GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) – “I don’t think that could have gone any better. I tell you what. This team has needed it. We have great cars and I can’t say enough for Matt Puccia and this 16 team. They work really hard and I am proud of them. All of a sudden Matt (Kenseth) is becoming a hell of a qualifier. He makes fun of himself when he gets up there and says that the throttle sticks. What a great job for the whole Ford camp. I want to thank Ford for all of their support and I know this means a lot to them here in Michigan to have this thing on the front. We have Pure Michigan on the car this weekend and we are missing 3M but we are going to have dinner with them in Montreal here in a little bit. I am just so proud of my guys because they have been working so hard. Matt Puccia is a great crew chief and he is really focused on these cars. I can’t wait for Sunday.”
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MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Kroger Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd) – “I think that I would have had a shot at the pole if I wouldn’t have looked up at the big screen down there and watched Greg’s lap. I saw his lap time and saw that it was really fast. I got loose here in the green and overdrove turn one to make sure I kept the car tight enough and overdrove it a little bit. I was pretty far over my head. I was glad to get a lap that good that had a ton of speed. I want to thank Kroger for sponsoring our car, I am pretty excited about that. It has flames on it so DW should be happy. All Roush front row, so it was a good lap for us and I look forward to Sunday.”
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CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 22nd) “We were a little bit loose, just a little bit. We leaned on Matt Kenseth quite a bit and that helped us a ton. We picked up a lot of time. I really appreciate his help there. We have to be able to put the throttle down come Sunday and not be so loose. The good part about this race track is that if we are fast we will be able to pass people and we will be good. I am excited about it. I love racing here. Even if we start 30th it is okay because you can still win here if you are fast.”
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TREVOR BAYNE, No. 21 JDRF Motorcraft/Quicklane Ford Fusion (Qualified 20th) “That was a pretty good qualifying run. I think we will sit pretty good and it could be a good weekend for us. I am so excited to be driving this race car designed by seven-year-old Katie. She designed it herself and we got to make her dreams come true by putting it on the real race car and bringing it out to the race. It is an awesome weekend for us. I think we will have something come Sunday. It was better for qualifying this time than last time and I think we can learn for the race trim with that. Our race trim is totally different but we will wait and see about practice tomorrow. I think our car is really fast and it ran good at Charlotte with Stenhouse driving it, so I think it will run good here.”
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MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 16th) “I did the same thing here in the spring. I got loose getting up to speed coming to the green flag and I just spooked myself and pinched it off into three and I did the same bloody thing this time. I am mad at myself. We had another half a tenth or so in the car. I will take that because it will be a decent spot.”
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DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) “I would give myself probably an A- on that lap. It could have been a little better. It looks like we will wind up in the top five or six. We have a good car here and it is good to see our Roush teammates fast. I can’t wait for the race on Sunday.”
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JJ YELEY, No. 55 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion (Qualified 31st) “It was a good conservative lap. We can’t get what we want to get. A 90% lap is always a safe thing to do. My one and two I left a bunch on the table. We struggled with the car being tight and this is one of those places it is really easy to over drive. I made a nice conservative lap that was fast enough to make the race and hopefully we get in the position to be locked in and start going for some faster laps.”
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TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 27th) “That was a good lap. I feel like this is one of our better tracks. This is the first time me and my crew chief get to go to a track for the second time together and we have a good notebook to look at coming here. We had really good speed right off the truck and I am pretty happy with it. The car was a little on the free side but that was the fastest we went all day and we got in the show really good. I am excited about working on race trim tomorrow and having a good race Sunday.”
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ANDY LALLY, No. 71 Interstate Moving Ford Fusion (Qualified 38th) “We have been a little too tight in the middle getting on the splitter on both ends in practice. The guys made a good call and got it off the splitter, just off the splitter but I rolled some big speed into one and we were just a little too free. It was fine carrying the speed through the middle but I couldn’t get back to full power as soon as I wanted to. I could get some power and had to wait a little longer and I think that will make the difference in a few spots here. Power wise our Ford is ripping down these straightaways here. We are locked in the field this week and that is a huge weight off our shoulders.”
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