Roush Fenway finds speed at Daytona 500 qualifying

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Roush Fenway Racing (RFR) placed three Fords inside the top nine in Sunday afternoon’s Daytona 500 qualifying at Daytona International Speedway. Greg Biffle led the way for RFR, turning a lap of 45.961 seconds (195.818 mph) in his No. 16 3M Ford Fusion to post the third fastest qualifying time in the session.

Carl Edwards, Roush Fenway Racing Ford

Photo by: Covy Moore

“These guys have worked just so hard on this race car,” said Biffle, who won the pole for the 500 in 2004. “We came down here and just weren’t as fast as we wanted (during testing) and went home, did our homework and worked really, really hard. We knew it was going to have to be a perfect lap and I made a pretty perfect lap behind the wheel.”

Carl Edwards, driving the No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion, covered the 2.5-mile superspeedway in 45.986 seconds (195.712 mph) for the fourth fastest time, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., in the No. 17 Nationwide Insurance Ford Fusion, turned the ninth fastest time at 46.153 seconds (195.004 mph).

“The Fords are great,” added Edwards, who won the pole for the 500 in 2012. “Doug Yates, everybody at the engine shop did a great job. We’ve got great cars, so I’m real excited about the race. This has been one of the best Speedweeks - speed-wise - that we’ve had in a long time.”

“I think it’s cool to see all of us on the pylon,” said Stenhouse, who will make his third-career Daytona 500 start next Sunday. “That’s a positive. I would definitely want to be on the front row, that would be cool.”

The times in the session will set starting positions for Thursday night’s Budweiser Duel qualifying races. RFR won one of the Duels two seasons ago, en route to the team’s second Daytona 500 victory. The Duels are set for 7 p.m. ET and will be televised live on FOX Sports 1.

Roush Fenway Racing