Ford teams Dover II qualifying report

David Ragan, Roush Fenway Racing Ford

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion

“We ran a lot faster than we ran in qualifying trim on Friday. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Our UPS Ford felt really good. We made a lot of big changes too, but it’s a fast lap here. You wake up on Saturday and don’t get any warm-up, you don’t get anything, you just have to jump in and go make a couple qualifying laps at probably one of the more faster race tracks we go to, so it was fun."

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GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion

“The sun was out and it makes a difference. This track is real sensitive, but the sun has been out for a while before we went and now it’s gone back in the clouds and you can really feel the temperature drop. I hope that keeps us in the top 10. It was a really good lap. The track has a lot of grip and that was way faster than we ran yesterday."

YOU FEEL LIKE A WIN IS CLOSE? “Yeah, I feel good about here. We’ve got a great car and we run really good at this race track, so that’s part of what I’m looking forward to."

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CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion

“That’s a good starting spot for us. We’ve got a really great race car. I think I probably left a little bit out there, but this car is so good I didn’t want to mess up qualifying. I knew I had one shot at it, one lap, and I’m just happy to start this race today and get it in. I’m excited that the weather is looking good and I’m really pumped about tomorrow. This car is really, really good and I feel like this is our best shot to win a race in the Chase so far."

SO WERE YOU A BIT CONSERVATIVE ON THAT LAP WITH SUCH A GOOD CAR? “The biggest thing is I didn’t want to overdrive it and mess it up and start 20th or something. I do that a lot, so I had to be real careful about that. But there is no track that’s more fun to race on. It’s got a high sensation of speed. We run really well here and I’m just excited to run the race today and tomorrow and I hope we can come out of here with a win tomorrow. I’m feeling really good about it."

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AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion

“There’s just a lot of grip out there and this track, as fast as it is, it’s a fun place. I love this place. The Best Buy Ford has always been fast here. The lap times are so close that I don’t know if I could have got anymore out of it. It’s not gonna be quite good enough, but it’ll be decent. The car was fast in race trim and we’ve been close here trying to get a win, so hopefully tomorrow we can be up there and at least have some fun with it."

HOW WAS THE LAP? “It was fast. This place is awesome. I love this place. On a day like this when it’s cold, you just go in there and you kind of land and you just grab some throttle and hopefully it sticks. The Best Buy Ford was quick. I always want more. We’ve been so close here to getting a pole, but, overall, it’s a good day. It’s been a good weekend so far and hopefully we can go out there tomorrow and have some fun and be up in front and try to steal a win here."

DO YOU FEEL IF YOU’RE GOING TO WIN THAT THIS WILL BE THE PLACE? “I think this is a chance to win. I don’t know if you ever feel like you’re gonna win here. There is a lot that goes into these races to try to have a chance to win and I just know the Best Buy Ford will be fast enough and we’ll have a chance to at least be up there. Then you just have to hope that everything goes your way. This is a place that I always enjoy. I love it. It’s my favorite race track. Hopefully, we can have a good run tomorrow and at the end we have a chance to win the thing. If not, we’re just gonna get the best we can out of it."

AFTER THE RACE IN MAY DID YOU WANT TO COME BACK THE NEXT DAY OR WERE YOU SO TICKED OFF YOU DIDN’T WANT TO COME BACK ANYTIME SOON? “I feel like if we raced here about 20-22 times out of the year, we might have a chance to win the championship. It’s the rest of the race tracks we’ve got to keep getting better at, but I’m just happy to show up at any race track. This one is always enjoyable and I just love this place. When I first walked into this place in ’07 I thought, ‘What in the hell am I walking in to? This place is insane,’ but as a race car driver it’s so much fun to drive. I never say anything owes me one, but we definitely have a chance to come here and at least contend tomorrow and hopefully be there at the end."

SO MANY RACES HAVE GONE TO FUEL MILEAGE AND YOU HAVE STRUGGLED WITH THAT. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? “Any race can go to fuel mileage, it’s just a matter of when the yellow flag falls. You don’t worry about it until it happens. It’s something that I know Doug Yates and everybody at the engine shop is working on and it’s something personally that I have to work on to as far as my driving technique. It’s just the way it’s happened. Nobody truly loves fuel mileage races, but it’s a part of racing and it’s a fair part of racing. All you can do is work on it when it happens and keep working on the things you can control. I know Doug Yates and those guys are working on the things they can control, I’ve got to work on the things I can control."

IS IT EASIER IN A SENSE? “No, there’s nothing easy about anything. There’s nothing easy."

DO YOU HAVE AS GOOD A CAR HERE THIS TIME AROUND? “I don’t know. The track is a little bit different. We’re just gonna keep working on it and we’ll see how tomorrow plays out."

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ANDY LALLY – No. 71 Interstate Moving Services Ford Fusion

“That was pretty wild because we were loose. We didn’t do a mock run in practice at all. We spent all of practice doing race runs, which I really wasn’t all for because the first time I ever came here qualifying got rained out, so that was my first real qualifying run here ever and it’s super-fast. That’s a moment there. We were loose, but it came in the corner real good. I got off of four on my good lap and tagged the wall just a bit, but this Interstate Moving Services Ford is good. These guys have been great and I’m looking forward to being as far up as we can."

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J.J. YELEY –No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion

“This feels good, especially after all the hard work I made the guys go through yesterday by getting in the fence in the first practice, but the backup car seemed to be a pretty decent car. We didn’t do much race trim with it, we did all qualifying runs, and we’re just trying to get the balance where we need it. The car has still been pretty tight trying to roll through the center and at a race track like Dover, where it’s all momentum, you have to be able to pick up that throttle early, so we’ll keep working on it. I think the package we started with in race trim was really good before I hit the fence, so I think we’ll go back in that direction and be good for Sunday’s race."

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TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 55 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion

“Off the truck yesterday our car was really loose. The guys on the 55 team just did a great job making good adjustments. It seemed like we picked up every run in practice yesterday and just got the car better. It’s tough when you come here and you feel like you gave it all you could yesterday and the times are a half-second faster. We had a good, solid lap and I’m proud of everybody, especially the 38 bunch. They worked really hard this weekend, too."

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DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion

“In qualifying we were a little too loose across the center. This place always seems to free up when it gets cooler outside, and we had tightened it up, but probably just not quite enough. We kind of got off sync yesterday with some of our adjustments, so we came back and threw a bunch of different stuff at it, and it went faster and the car drove better than it did yesterday, but we’ve still got a little bit of work to do. But we definitely took a step in the right direction."