention to comply with the spirit and the written things that are involved with the rules within the parameters we are given we will work as hard as we can.”

Carl Edwards doing signatured back flip after winning the 2011 NSCS Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

YOU DIDN’T WANT ANYONE TO PICK YOU FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP PRIOR TO THIS YEAR AFTER WHAT HAPPENED IN 2008. ARE YOU READY TO TALK CHAMPIONSHIP NOW? Jack Roush – “It is way too early to be thinking championship. One of the two races before Homestead in the fall I encouraged everyone to be as conservative as we might be if it were in our grasp. We can’t make a misstep and keep our eye on the ball. We can’t squander the opportunity we have now that we are running better than we did last year. It certainly feels more like 2008, even better.”

DID YOU ENGINE PERFORM WELL DOWN THE STRETCH OR WAS IT JUST AN AUDIBLE THING? “It was an audible thing and I lifted off the throttle when I heard it. What I was doing the last few laps was going ¾ of the way on half throttle. I never turned it hard again after I heard that noise. It could have just been the win bumping the car differently but I wasn’t going to take any chances. That was with about five or six to go. I was worried there could be another restart and thinking of how to protect that engine the best I could. It is probably fine. Nobody had any trouble, none of our guys, so it is probably just fine.  The clock is ticking you know with six to go and five to go. It is another dimension of time and it is very slow. A lot goes through your mind.”

WAS BOB COUNTING DOWN LAPS FOR YOU OR KEEPING HIS MOUTH SHUT? “I can count well enough to do that myself but with 20 to go you think; I wish you guys could have a microphone to hear what drivers are thinking. With 20 to go I am planning on a caution and what to do on a restart. You have to keep your mind busy because if you start thinking you are going to win the race then it all goes to hell. The key is to focus on what you have to do. We do this to win. We do this for that victory. When it is right there within your grasp, that is the toughest time to stay the course and stay focused.”

HOW DID THE NEW NOSE IMPACT THE RACE TODAY?  BOB OSBORNE – “It is hard for me to comment on how it affected the race. I don’t really want to step out on that. Adjustability and how the car reacted on the race track seemed to be okay. Carl could probably comment on whether it was more influential in traffic this year than last year but the car responded well to changes I thought.

CARL EDWARDS – “We were still a little tight in the center of the corner. It wasn’t like we had a ton more front grip or something. The car drove well like it did at Homestead but there are still things we can do to make it better.”

DO YOU HAVE A PROCESS OF WHAT CHASSIS YOU ARE GOING TO USE WEEK TO WEEK?  BOB OSBORNE – “I was going to make a joke and say we just wing it, but I have written down already on a piece of paper what chassis we will use form now to the end of the season. That will change if we have damage but I have a plan for the entire season.”

CARL, MARCOS WANTS YOU TO JUMP OFF THE STRATOSPHERE AGAIN BUT WITH A HELMET CAM THIS TIME AND ON LIVE TV, AND JACK, DID HE RUN THIS BY YOU BEFORE HE DECIDED TO LEAP 800 FEET INTO SPACE?

JACK ROUSH - What did you do?

CARL EDWARDS – “I jumped off the Stratosphere.  You may be the only person in all of Las Vegas that doesn’t know I jumped off the Stratosphere.  It’s a tall building downtown.”  JACK ROUSH:  “Were you in a balloon?”

CARL EDWARDS: “No, I was tied to a cable.  You can see Jack is really concerned about me.”  (Laughter.)

JACK ROUSH: “A couple years ago, or maybe it was last year, he broke his foot playing Frisbee, and he started to tell me how he thought he could do it and how he thought it was going to be all right, and I really didn’t care how painful it was.  I can’t imagine what my impression would be if you cracked your head or something.” CARL EDWARDS:  “Yeah, each time    I dislocated think thumb, it was aimed backwards, then I broke my foot, and each time it was pretty much the same from Jack; if you’re going to be dumb, you’ve got to be tough.  That’s all he said.  You don’t get a lot of sympathy from Jack.  I don’t think there were going to be any minor injuries if something went wrong with this one.”  (Laughter.)

CARL, IN ADDITION TO JUST WINNING, TO WANTING TO WIN, DO YOU VIEW WINNING MORE IMPORTANT FOR THE BONUS POINTS WHEN YOU ENTER THE CHASE, OR THE FACT THAT IF YOU DO GET A COUPLE OF WINS HERE, YOU CAN MAYBE EXPERIMENT WITH SOME THINGS KNOWING THAT YOU’D HAVE THAT WILD CARD TO FALL BACK ON? “I hadn’t thought of the bonus points in the Chase, but I did think a lot about the wild card position.  A lot of people knock the new points system saying they didn’t put enough emphasis on winning.  But when you look at it from the wild card perspective, the bonus points in the Chase, those two things alone make winning extremely important right now.  So for us, the thing I’m most excited about this win or that makes me most excited about it is that we’ve got one in the column, in that win column already, and if we do well enough, maybe win one or two more, we’ll be in a position to have that wild card no matter what happens at Bristol or Talladega, some of these tracks that we may not be in control of our own destiny, so it’s good.”

Transcript Provided by PCGCampbell for Ford Racing

About Roush Yates Engines

Roush Yates Engines designs, engineers and crafts high performance racing engines with the power to perform and the horsepower and durability you’d expect from legendary NASCAR pioneers Jack Roush and Robert Yates. The partnership of power and precision has come from merging the knowledge and experience of two legendary engine builders, both with a passion for winning today and powering up for tomorrow. In 2009 Doug Yates purchased his father’s half of Roush Yates Engines to become a co-owner in the company.

As CEO, Doug Yates leads a staff of 180 engineers and technicians who design, assemble, test, and service racing engines at two separate state-of-the-art facilities in Mooresville, North Carolina. Here, the best minds and latest technology are hard at work producing nearly 1,500 racing engines each year for teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, ARCA, Grand-Am, FIA GT3, Dirt Late Model, Sprint cars, and NHRA Pro Stock. At Roush Yates Engines, the mission is Power Performance, which is achieved through innovation, design, precision engineering, and skillful craftsmanship. Building the best engines in racing today, providing service that’s second to none, and honoring a commitment to research and development are the heart of Roush Yates Engines.

- Roush Yates Engines, Press Release

Doug Yates - Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography

DOUG YATES, Head Engine Builder, Roush Yates Engines –

HOW MUCH WORK IS INVOLVED WITH THESE CHANGES TO GET READY FOR THIS WEEK? “The Daytona 500 is an historic event, it’s our Super Bowl, and with a new track and new noses on the cars, I think everybody did their best to try to set the rules so when we got there we would have a good, competitive race. Obviously, as we ran practice and the Bud Shootout those speeds are too high, which is a big concern. Second, NASCAR doesn’t like the way the guys can push other cars for many laps. So, I think the first objective with these rules changes is it looks like NASCAR is trying to break the cars up and they’re trying to limit how hot we can run these engines. As a result, they’re gonna limit the front-end opening and put a pressure release valve at 33 psi, which is gonna bring down the operating limits of the engine. What we’ve done this morning, probably like other shops, is we’ve gone to work on the dynamometer and understanding the system and we’re working to optimize what we can, so when we go back we can have a safe, reliable race. The engines are turning more RPM than we had planned and what we feel comfortable with, and they’re also gonna run hotter, so with this rule change it’s gonna bring down how hot we can run them and it is concerning.”

HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS THIS FOR YOU AND YOUR GROUP? “It is a very big deal. We’ve worked for a long time, especially on the water systems, to be able to run the temperatures that we do today. What’s concerning about this is it’s mainly a driver-driven decision. If the driver is pushing somebody, he has to pay attention not only to what’s in front of him, but also to his water temperature gauge. He has to know when to get air to the nose, so whenever you put that much emphasis on the driver watching the gauges, you open yourself up to some potential failures just because it’s not easy to do. As an engine builder, this is a big change for a big race, so we’re gonna do a lot of homework today and tomorrow and, hopefully, be prepared when we go back there on Wednesday and Thursday. If we need to do some more research before the 500, then we will.”

ROBIN SAID THEY CAN STILL GO TO THE PLATE AND MAKE A CHANGE, IF NECESSARY. SO IS THIS A WEEK WHERE YOU PLAN FOR ALL POSSIBILITIES? “Absolutely. I wouldn’t be surprised from the speeds that I’ve seen that we could have a plate change, so we are preparing as if that might come. The guys are working on that right now, and the one thing we can do today is work on the car as far as better jetting and the tune-up because the components are already built and at the track, so we can work on the things around them and try to make the best decisions, or have our notebook full of data so if we need to make a decision based on a plate change, we will.”

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS WHEN YOU SAW THE RPM’s BEING TURNED AND THE KIND OF RACING THAT WENT ON IN THE SHOOTOUT? “First, I was a bit surprised that there weren’t more failures, but it is a short race. We’ll obviously get those parts back and do our post-race analysis like we normally do and are likely to see more distress in those parts, but it’s concerning. For years, NASCAR has wanted to have more gear in the car so the guys have more throttle response, but the engines are really over where normal operating range would be for a plate engine. We’re turning almost as much RPM at Daytona as we turn at Michigan with an engine that’s designed to turn 1,000 RPM less. It’s a little bit of an odd situation, but everybody is in the same boat, and I feel like our guys and our team have done a good job reacting. I was quite pleased with qualifying yesterday. Obviously, we would like to be on the front row, but the Wood Brothers did a really good job with their effort and, for the most part, most of our cars were in the top 20, so I think we’ve made some good strides from Talladega to now.”

ROBIN ALSO SAID THAT EVERYONE HAS DONE A GOOD JOB – FROM THE TRACK TO THE TEAMS AND NASCAR. IS IT A CASE NOW OF JUST CONTINUING TO TWEAK THINGS UNTIL THE RIGHT PACKAGE IS FOUND? “That’s exactly right. Robin Pemberton and John Darby do a great job and it’s challenging because as competitors we’re looking to build as much speed in the car. Whatever situation we’re given, it’s our job to try to take those rules and win races with it. No matter how much data you have, when everybody got back down there for the race with their best cars and their best efforts, it was faster than we were at the test. The track is beautiful. I think a little bit of the feedback I heard from the fans is that they were really excited about the racing. It came down to the finish line for the win, so it’s different. As a guy that’s been around this sport for a long time, it was unconventional to what I’ve ever seen, but it was actually pretty interesting how two cars could hook up and chase down another two-car combination and pass them. At the end, there were three groups of two racing for the win, so it’s different, but it was actually quite interesting.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Travis Kvapil - Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett - Getty Images

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion —

EXPECTATIONS GOING INTO THIS YEAR? “We definitely have higher expectations. Last year we had some struggles and I think we were definitely spread kind of thin trying to run three cars and the second and third team really kind of came together late last year. I’m thankful for Bob and everybody at Front Row. They made some big steps during the off season. We bought a bunch of cars from the RPM guys and we’re going to be running Ford’s new FR9 engine this year, which we didn’t run last year. I think that’s gonna be a big boost in our program. Consolidating down from three to two teams, I think that’s gonna help us consolidate our efforts on those two cars. We hired a competition director, a role that we didn’t have in place before. We hired Derrick Finley and I’m excited to have him. He’s gonna help strengthen that link between Front Row Motorsports and Ford and be able to use the resources Ford offers us that much better – the engineering, the technology, the wind tunnel time, seven-post time. We just didn’t have the time or personnel to do that last year, so just a lot of little steps we’re making. We’re also looking to take that next step up the ladder in the field as well to improve our performance.”

Audio 2011 NASCAR Media Day at Daytona Press Conference with Travis Kvapil

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS RACE CONSIDERING YOU DIDN’T TEST IN JANUARY? “I still feel very confident about it. We do all the things at the shop we can do just to get pure speed in the race car and spend time on the chassis dyno and pull-down rig. We have a very good idea of what we need to do to get the speed. Even though we didn’t come here and test, we all have friends in the garage. We’ve been to Talladega the last couple season, which is a very similar situation here with new pavement. The track is very smooth. The same things you did at Talladega to try and find speed, we’re gonna do those here, so having that experience at Talladega won’t make this that big of a disadvantage not coming down here to test.”

THE TRACK WAS SO BUMPY AND SLICK BEFORE, SO DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT TO EXPECT? “It’s gonna be easy to drive. It’s gonna literally be like driving down the interstate at 70 miles an hour is what it’s gonna feel like, except when you get in the pack. It’s gonna be that much more mentally challenging. Before, you were really up on the wheel and your handling was very important and sliding around and bouncing around. Now, it’s gonna be more of a chess game. The handling is gonna be a non-issue. The track is very smooth. There aren’t many bumps to deal with, but it’s just gonna be a chess game of positioning yourself right and because the track is smooth, it’s gonna be like Talladega where we’re all gonna be up on top of each other – three-wide and probably four-wide – and we’re not gonna be able to get away from each other like we did at Daytona in the past.”

WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF YOUR NEW CREW CHIEF? “I’ve really enjoyed my time with Bill Henderson so far. I like that he’s straight to the point. He’s gonna do everything he can to prepare us to run well at the shop. Good enough isn’t good enough. He’s gonna try to do it the best he can, so I’m just excited to work with Bill and see how we get going here. He’s excited to be with me and with Front Row Motorsports, so I’m just excited to get this season going with him.”

– PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Travis Kvapil and friends at the Packers/Falcons playoff game January 15 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. (From left, Scott King, Ryan Langley, Kvapil and Eric Knuuttunen)

“I’ve been a Packers fan my whole life,” said the Janesville, Wisc., native. “Growing up in Wisconsin, you’d go to church on Sunday morning, then go home and watch the Packers game. When I was a kid, the Packers weren’t really good, but I still cheered for them every weekend and they were still my favorite team.”

Kvapil’s favorite memory as a Packer fan is going to Lambeau Field, Green Bay’s historic football stadium, for the first time.

“It’s just such a unique place,” described Kvapil. “It’s not like other big-city football stadiums. It’s in almost a residential neighborhood, so it’s not what you might expect. When I walked in, I just felt like I was part of something special.

“I thought back to Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr and guys who won the first championships back in the 60s. To think they were in that same place where I was, it was pretty cool.”

Of course, a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, would be pretty cool, too. It would be the fourth NFL championship for Green Bay, but the first Kvapil would witness in person. And it would come with a personal invitation to his favorite Packers – linebacker Clay Matthews, quarterback Aaron Rodgers and nose tackle B.J. Raji.

“I’ve never met any of them. But if they win the Super Bowl, they’re invited to Daytona with me.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports is a Statesville, N.C.-based race team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins, the team has competed in NASCAR racing in each year since its inception, expanding full-time to the premier Sprint Cup Series in 2009. The team partners with Ford Racing and Roush-Yates Racing Engines to field the No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil and the No. 38 Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports, Press Release

Ford Racing

CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd)

ARE YOU A GUY WHO BELIEVES IN MOMENTUM? “I hate to admit it but I do now. I used to never believe in it but I do now. If the sun would stay out I think we could hold on for the pole but I’m not certain it will hold up.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 16th) - “It felt pretty good. We have been fighting a little bit loose off of four. It had the same issues. It was a little late getting back to wide open but the car drove pretty decent so we should b okay.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 9th) -“That was a solid lap. We went out early and the car felt really good. You always think there is a little more on the table. I’m proud of Drew and everyone turning this car around from Texas. It just shows how quick the process works. I know they had to do some body work and change the engine out. That should wind up in the top-10 which should be good.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 37 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 40th) – “We hit the splurged really hard. We only made one qualifying run in practice and never hit the splitter all day. We hit it really hard and pushed up the track. It is disappointing. We thought we had a better race car than that. In race trim it was really good and
I’m excited about racing this car on Sunday.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 43 Best Buy/Insignia Ford Fusion (Qualified 5th) – “It was alright. This isn’t my best place to qualify at. It’s a tough race track trying to figure out what line you want to go an contemplate if you want to do something different. I’m happy with it. There could have been a little more there but us race car drivers always think there could have been. That should get us in the top 10 and I think we should have a pretty good car for Sunday. Maybe we can win 43 people a Ford Fiesta.”

TRAVIS KAVPIL, No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 41st) – “We really struggled with our car in practice this morning. It wasn’t looking real good. Our teammate David Gilliland was running pretty decent so we switched the whole thing over to what he had and now we are right there lap-time wise with what he was. I am proud of my guys. We were searching for it for a little bit there and changed everything on the race car going into qualifying and it drove pretty good. I am looking forward to tomorrow and working on it and trying to keep improving it for Sunday.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 13th)  - “We just missed the balance by a mile. I am glad our speed was still good because the car drove not very good. It was so-so earlier in race trim. I thought we had a really good day overall, we just missed it in our qualifying lap.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – “I didn’t do a very good job there. The car was a lot better than that and I did a bad job. I am disappointed in myself because we have a much better car that that. I just missed it. We have a really good car in race trim and I think we will be in good shape come Sunday.”

GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 27th) – “Going to the back-up car hurt us. We went from probably going in the front to going in the back. That lap didn’t feel very good. It was too tight and kind of slow. I would have thought the car would be better than that. This is a car we haven’t run for awhile. We just have to get it on the race track tomorrow and see how good we can make it.”

BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified  4th)– “The track cooled off and the car was good.  Donnie and the guys do a good job.  We made some changes the very last run we did and actually slowed down a little bit.  It seemed like that last 10-15 minutes of practice a lot of people picked up, but I was really surprised to pick up that much. We’ve been fighting a little bit tight rolling through the center. The car was still just a little bit tight rolling through the center, but when I was able to pick the throttle up I could get everything I had.  They do a great job.  My hat’s off to Len and Eddie, the Motorcraft guys, Ford – everybody – they’ve just done a super job on this Fusion.”

Amazing Adventure Gift Ideas!

DAVE BLANEY, No. 38 A&W All American Food Ford (Qualified 36th) - “Qualifying went pretty well.  The car was a ton better than in practice, and I probably under drove it a bit and cost us some time.  But we made huge gains from practice.  David Gilliland made a nice mock qualifying run in practice, so we learned some things from him and that helped us.  Greg Conner and the guys were able to make some good changes and it turned out OK.”

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, qualified second for Sunday’s Ford 400. Following are his post-qualifying press conference comments.

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE –

HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? “Jamie and I, like he was saying, we were all in a battle here and my mission was to do two things – number one, to beat Jamie. We did that and I thought, ‘Man, we’ve got it. We’ve got the pole,’ and then Kasey came along and got the pole, so there couldn’t be two better guys to race for this. I’m happy for Kasey to get the pole and I’m happy for Jamie that he’s gonna get the award this year. You’ve had an amazing year. For us, we came into this race focused on this qualifying effort and it is disappointing to not get the pole, but we’ll have a great starting spot. Hopefully, we’ll have a fast race car, but the way I look at it, though, is if there’s any way to get an award that has anything to do with fast qualifying, I don’t think I’ll ever be that guy. It looks like I’ve maintained that streak, but we have had a lot of fun this year and qualifying has been a lot better, so it was a good lap for us.”

WHY ARE YOU WINNING POLES THIS YEAR? “Being from Missouri seems to help (laughter). I don’t know how to answer that question, but I can say the same thing I said at the beginning of the season. If you get married or you change something in your life, and you go out and run really well, that’s why you ran really well. And if something changes and you run really poorly, that’s why you ran really poorly. It just seems like you run as well as you’re gonna run and people attribute it to whatever is going on in your life, so that’s just the way it goes. I don’t think about my daughter or my wife when I’m in the race car. Why am I winning poles? Because our car is faster in qualifying trim. And truly for us, we have put more effort on it in the last half of the year. We’ve spent more time in qualifying trim and I think that’s been a big help to us. We have to spend that much time. He doesn’t have to spend as much time as us, but we’ve got to spend that much time to go that fast, but we’ve put the effort in.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS Travis Kvapil - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

Kvapil has five Sprint Cup career starts at Homestead, including a seventh-place finish in 2008. The 2003 Camping World Truck Series Champion will also return to the cockpit of a race truck for the first time since August 2009, participating in Friday’s Ford 200.

Comments from Long John Silver’s Driver Travis Kvapil on Homestead-Miami Speedway and His Assessment of NASCAR’s “Boys, Have at It” Policy in 2010:

“Homestead is a really fun racetrack. I raced there originally when it was flat. It didn’t have any banking until a few years ago when they repaved it and added the banking to it. And they did a really unique job when they did it. The bottom groove is banked less than the middle, which is banked less than the high groove. So, there are three or four different lines that you can run. Depending on how your car is driving, you can run all the way down on the white line or all the way against the wall. So, that makes it really unique how you can find the right groove during the race where your car will handle the best and carry the most speed.

“It’s a fun racetrack to go to. It’s always neat to go to racetracks that give you options like that, where you can move around and find where your car is happy. So, I’m excited to go there. And it’s a Ford-sponsored weekend, so we want to go down there and have a good run for Ford. And, of course, it would be nice to finish the year off on a high note.

3 Doors Down Official Merchandise

“I think it was a good call by NASCAR to say that at the beginning of the year. I think some of the racing in the past few years has kind of had our hands tied behind our backs. You were afraid to say what you wanted to say or push a guy out of the way on the racetrack. They kind of went back to old-school racing, the way it should be.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:
Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time, the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Dave Blaney.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS David Gilliland - Photo Credit: Sam Greewood/Getty Images for NASCAR

That career has brought Gilliland to the 1.5-mile oval four times for Sprint Cup races. His best finish among those starts is 27th.

Comments from Taco Bell Driver David Gilliland on Homestead-Miami Speedway, His 150th Sprint Cup Start and the Team’s 2010 Season:

“My crew chief, Peter Sospenzo, asked me a couple weeks ago what track I felt was most similar to Homestead that we could compare notes with. And I don’t really know of anything that it compares to. It’s a really fun track. I like it. It’s wide and it’s pretty easy to drive. But it’s definitely a little bit different than the other mile-and-a-half’s that we go to. I enjoy racing there. We’ve run well there in the past, and hopefully we can bring something there that’s going to be competitive. I feel like we will. I feel like Peter’s got a good plan on going there.

“It’s a race where, when you get done with it, you take a deep breath – and actually catch your breath – from the season. Obviously, it’s our last race of the year, so we want to have a good run. You never want to go into the off-season with a bad taste in your mouth from wrecking out of the race or having a mechanical problem or anything like that. You want to go out on a high note.

“Especially with our race last week in Phoenix, we want to make sure we run well at Homestead. We had a brake issue toward the end of the race that took us out and we couldn’t finish. Obviously, that was disappointing. So we definitely want to make sure we have a good run here for the last race of the season.

“It’s hard to believe Homestead will be my 150th start. I can still remember going to the track as a kid with my dad, just in awe of everything. I’m sure I never thought I’d be standing here today talking about a five-year Cup career. But I’m very lucky. For every guy racing in the Sprint Cup Series today, there are thousands more who want to be in his shoes. So I know I’m fortunate. And I hope to have at least 150 more starts.

ZZ Top Official Merchandise - Shop Now

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Dave Blaney.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

NSCS Dave Blaney

The No. 38 team has been pushing to get the car back into the ranks of the guaranteed starting positions for the past several months – coming closest at Martinsville (Va.) last month when the team was just five points outside 35th.

Blaney has a good history at the mile-and-a-half oval, earning three top-10 and four top-15 finishes in nine starts at the track. He is also a traditionally strong qualifier at Homestead, starting as high as sixth.

Comments from A&W All American Food Team Driver Dave Blaney on Homestead-Miami Speedway, the No. 38 Team Effort and 2010 On-Track Confrontations:

“I do like Homestead. I’ve liked going there since the beginning. I don’t know why. The original track was fun, I thought. They’ve had about three versions, I guess, now. The second one was fun, and the new one makes for really good racing with the step banking. You’ll see three-wide racing there all the time. It gives you a lot of options on the racetrack, whether to run low, high or middle. You can find someplace to get your car going as good as it will go. It’s always fun. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s the last race of the year is why I like going or what. But it’s a neat place to race.

“Homestead is a unique track, so there isn’t a really obvious track to compare it to, as far as preparing your car. To get ready for each race, anymore the crews look at loads – what kind of load is on the front suspension. But for me, driving it, it’s pretty unique, too. Turns 3 and 4 are really unusual. You can drive down way low in Turn 4 or you can stay at the top. It’s just two different corners there and that’s unique compared to anywhere else.

“The points might be too much to make up at this point. We recognize that. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to go out there and give it our best shot. Strange things can happen, where all the chips fall in the right places. You never know. But I’ll tell you what – if we don’t make it, it’s definitely not for lack of trying. Front Row threw everything they had at it the last few months and really worked hard as a team – all three cars – to get the best results they could for the ’38.’

The Who Official Merchandise

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:
Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Dave Blaney.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS David Gilliland - Photo Credit: Sam Greewood/Getty Images for NASCAR

Gilliland was a regular at the track in his K&N Pro Series West days, winning a race he started from the pole and earning two top-5 finishes. Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 will be his ninth Sprint Cup start at Phoenix, where he’ll work to top his career-best finish of 16th.

Comments from Taco Bell Driver David Gilliland on Phoenix International Raceway and On-Track Confrontations:

“Phoenix is a really good racetrack for me. I’ve won some races in other divisions there and had a lot of fun. But our spring race there this year wasn’t much fun. So we’re basically going to do the exact opposite of the approach we took in the spring and feel pretty good about our chances. We ran half-way decent in Loudon in September, and we feel like we learned stuff there that we can take to Phoenix and hopefully we’ll be better.

“I’m from California, so Phoenix is like another ‘home’ race for me. I used to go there with my dad when I was kid. And then when I started racing there myself, it was always a big deal. It was the biggest race on the West Coast. So obviously it’s a place where we want to run really well. And, especially because we didn’t run so hot in the spring race, we want to make sure we put on a good show this time around. We’ll have friends and family there so it’s going to be fun and hopefully we’ll give them something good to cheer for.

“Last week’s run at Texas was pretty good. Our Taco Bell Ford Fusion got better and better as the day went on, until the track cooled down and then we lost some ground. But we gained a few points on the 35th spot in owner points, which we all know is Front Row Motorsports’ number-one goal right now. And we learned a lot, which will help us next year.

“The ’38′ team still has a tough climb to get into the top 35 before the season is over. We only have two more races to go, so we need two really big performances from that team – and maybe a little help from the teams we’re trying to catch. We need them to have some ‘off’ races. But it’s doable. It’s not going to be easy, but I can promise you this Front Row Motorsports team is going to put everything they have into trying.

“Yeah, I think we are seeing more on-track confrontations between drivers this year with NASCAR saying ‘have at it.’ I feel like that’s how it should be. When guys have had problems this year with someone, it seems they’ve snipped it right away in that race and then it’s over. I think that’s better than letting it fester and turn in to a much bigger deal than it needs to be. I think NASCAR’s done a good job at that. We’re all big boys and hopefully we can police ourselves as need be.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Tony Raines.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS Travis Kvapil - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

Kvapil and crew chief Brian Burns feel they have the set-up information they need from previous races and test sessions to bring a strong Ford Fusion to the desert track this weekend, as they will need to qualify on speed for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500.

Kvapil has a top-10 finish in his seven career starts at Phoenix. He was knocked out of the spring race earlier this season with an engine problem, finishing 36th.

Comments from Long John Silver’s driver Travis Kvapil on Phoenix International Raceway, Preparing for a Race as the No. 38, and Goals for the Final Races:

“I really like Phoenix – all the short tracks, really. I know I say that about all the tracks, but I do like them all. Phoenix is a one-mile racetrack but it feels just like a short track, like Martinsville. I’m very optimistic about going to Phoenix after the strong car we had at Martinsville. We had a lot of trouble in Martinsville, but we had a strong racecar that was very competitive.

“I feel like we learned a lot with the test we did before we went to Martinsville and our weekend at Martinsville. I feel like a lot of those things we can take to Phoenix and I think we can have a great finish there. We need to get some strong runs to end the year on, and Phoenix is a place where we can run up front.

“Last week at Texas was such a bizarre thing. The ’7′ car kicked up some dirt when he skimmed the grass early in the race, and it just clogged up our grill and we overheated. And not only did it get me, it got my teammate Dave Blaney. You don’t see something like that happen very often, especially so early in the race and especially to have it happen to two cars. That was obviously pretty disappointing. We were looking forward to a good race.

“Preparing for a race as the ’38′ team is obviously a little more challenging than if we’re in the ’34.’ We like the notice as soon as we can whether we’re going to be the car to qualify on speed for a certain race. There are little things we do here at the shop to get ready for that. We’ll strip the car down and try to get all the extra stuff out so we can have as much lead in the racecar as possible, which makes the car handle better. Then, going into the actual race, you take that lead out and replace it with coolers and brake fans and things like that. So, there are some things we can do to try to get a little more speed out of the car, and it all starts here at the race shop.

“Toward the end of the season now, working with my crew chief, Brian Burns, and David (Gilliland) working with Peter Sospenzo, I think we’re just trying to hit on some basic set-ups for the short tracks and mile-and-a-half’s that seem to fit us. I felt pretty good after we left Charlotte that we had a pretty good package for that type of racetrack. And I felt good after we left Martinsville because we had a technical package that gave us a competitive car there. Obviously, getting the No. 38 back in to the top 35 in points is the team’s number-one goal. But we’d also like to go into the off-season with a little certainty that we know what we need to have in our racecars so we can start 2011 off strong with better finishes than what we had this year.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time, the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Tony Raines.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports, Press Release

Tony Raines - Photo Credit: Breaking Limits Marketing

The event will be Raines’ ninth Sprint Cup start at the one-mile oval. His best Cup finish at the track is 14th. He also has earned one top-10, two top-15 and seven top-20 finishes at Phoenix in the Nationwide Series.

Comments from A&W All American Food Team Driver Tony Raines on Phoenix International Raceway and Approach to End of Season:

“It’s a tie between Phoenix and Richmond for my favorite racetrack, and I think I lean a little more toward Phoenix. I was there at the very first Cup race. That’s gives away some of my age, doesn’t it? It’s just a unique track. It’s got short-track tendencies in the corners but it’s a little over a mile so it’s got some speed. Race fans have always been very supportive of the track, too.

“It’s usually nice to go out there about now because it’s starting to cool off a little at home. So you get a little bit of sun, like an Indian Summer, before the year ends. And usually there’s only a race or two left after Phoenix, so it’s kind of a high point. You’re almost at the year end, but Phoenix is a good place to cap off the season because it’s a favorite of mine. I’ve had some good qualifying efforts there and also some good races, so I always look forward to going there.

“As you head into the last couple races of the season, you have kind of a mixed mentality. You can see the finish line, so there’s kind of a feeling of relief that you made it through another season and you get to have time off to recharge. But when you’re racing at one of your favorite tracks, like Phoenix is mine, you want to end the year strong. So if you can run well at one of the last few races, then it gives you that perk for the off-season and gets you mentally ready to look forward to next year.

“Phoenix has always been a track that I’ve enjoyed, even when I’ve had a rough day and didn’t run as good as I wanted to. It’s still a fun track to drive. And it’s a good trip. It’s not as far as California, so it’s not as hard getting the team and equipment there and back. I also like the area around Phoenix. Sometimes I’ll get out a day early just to enjoy the scenery.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Tony Raines.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

NSCS Dave Blaney

Blaney has earned a top-10 and three top-15 finishes in his Cup career at the Fort Worth, Texas, venue. Sunday’s race will be his fifth start for Front Row Motorsports this season.

Comments from A&W All American Food Ford Team Driver Dave Blaney on Texas Motor Speedway:

“Texas is a fun place. It’s one of the fastest tracks we run at, no doubt. I think it was the fastest for a while. But it’s hard to run well there. I’ve been there multiple times, and it seems like sometimes I run well and sometimes I run really bad and not really know why I did either. So, that’s probably not a good thing.

“It’s just a fun place to go to. It’s a fun track and a fun facility, the area is really cool, and they always get huge crowds there. And it is a really racy track. So it’s all good there.

“Races there are long. For some reason, 500 miles there seems longer than maybe 500 miles some other places. I think you’re just on edge a bit because you’re going so fast and lots of things can happen. The wall kind of creeps up on you really fast out of Turn 2 and also fairly fast out of Turn 4.

“It’s not uncommon at all to see a crash within the first 10 minutes of the first practice there. There’s always somebody slamming the wall on Turn 2 or Turn 4. Actually, it’s not uncommon to see five or six people do it in the first practice. It’s tricky for the speed you’re going. The track just has a characteristic on exit that not many other tracks have. And it will catch you.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Dave Blaney.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS Travis Kvapil - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

Kvapil has visited Victory Lane at Texas, earning his first Truck Series win at the track in 2001. His truck career also included five top-5 and seven top-10 finishes at the Fort Worth facility. Sunday’s race will be his eighth Sprint Cup Series start at Texas. He finished 24th in the April race this year, and his best career Cup finish is 18th.

Comments from Long John Silver’s Driver Travis Kvapil on Texas Motor Speedway and Missing Talladega:

“Texas is a track I really enjoy going to. It’s really special to me because I won my first truck race there a few years ago. I feel pretty good about going back. Our (October) Charlotte finish wasn’t that great but we had a really competitive racecar, and Texas is like Charlotte. I like those types of racetracks – Charlotte, Texas, Michigan. They suit my driving style and we’ve had some pretty good runs at those types of places.

“Texas is a neat track. You can run two- and three-wide there. The groove widens out once tires wear out a little bit. It’s got enough character to it, with a couple little bumps, so you’ve got to have a good handling car and a good spring and shock package to get through the corners. And obviously you need good horsepower to get down the straight-aways. I’m optimistic about it. I think we can go there and run well. I think we can probably do a little better than we did in the springtime and come out of there with a good day.

“Obviously we were disappointed about missing the Talladega race. We’ve had a tough couple weeks with that ’38′ car. First, we were within five points of getting back in to the top 35 going into Martinsville. But we had problems during that race, cutting a tire and then the gear issue later, so that set us back a bit. We had hoped to not be in position to have to qualify on speed at Talladega, but the Martinsville finish kind of ruined that. Then we just struggled with speed at Talladega and wound up missing the race. So those are definitely two weeks to forget.

“We’ve worked really hard at Front Row Motorsports to get that car back up into the top 35, and we’re going to keep digging to get the most we can out of these last three races. I’m proud of my team and proud of the effort they’ve put in. Sometimes the results don’t always reflect the effort, but I’m proud of my guys.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time, the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Dave Blaney.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS David Gilliland - Photo Credit: Sam Greewood/Getty Images for NASCAR

The team will be in a position to qualify on speed in the No. 38 Fusion at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth facility, which is a favorite of Gilliland’s. He has eight Cup Series career starts at Texas, with a top finish of 15th.

Comments from Taco Bell Driver David Gilliland on Texas Motor Speedway and Team Goals for Final 2010 Races:

“I really enjoy going to Texas. It’s one of my favorite racetracks – probably in the top two. It’s a fast track. You really get a sensation of speed as your racing. If your car is good, you can really go and pass people, and the groove has really widened out in the past couple years where you can run up high if you have to. It’s just a lot of fun to race there.

“We’ve got a lot of friends and family in the area, and there are a lot of great restaurants there, too. I love the way they cook there. So it’s a place I definitely look forward to going to every time it’s on the schedule. It’s fun to race there and fun away from the track, too.

“Last time we were in Texas, I felt like we had a good car. We came in with some confidence in our set-up because it had worked well for us at Atlanta a few weeks before, and we felt like we were good to go. But then we had a mechanical problem early in the race, so we didn’t get to show what we really had. But I feel like we can go back now and take care of some unfinished business and have a good race.

“I’m really proud of how we did at Talladega. We had a good car and were having a great day until that last lap. We didn’t get the finish we should’ve, but everyone on our Taco Bell team should feel good about our day there. We had great pit stops, good pit strategy, good spotting – it was a great team effort. This group has been together since the (September) Atlanta race and I think we’ve made some great progress as a team in that time.

“I’m not 100-percent sure on next year, but hopefully (crew chief) Peter Sospenzo and I can work again together. So for these last few races, we want to just build on our notes of what I need in practice to be good in the race. I think that will be a big step in being better next year. I’m hearing the nose on the cars will be a little different next year, so the cars won’t be exactly the same. But I think a lot of what we learn in the later part of this season can help us next year.”

About Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing:

Front Row Motorsports was formed in 2005 by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins. Since that time the team has entered a car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series. In 2010, Front Row Motorsports will partner with Ford and Roush/Yates Engines to field a three-car operation based in Statesville, N.C. The team fields the Long John Silver’s Ford driven by Travis Kvapil, the Taco Bell Ford driven by David Gilliland and the A&W All American Food Ford driven by Dave Blaney.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 36th) –

HOW WAS THE LAP OVERALL? “I fell asleep at one point down the back straightaway. I took a nap, but woke up for three, luckily, just in time to make the corner. Other than that, there’s some nice scenery down the back straight. There seems like a nice party still going on from last night, so that was pretty good. I was pretty excited about that. I think I know where to hang out tonight, but, other than that, that was about it (laughing).”

HOW CHALLENGING IS IT RIGHT NOW? “Ultimately, you can only control what you can control. I can control racing the car right now. I wish I had answers. I wish I could tell my team guys it’s gonna be okay. I wish I could have answers that everybody wants, but I don’t. Robbie Loomis is the guy to talk to about those answers. For me, all we can do is just like last week, we go to the race track and come with the guys, have fun, put our heads down and try to win a race. It’s not easy. I’m not sitting at home just thinking everything is peachy. I’m a guy that stresses a lot about everything, so, in the end, we’re here racing the car. Hopefully, next weekend we’re at Texas racing the car, but we’re here, we’re having fun and it’s the same goal – go out there and win.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 34th) – “Qualifying laps at Talladega are not very exciting and it was uneventful. The car feels like it’s going turtle speed when you’re out there by yourself and it’s so big, but we’ll see where it stands up. Maybe the wind will come up a little bit and it’ll warm up and help us out.”

WILL YOU EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR CAR AT THE START OF THE RACE TO SEE WHAT IT CAN DO? “I think so. I think you’ve got to try some stuff tomorrow. I didn’t get a chance to in happy hour yesterday because we were working so much on the vibration, so I’m looking forward to trying a lot of stuff tomorrow.”

PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 38th) – “Qualifying here is never eventful, but the race makes up for it. We lost a little bit of time from yesterday. It’s a lot less windy today, but we knew we weren’t gonna start on the pole. Hopefully, we can stay out of trouble because we’ve got a really fast race car. We’ll try to stay out of trouble for the first 450 miles and race them the last 50.”

WHAT IS YOUR PLAN FOR TOMORROW? “We’ll see where we end up in qualifying, but we tried a lot of things yesterday. Our Fusion sucks up really well. It can push the car in front and there’s no problem with handling. I can put it where I want to, it’s just a matter of being in the right line at the right time.”

ROBERT RICHARDSON, JR. – No. 34 A&W All-American Food Ford Fusion (Qualified 44th) – “It was pretty uneventful. You just take it easy around this place in qualifying and try to run smooth and make a consistent lap. I’m not sure if it was better than the mock-up run we made yesterday or not, but I imagine it was. I’m about to go talk to my crew chief and see how it stacks up.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Qualified 37th) – “That was good. It was good yesterday in race practice, so that’s what I’m more worried about. I’m just gonna go race. I know there’s a lot of people on a lot of different agendas, but the beauty of the situation that I feel like I’m put in is I have absolutely no pressure. I’ve got a great opportunity next year to go drive Dale Jr’s. Nationwide car, so I’m not auditioning for a job or anything like that, so I can just go race. It’s kind of fun for me, actually.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 37 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 43rd) – “This is the easiest track for qualifying from a driver’s point of view of anywhere we go. That was our first qualifying run of the whole weekend. We obviously focused everything on race trim yesterday and getting the car to drive good and draft well. I feel like our Taco Bell Ford Fusion will be good for tomorrow and that’s what’s real important.”

IS THIS TRACK AN EQUALIZER FOR A TEAM LIKE YOURS THAT HAS OLDER EQUIPMENT? “Yeah, I feel like we have a better chance here of getting probably our best finish of the year than anywhere else we go, just for the simple fact that you can get up there and anything can happen. I feel if you’ve got the car driving well, you’re in the mix. A lot of other tracks it’s hard to take a three-year-old car to a Charlotte or anywhere, really, and be competitive and feel like you’ve got a chance. But I feel like here with the way we had the car driving yesterday and the way the draft works here, and everything else that can unfold, that we actually really have a chance. It’s a good feeling and I feel good about tomorrow.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 27th) – “We’ll see where it stacks up at the end, but the car is still in race trim so you don’t really know what you’re gonna have for sure, but it seemed like the speed was reasonable, so that’s good. I’m just gonna try to race for 500 miles. All of the fans pay a lot of money to come and watch us race and I think we probably need to race all day. I’m gonna go out and run hard. Anything can happen at anytime. You can wreck the last lap as easy as you can the first lap, so you try not to put yourself in a bad position, but I’m gonna go out and race and see what we’ve got.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Subway Ford Fusion (Qualified 23rd) – HOW WAS YOUR LAP? “My qualifying lap was uneventful, which is what you want. The car drove really well. I think we were competitive speed-wise and now we’ll just go race and, hopefully, we can get some of these Roush Fords nose to tail and make something happen at the end of this race.”

ANY STRATEGY? “I think we’ll try some things early in the race, but it’s still the same Talladega. There is still huge risk involved and you just want to be there at the end and then go for it.”

THOUGHTS ON JIM HUNTER. “We all know Jim Hunter. I’m not too proud of the way I met him. I had a little traffic citation on the way to one of the race tracks and it was when I was running the Truck Series. I was real nervous about it because I never really had to deal with that away from home, so I didn’t know who to talk to or what to do and Jack Roush said, ‘Jim Hunter is the guy you need to go talk to.’ So I went and talked to Hunter and he put his arm around me and said, ‘Alright, we’ll take care of you. We take care of all sorts of things like this.’ From then on, to me, he was like a father figure, a guy I could trust when I went to get his opinion. He could always help me, and the traffic ticket worked out fine. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was only because of Hunter.”

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 19 Hunt Brother’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 33rd) – “That was a normal Talladega lap, you just hold it straight and hold the gas down, and where you qualify is where you qualify. We’ll go get ‘em tomorrow. We’re definitely gonna race, at least at the beginning and see what happens, see what kind of position we’re in or how wild it is, but it’s gonna be a pretty wild race tomorrow with the two-car tandems we’ve figured out and all the bump drafting. It should be a really good race for everyone tomorrow to watch.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 28th) – “It was a little windier than when the session started, but I think we’ve got a great UPS Ford Fusion for tomorrow. If we could have gone out in the top five or ten, I think we would have been a few tenths faster, but it is what it is here. It’s a little windier than yesterday or what we hoped it would be, but our car is fast and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of confidence. Our car drives well. It’s got good speed, so it’s a lot of fun to come to a track where we’ve got a good chance. Obviously, you can’t control those B factors sometimes, where you get caught in a wreck or misfortune of someone else’s doing, so it’s tough to say where we’re gonna finish, but I know we’re gonna run great.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (DNQ) – “Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do to make it any better, or hurt it for that matter. When you come to Talladega and Daytona, Talladega especially, you’ve got what you’ve got as far as what the race car is capable of and that’s all we had. That was the fastest we ran all weekend. We knew after our first laps yesterday that we probably weren’t gonna be in very good shape today, but we threw everything at it that we could and that’s all we’ve got. We’ll see how it shakes out, but it’s probably not gonna be good enough.”

BILL ELLIOTT – No. 26 Air National Guard Ford Fusion (Qualified 41st) – “That’s all we had. Tomorrow we’ll just run and roll and do the best we can and try to survive the day. They’re trying to pick up points and trying to do what they need to do on that end. I’m glad to help them get in the race from my standpoint. When Frankie asked me to do I knew Bobby (Labonte) was gonna be here and the first thought I had was if I’m not running good, then I’m pulling for Bobby. We’re gonna make the best of it.”

ON JIM HUNTER. “Jim was a super guy. He meant a lot to this sport and he did a lot for this sport, and he’ll certainly be missed by us and everybody else. I loved his family. My wife knew his son real well. He’s the kind of guy that would come up and ask you do something and you’d just have to go do it. Jim came around this sport and he understood it as well as anybody in here and I think that will definitely be missed.”

HE TOLD A LOT OF STORIES. DID HE TELL YOU A FEW? “He always told stories, whether they were true or not that’s totally irrelevant, but, like I said, Jim was a super guy.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release