USG Durock 300 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (finished 39th) – WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR? “The exhaust is broken on it, and we think that possibly pieces could’ve come off of it and flattened the right-rear tire; we’re not sure. But, we’re trying to inspect it right now to see whether the thing is safe to run or not, whether that exhaust is going to come apart.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Sharp AQUOS Ford Fusion (finished 20th) – “We had a great car and a great run going, and had a loose wheel there at the end – there might’ve been a problem with the wheel or something – and we had to come in. And then we suffered a pit-road penalty in that process and then we came in again, and we finished 20th. But, the car was a lot better than that. It was still fun to drive, just frustrating.”

STEPHEN LEICHT – No. 90 citifinancial Ford Fusion (finished 10th) – ON HIS TOP-10 FINISH AFTER GOING A LAP DOWN. “I’m so proud of my team, they fought back all day long. Had a couple of troubles go wrong with the motor and overheating, and getting behind on the race track. To have all those problems and still come out with a top-10 with all these Cup drivers here, I’d say that’s a great day.”

WAS THE RACING HERE LIKE YOU EXPECTED? IT SEEMED LIKE THERE WERE A NUMBER OF GROOVES TO RUN. “Oh, yeah. This track’s wearing out, it’s definitely putting rubber down everywhere, and if you look out there right now, there’s black from the bottom almost all the way to the wall. You can run almost all the way around this place anywhere you want to, there’s plenty of grip out there. And, I think the more we run on it, the better races you’re going to see.”

CAN YOU CARRY THE MOMENTUM FROM THIS RACE INTO NEXT WEEK’S RACE AT GATEWAY? “Absolutely. This car we just raced, we’ve had two top-10s and a win with it, and it’s been good on every mile-and-a-half we’ve put it on. And, as a team, we’ve got a lot of momentum in our favor right now. We’re going to go to St. Louis next week, work on our short-track program and get better.”

MATT KENSETH press conference

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Arby’s Ford Fusion (finished 2nd) – “I thought it was a good race, there wasn’t a lot of wrecks. It was a lot of green-flag racing, so I thought that made it interesting. We were really good on the long run most of the day. We were not very good at all on a short run; we were usually too loose. And, we were kind of hanging in the top-three or -four there. I think the 5 car kind of had the car won, and when they pitted it kind of opened the door to Kevin, Burton and myself. Kevin just beat us out of the pits, got some track position, plus he had a real fast car. I was almost able to run him down at the end, but when I got there I just got too tight. Just adjusted a teeny bit too much for that last run, and the car just got a little too tight. And when I got to him, it just made it tighter and I couldn’t get a run on him.”

YOU MENTIONED THAT YOUR CAR GOT TIGHTER WHEN YOU GOT CLOSER TO THE 21. WAS THAT A MATTER OF HIM HAVING CLEAN AIR AND YOU NOT, AND IT WAS AN AERO-PUSH MATTER, OR DID YOU JUST ADJUST YOUR CAR WRONG? “Well, a little bit of both, but when I had cleaner air I was able to run him down two-, three-, four-tenths a lap sometimes. We made up a big gap in a hurry. When I got there, it just made the car a lot tighter. I feel pretty confident that if we were in clean air we probably could’ve gotten away a little bit, as good as our car was and as fast as we ran him down, but I just got there and I was just a little on the tight side anyway, and then getting in the dirty air it just got a lot tighter. I tried some different grooves, but I just couldn’t make anything work to get a run at him.”

WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR THERE TO BE A REPEAT WINNER HERE? “We’ve only raced here seven times, so it’s not that long, really, I don’t think. What was the Texas streak? Or is it still a streak? We’ve only come here seven times and it’s only once a year, so I really don’t find that surprising. Every year the Busch Series changes a lot. There’s guys that come and go, like Martin doesn’t run anymore, Dale Jr. and a lot of them guys. It just changes.”