CARL EDWARDS -- No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 39th)
"Juan just
got loose underneath me and got the left rear of my car. That happens
at these places, I guess."
IS IT A FUNCTION OF THE TRACK CHANGING?
"No, it's not a function of the track changing. Juan's car is just a
little bit looser, probably, than mine. He looked real good through
the previous corner. I ran right beside him and he looked real tight,
but then we went down into turn one and he got loose."
IS THIS
SOMETHING YOU EXPECTED? JIMMIE WAS OUT EARLY AND NOW MONTOYA AND YOU?
"I didn't expect it, especially from Juan. He's got great car
control. His car must have been really loose and it just snapped on
him. It looked like he needed another couple inches and it wasn't
there, but that's racing."
IS IT FRUSTRATING TO NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE
UP GROUND ON JIMMIE WHEN HE'S HAVING PROBLEMS? "It's just frustrating
in general because I was having fun."
***
GREG BIFFLE -- No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 8th)
"We didn't have
the best car today because it was just a handful. We weren't right in
happy hour and couldn't get it right today. There weren't any
adjustments we could make to get it right. An eighth place finish is
good. We pretty much ran 10th to 15th all day and then at the end a
few guys tried to make it and ran out of gas, so we got those spots.
We're happy with it."
***
MATT KENSETH -- No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Finished 3rd)
YOU GOT
FUEL. SMART DECISION. "Yeah, we were 10 laps short so we did
everything we could. These guys did a really good job on this DeWalt
team this weekend. We were pretty slow when we got here. We
qualified 30th and had an uphill battle all day and I think we would
have finished about third or fourth on performance and the way
everything shook out, we still ran third, so, overall, I'm happy with
that."
HOW ENCOURAGED ARE YOU WITH THE TEAM'S PERFORMANCE THE LAST
SIX WEEKS? "It's been better. We've been gaining on it. Here, and
Charlotte, and Dover, and Kansas we had a really good run except we
broke, so it seems like we're gaining on it. We've got to keep it
rolling. Next week will be a good test for us. We've been terrible
at the flat tracks, so that'll be a big test for us and then I'm
looking forward to Homestead."
***
AJ ALLMENDINGER -- No. 44 Ford. Drive one. Ford Fusion (Finished 10th)
"I feel tired. That's longer than you think out there, but I'm
proud of everybody on the 44 team. Obviously, the end result of a top
10 is good, but we were top 12 to top 15 all day and got a little
lucky on fuel mileage. We stopped and a couple of guys ran out, so
I'm just proud of everybody. We kept working hard on this car all
weekend and it really showed. We started off and weren't very good on
Friday and just kept picking away at it. It still wasn't perfect.
We've still got to work on it, but for our first race I was just
really proud of everybody."
STRATEGY AND ALL WORKED OUT FOR YOU.
"When you're running decent it's easy to stay calm and just kind of
keep picking away at it. That's what makes the top teams so good.
They're not always perfect, but they can always just keep picking at
it and that's what we did. It's something to build on."
DID YOUR
RACE TURN WHEN YOU WERE ABLE TO AVOID THE 48, WHICH CROSSED RIGHT IN
FRONT OF YOUR NOSE? "That was nuts. I'm glad I missed it."
NOTE: Richard Petty Motorsports is now 2-for-2 with Ford Racing as far
as Top 10 finishes. Elliott Sadler finished 9th last week at
Talladega to go with Allmendinger's 10th-place run today.
***
DAVID RAGAN -- No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 17th)
"We just started
way too loose today. We made some good adjustments all night long, but
we just couldn't make them fast enough. We tightened up our UPS Ford
on almost every stop. Like I said, we made good adjustments that
helped throughout the entire race, but they were in small increments.
We needed to make more of a big impact with our adjustments. Our car
was better at the end than what we started with, and we played the pit
strategy game the best we could at the end. We had to come in a pit
for fuel which may have cost us a few spots, but we were okay with our
car tonight."
-credit: ford racing
