It was a good day for the Ford Racing camp as Carl Edwards (2nd), Matt Kenseth (4th), Trevor Bayne (6th), and Marcos Ambrose (7th) found their way into the top ten during qualifying for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400. Below are quotes from Kenseth, Ambrose, Bayne, Casey Mears, David Ragan, David Gilliland, and Aric Almirola. Also included is Edwards’ post qualifying press conference.
MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion (Qualified 4th) – “I did the first lap and thought it was good but I thought maybe I could do a little better the second lap. I should have done it a little different though I guess. The car is really good and we drew a cloud, which was good. Hopefully the sun will come back out. I don’t know how fast the rest of these guys will go. That was a good lap though. I had a good lap. My car drove really good but I think if I did it again I could maybe run a half-tenth faster. All the fast guys are behind us still though.”
MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) – IT HAS BEEN A HUGE WEEK AND A HALF FOR YOU. “It was great to win for Stanley, Ford, Richard Petty and everybody. My team has been right behind me all year and it is good to get them to victory lane finally. As quick as the win comes you have to forget about it and focus on the next week. We want to be really racy because if we win another race we can make the Chase. I don’t know what is in store for us, but that qualifying will help.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Ford Fusion (Qualified 29th) – “We were way too loose, by a long ways. I am not sure but we missed it pretty bad there. We tightened the car quite a bit before this run because we were loose in practice too but I was twice as loose just now. I don’t know if the track sitting changed things or what the deal is. I am just way too loose and can’t get in the corner. Center-off I feel really good but I just can’t get in.”
TREVOR BAYNE, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Qualified 6th) – “Yesterday I won a trophy for getting the most MPG on a 1.6L EcoBoost Fusion and that has built up our confidence a little bit. We are running pretty well here. For taking two or three weeks off, it is tough to come out here and qualify decent. I am proud of these guys. We were really loose in practice but they got it tightened back up for me so I could get on the gas on exit. That was the biggest thing for me, being able to get wide open and stay in it instead of having to breathe it coming up to the wall. I feel pretty good about that time.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 37th) – “That wasn’t a very good lap for us. We were really loose this morning and changed a lot on the car. I just don’t think we had enough time to work on it, but I think we are going in the right direction.”
DAVID GILLILAND, No. 38 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 36th) – “We were really loose. We have been fighting loose the whole time we have been here. We have tightened it up more than we have ever tightened a car in an entire weekend. We are still loose. I don’t know what we have to do to get it tightened up there but we will get it. That was our fastest lap we have gone. That is a positive. We still need to work on it to get it better though.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Eckrich Ford Fusion (Qualified 43rd) – WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t know. I think we must have had a part failure because the car just went straight. We have been really loose all day and we went into turn three before coming to the green and the car went straight. That was pretty uncharacteristic. These guys have been working really hard all day so that is the disappointment. It is what it is. We will get the backup car out and get it ready to go for tomorrow.”
CARL EDWARDS POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN. “It was a good lap. I am surprised how fast Mark’s (Martin) lap was. Ours was good so Mark really stepped it up. That was a great run for him. All the folks from West Coast Customs are here and we wanted to get the pole for them really bad. Mark pulled one our there. He was excited when he came in. I got to talk to him and he was wound up. I think you guys will have fun when he gets in here. I believe a good starting spot is key here. I think that it will go long green flag runs and if the speeds are as high as they seem to be – at least for the first part of the race it could be pretty tough to pass, so this could be big for us.”
IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN WHAT YOU CAN DO ON THE TRACK RUNNING 185 MPH OR OVER 200? “I think it matters. I am not sure all the math or whatever but as the speed increases the forces from the down force and side force and all those things increase at a greater rate than the speed. As you get faster the forces grow exponentially and therefore the faster you go the more you are relying on that air so you will see guys going in the corner searching for clean air maybe more than we have seen in the past. That has always been a big thing here. Everyone fans out and tries to find clean air. I think that will be more important as the speeds are higher. The grooves are pretty narrow. We will have to see after the truck race. Those guys always put on a heck of a show and they move around and may be will widen things out. I think you will see guys using different strategies, even throughout our race, to move forward. If they were to drop the green right now everyone would line up and it would be awhile before people could start to pass.”
THIS IS MARK’S THIRD START IN EIGHT RACES. DOES ANYTHING HE DOES SURPRISE YOU? DOES IT SURPRISE YOU THAT HE CAN COME OUT AND JUST IS THAT FAST? “So in the last eight races he has only participated in three of them? He is living the dream. He has had a successful career and is able to pick and choose which races he is going to run and he performs well at them. I think that is pretty amazing, especially at his age. He is an inspiration for me as to how well you can do for such a long period. The guy – I had Mark Martin toys when I was a little kid and here he is. There are generations of people who have all had little Mark Martin toys and who knows, my kids someday might be racing against the guy. And they will probably be just as frustrated. How old is he? 53? He can probably bench press more than all of us and go faster than all of us. He is a pretty spectacular guy.”
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
2nd Carl Edwards
4th Matt Kenseth
6th Trevor Bayne
7th Marcos Ambrose
13th Greg Biffle
29th Casey Mears
33rd Jason Leffler
34th Josh Wise
36th David Gilliland
37th David Ragan
39th Mike Skinner
42nd TJ Bell
43rd Aric Almirola
