FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Daytona 500 Qualifying, Page 1
February 6, 2010 Daytona International Speedway

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 37th) – "I slowed down
in three and four for some reason. Practice doesn’t make the car
faster. It is what it is. Basically, when you unload here and you
start making laps, that’s about the speed of your car. I don’t know.
That’s as fast as it’s gonna be, I guess."

KASEY KAHNE – No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Qualified 28th) – "I was
actually really happy with it. We picked up close to a second from
yesterday, so, to me, that was a great lap for our Budweiser Ford.
The team has done a great job and the Roush Yates engines run really
well, so it was nice. It was a good pickup and I’m looking forward to
the Shootout tonight. I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s gonna
be exciting." HOW DO YOU LIKE WEARING THE TEAM USA COLORS? "I like
it. Budweiser did that with the Olympics coming up and we’re gonna do
it here at the 500 and also the following week at Fontana, California.
It means a lot to us and it’s all for the Olympians, so it should be
a good program." CAN YOU READ ANYTHING INTO WHAT WE SAW YESTERDAY AND
TODAY? "It’s tough to say. We picked up a lot. Greg picked up a
little bit, so I think it’ll be a lot closer. It looks like the 88 is
really quick again, but I’m happy with the way my car ran from
yesterday. I felt like it was a lot better." ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT
QUALIFYING HERE? "No, because I’ve never qualified good at these
tracks, ever, so I don’t worry about it. I just go and make my laps.
I was actually pretty excited coming down here because I thought this
would probably be the best I could ever qualify here and I think we
should have a pretty decent spot for the 150 on Thursday."

ROBERT RICHARDSON JR. – No. 38 Mahindra Tractors Ford Fusion
(Qualified 44th) – "It was a lot better than what we had yesterday.
We struggled a little bit yesterday for the two laps that we had. The
car was bottoming out real bad on the race track and the side valances
were bottoming out real bad, so we worked on that yesterday with the
time we had in the garage. It was a lot better in qualifying, but we
still need to work on some things and try to get the car handling a
little bit better for the Duels next week." IT MUST BE COMFORTING TO
KNOW YOU’RE IN THE 500 NO MATTER WHAT. "Absolutely. I’ve got to
thank Bob Jenkins and Doug Yates for giving me the opportunity to run
the 38 car this weekend at the Daytona 500. They could have picked
anybody in the world to run it, but I’m honored to be part of their
organization and glad to have Mahindra Tractors on board for the
Daytona 500."

BORIS SAID – No. 26 Window World Ford Fusion (Qualified 48th) – "We’re
locked in the show, so we’re kind of on a different program. We don’t
have any qualifying oil, qualifying rear-end – none of the tricks that
you normally do for qualifying – so we’re just really gonna work on
race setup. We’re in the race, so we’re gonna save the car. I just
can’t wait until next week. Today was kind of boring." CAN YOU
DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE IN HOW YOU FELT LAST YEAR WHEN YOU HAD TO
QUALIFY ON SPEED VERSUS THIS YEAR? "It’s unbelievable what a mental
nightmare that is, trying to qualify when you’re a go or go-homer.
This week, we’ve just been laughing and joking around and having a
good time. We had some pretty sad news with Todd when he unexpectedly
passed away Thursday night, so that’s really brought a downer for the
program, but, still, his love for racing and for what he’s done with
St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and all the charity and money he has
raised, he would definitely want to see the show go on. Hopefully,
he’s looking down on us laughing."
 

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – "Obviously, it
would be great to qualify on the pole today, but we’ve put a lot of
emphasis on our race car for the races and I think that’s just about
what we expected. We expected to pick up a little bit from yesterday,
not having a lot of practice. We changed a couple of things and
Donnie Wingo and everyone did a nice job. The car looked pretty good
and it’s got some good speed to it, so we’ll see how it is when we put
our race setup in. I’m looking forward to Wednesday when we start
practicing."

JOHN ANDRETTI – No. 34 Window World Ford Fusion (Qualified 42nd) –
"It’s nice to be in because you can have a strategy of bringing a
different kind of race car, maybe. Everybody wants to drive good
here. It’s not like Talladega, where it’s just kind of as fast as you
can go and that’s all that matters. Here, you’ve got to handle good,
too. I think we’ve got a good balance between both. We’ll have to
wait and see, but I’m excited about it. Obviously, we’re going
through some difficult times right now with the loss of a really good
friend of mine and the CEO of Window World, Todd Whitworth. Our
thoughts and prayers go out to the family. They’re a wonderful family
and that’s somebody’s shoes that will never be filled."

PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Peak/Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 23rd) –
"Obviously, you’d like to qualify well, but your focus has to be on
the race. At a place like this, you kind of have to give up a little
bit of pure speed to get some handling for the race on Sunday and the
150 on Thursday. We weren’t planning on sitting on the pole, but
being the fastest Ford to this point is pretty cool. We picked up a
lot from yesterday – everybody did, but we picked up a little bit more
than most. Hopefully, that will give us a good start for the 150 and
we can race and have a good handling car where we can race good."

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 37 ExtenZe Ford Fusion (Qualified 45th) – "All
winter long we knew we weren’t really building a pole-winning car, and
yesterday was kind of a fumble on our part. We really didn’t get in a
good effort to see where we were because we had some problems under
the hood. We got that resolved, but we never got another run to
really see where we stacked up. You’d like to say we’ve got a good
race car, but we don’t even know that. We knew we weren’t gonna have
a pole-winning car going into it. We just don’t have the resources
and the windtunnel time and all the things to really make a
pole-winning effort, so we just put the best race car out there we
could. We’ll really go to work Wednesday to make it drive good.
That’s gonna be more important than today because where we start the
500 depends on how we finish Thursday."

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 19 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 36th) – "We
definitely wanted to run a faster time than that, but our hearts are
not broken. We want to race good on Thursday and want to race good on
Sunday, so, hopefully, we’ll be able to do that. We’ll work on
getting it driving good. That’s what has worked well for us in the
past and being the Daytona 500 time has moved up being more in the
daytime on Sunday, you’ve got to have it handling so we’ll go to work
then and see where we end up. Hopefully, we’ll get a good starting
spot for Sunday."
 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 26th) – "It’s hard
to feel that extra mile an hour, but our Aflac Ford Fusion was not as
fast as we wanted it to be, but it is cool standing down here with all
these fans. You have a bad lap like that and you come down here and
they’re all pumped up ready to go racing. We’ve got a race tonight
with our Scotts Fusion in the Bud Shootout. That should be a lot of
fun, but we’ve just got to go race in those qualifiers and try to get
the best spot we can, and then go into this Daytona 500 not thinking
about qualifying. We’ve just got to go to be the best handling car we
can be and be there at the end, and I’d say we’ve got just as good a
shot of winning it as Matt Kenseth did last year, so that’s good
enough for me."

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 11th) – THE
PROBLEM ON PIT ROAD DIDN’T HAMPER YOU ON THE TRACK. "Once the engine
got running it was fine, so just getting the engine started was the
problem. That was a really good lap for us. That was faster than the
rest of the Fords so far, I guess, so that was good. Drew and Chip
and everybody back at Roush in the fab shop did a good job to get some
speed out of the car, so I’m excited to get it in race trim and see
how it runs." HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING FOR TWO STRAIGHT 500 WINS? "All
fifty-some cars are here trying to win one, so it’s tough every year.
There’s a lot of competition every year and this year is no exception,
so there’s gonna be some really exciting racing down here this
weekend. I’m really looking forward to racing the Crown Royal car
tonight as well as next week."

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 25th) – "I
think that was a little slower than we wanted to be. Looking at
everybody’s times and where we were yesterday, we thought we could be
a little better than that. We knew we weren’t gonna be on the pole,
and, ultimately, that’s all that really matters here is being on the
front row at Daytona. Qualifying is just better for stats, but we’re
happy. The car is fine. We’ll get here on Wednesday and get down to
real business, get the thing handling good for the duels and go try to
win that."

BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified 4th) – "These
guys laid down a nice lap. Everybody worked hard – David Hyder, Len
and Eddie Wood have put so much effort into this deal, Ford,
Motorcraft and Quick Lane, all the people that support this deal, you
can’t say enough about those guys. I think that’s the key part. It’s
a team effort. I know from the time Homestead ended last fall to
right now David Hyder and these guys have worked their rear ends off
to get down here and do what they need to do. They’ve got one of the
nicest race cars out here. I’m telling you, this is a gorgeous race
car, very well put together, and I’m just proud to race it come Sunday
afternoon. Hopefully, we’ll get in where we need to be today and then
we can kind of decide what we want to do as far as the 150 goes. But
the main thing is our sights are set on the Daytona 500 come a week
from tomorrow." HOW WILL THIS CAR RACE? "That’s another question.
We worked all of our stuff on trying to get qualified because that’s
our number one goal and now on Wednesday we’ll work on what we need to
do for the race. I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of what we need
to do and let the guys do their magic in the garage and then see what
we can do on the race track." THAT WAS A GOOD RUN. "That was a great
run. You never can tell about circumstances – when you go, what
happens, how the wind blows for this guy or that guy, but the Hendrick
guys are hard to beat. Week in and week out, they’re the most stable
team in the garage as far as what they need to do and what they’re
trying to do. We worked all winter to come down here for today and
now we need to work on once we leave here today, work on what we need
to do for Wednesday to be as good as we can on Thursday, and,
hopefully, everything works out and we’ll be in the 500."
 


BILL ELLIOTT CONTINUED -- YOU’RE STILL HUGE OUT HERE. HOW DO YOU
EXPLAIN THAT? "To run well is a part of that. I think from the fan’s
standpoint, they remember a lot of the stuff that happened in the old
days and what we did and what we were able to accomplish, but this
stuff is a tough deal. When you come here week in and week out, it’s
just like I told those guys on pit road. For the guys that are locked
into this deal – the top 35 – it’s kind of a cakewalk for them, but
when you get to that 36th guy and he’s got to make it on time or
whatever he’s got to do, and today is just one part of it. Then we
turn around and Thursday will be another part of it, so you take it a
step at a time. For us, we worked hard. We did our homework. We
came down here and we’ll hold our heads up when we leave here this
afternoon." DO YOU STILL GET GOOSEBUMPS WHEN YOU WALK INTO THIS
PLACE? "This is a unique race track. I’ve had a lot of good runs
here, a lot of success and a lot of fun. I still enjoy it or I
wouldn’t be here." LAST YEAR IT WAS KIND OF AN UPSET TO RUN AS WELL
AS YOU DID. DID YOU EXPECT IT THIS YEAR? "It’s still always
nerve-wracking because when you roll in here it’s one thing, but once
you do everything you’ve got to do and then you leave pit road on your
qualifying run it’s a whole different world." HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT
THIS PROGRAM FROM A YEAR AGO? "Well, two years ago there’s no
comparison. Last year, Hyder started turning things around about this
time and I feel like last season was a tribute to the Wood Brothers
and the way their team should be. If we can just keep chipping away
at it and getting better and better everytime we race, I mean, the
problem we have is not racing every week. That’s what makes it tough,
but, all in all, for what these guys do and as hard as they’ve worked
on a limited basis, that’s the attitude you’ve got to have when you
come into these race tracks."