Ford 300 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

STEPHEN LEICHT - No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion - (finished 5th, qualified 10th) - "We had a great run tonight. My guys did a great job. We bounced back from earlier. We left the catch line cap line in there and had to come down the first caution of the race. Otherwise, I think we would have had a top three run. This thing was really good on the topside after about 10 laps, it just took it a while for it to get going. We needed a longer run there at the end and couldn't get it." FINISHING WITH MARK MARTIN AND MATT KENSETH, THIS HAS TO BE A THRILL FOR YOU. "I had a blast all night racing with these guys. We raced clean and raced two and three wide all night long. There at the end we were racing hard for the last couple of spots and never touched each other. That's what racing is all about." THIS IS A SOLID FINISH FOR YOU TONIGHT. "Yeah, it was. That's what we were looking for. We wanted to come out here and have a good points day. I don't know what the numbers look like, but that might have got us into the top-15 and if it did, that's a big win for us."

BOBBY HAMILTON JR. - No. 35 McDonald's Ford Fusion - (finished 8th, qualified 34th) - "We got a little bit of luck, but I'll take it. But we were really strong all day. For some reason, we kept playing with the fuel mileage stuff. We came in one time and I said that it would help us or hurt us. It ended up working out for us. Either way, we were still 12th or 15th place car. This is the same car we took to Texas and Ford allowed us to go to the seven-post shaker test. We picked up because Ford is helping us so much. We got some help from those guys and you can see it. We had momentum going into the race and we'll take this into next year. We're looking to get our sponsor agreement signed for next year and go to Daytona." THIS IS A SOLID FINISH FOR YOU. "It's momentum. All the guys are high-fiving but this is like a win for us. And this is what we need to get going to the tests and heading into Daytona. The folks at Ford have been helping us a lot and I really can't thank them enough for everything they did. I appreciate their help. A top-10 finish in the points is incredible compared to how competitive these Cup guys are and it shows how good my team is. Our main goal now is to set plans for 2008 and win some races."

MARCOS AMBROSE - No. 59 Kingsford Ford Fusion - (finished 10th, qualified 18th) - "We got lucky out there. We really weren't that good and we've been unlucky a lot of times. We've had some good cars and not had top-10s and today we were able to turn it around. We're top-10 in drivers points, and top-20 in owner's points so everyone back at the shop is probably really happy." TALK ABOUT YOUR SEASON. "It's been a really solid year for us. Performance wise, I'd probably give us a B-minus, for everything else, it's been an A-plus year. I'm secure with my sponsor Kingsford, I'm so proud of their support. I'm here in this series and now I have 12 months of experience under my belt. The team believes in me and Ford supports me. We've got a lot of great things going on. We have a great future for next year and I'm really excited about it." THIS IS A GREAT TRANSITION INTO THE OFF SEASON. "We've got a lot of hard work to do before next year and there's no guarantee for next year. But I feel like we've achieved something - something to be proud of as a team. My guys have worked hard all year, we've struggled a bit, but it's great to give them something they can enjoy over the break."

KELLY BIRES - No. 47 Clorox/American Red Cross Ford Fusion - (finished 20th, qualified 24th) - "We had a good long run race car and we knew that in practice and that's what we worked on. It showed after about 20 laps and we were turning some pretty fast times on the race track. We could have had a top-five finish easy tonight, but one lap got us. We pitted and gained spots on pit road when the green flag came out and there wasn't anything we could do about it." WERE YOU PLAYING THE FUEL MILEAGE STRATEGY? "No, we held out as long as we could before we pitted. You take a chance in running out of fuel, knowing that you have to pit anyway. The caution got us and put us a lap down, then we were on the tail end of the longest line. We were a fifth-place car if the race could have stayed green, but there was nothing we could do."

DAVID RAGAN - No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion - (finished 33rd, qualified 1st) - "I guess I downshifted too late, locked the rear brakes up a bit. I spun out and caught the side of the car. I didn't think we were that bad, but blew a right rear [tire] and it blew our right rear quarter panel all up. I thought we were going to be fine but the tire got caught. We'll learn from it. Our we've got a pretty good Discount Tire Ford here, so we'll fix it and probably run it at California next year."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 Dish Network Ford Fusion - (finished 3rd, qualified 13th) PRESS CONFERENCE - YOU BATTLED BACK FROM SOME EARLY ISSUES IN THE RACE, THOUGHTS ON THE RACE. "We had a great finish but we didn't run very good. I was really confident, maybe over confident after Friday's practice. I thought our car was going to be really good and we didn't qualify great and we didn't really run that great. We blew that tire and we're able to get our lap back. Because of that, we were in the back and pitted the race a little different and a lot of guys had to pit under green and we didn't, we stayed out. That's what got us our track position and our finish. My guys did a great job. I had a lot of fun this year but I wish we had a few more wins. We had some great runs and I'm looking forward to next year." WHAT WAS CAUSING ALL THE CAUTIONS? "Well, most likely, the things out there was probably the drivers running into each other, usually that's what causes wrecks and cautions. I know I had a flat tire, I know David [Ragan] had a flat tire that caused a couple of cautions. The rest of them I really wasn't around except for one of them and saw somebody spin out. I don't know, but that's usually the cause more of them than not." TALK ABOUT RACING WITH MARK MARTIN AND JEFF BURTON WHO HAVE TEHE MOST BUSCH SERIES WINS. "Mark has always been my mentor and really got me into Roush Racing. I met him when I first started in the Busch Series. Shortly thereafter, I met Jeff and those were the two guys at Roush and those ar the two guys besides Jack [Roush] that are probably as responsible or the most responsible for Roush Racing and what it is today and for the opportunities that it gave me and David and Greg and everybody. I always think about that and they're both teammates and such great friends. I enjoy racing with them. I don't think about win number totals, I know they're the best in the business, so when you're up there racing with them, it's definitely fun. It's cool to see them up there."

DAVID RAGAN - No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion - (finished 33rd, qualified 1st) - PRESS CONFERENCE - 2007 RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WINNING THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR TITLE? "I wish we could have had a little better night tonight. We had a great Discount Tire Ford Fusion. I would have been a lot better to end the night with a top five, possibility a win. This is what we set out to do in the springtime. This was one of our goals this year to finish in the top-10 in points and win rookie of the year. And we finished fifth in points and won rookie of the year. Two of the three we got to cross off. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't win a race this year, but we were pretty close a few times. But that gives us something to look forward to next year. It's very cool to be the Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year. Jack Roush has got a niche for finding younger guys that are able to come into this sport and do this, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and my teammate last year Danny O'Quinn. We're all able to do that. It's cool to follow those guys. Hopefully, we'll continue on and follow these guys and win some races and win some championships of other forms."

PRESS CONFERENCE - 2007 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES CHAMPION

JACK ROUSH - ROUSH FENWAY RACING OWNER - PLEASE COMMENT ON WINNING THE FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP OF WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE NASCAR BUSCH SERIES. "We've been pretty fortunate winning the last and the first in some of these championships, the last one Matt Kenseth won [Winston] and then Kurt Busch came along and won the first NEXTEL Cup. I'm hoping that trend will continue and we'll be able to win the first Nationwide Championship going forward. Then of course the challenge will be to see if we can win two in a row in the same series with the same name. It was a great honor to be involved with Ford this year. They gave us a good support for our Ford Fusion. PK [Pierre Kuettel, crew chief] did a super job, he's been our journeyman crew chief, car chief, mechanic and businessman for a long time - he certainly deserved it. Carl, he has great potential. He did a nice job last year and got the experience he needed to close the deal. I'm feeling like somehow I let the team down. I'm not sure what I did different from helping Carl win the driver championship to not being able to win the owner championship myself, but I'll have to work on that. I think I missed something along the way. Congratulations to Richard Childress and what he did with his bunch. They certainly put cars out there that were fast and a number of people that drove them did a real nice job with them. We had an unbelievable first half to our season and the of course, it came off the track a little bit and we had some crashes and broke some parts and had to give some of that good luck back we had. Fortunately, there wasn't one Childress driver in there the whole time or we would have been in trouble."

PIERRE KUETTEL - No. 60 CREW CHIEF - YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT WINNING THIS TITLE "It sure means a lot to win the final Busch Series title and have finished that 26 year run out. The guys at Busch have done a fantastic job in sponsoring the series and supporting it and it's great to be part of it."

CARL EDWARDS - No. 60 Scotts Ford Fusion - (finished 4th, qualified 2nd) - THOUGHTS ABOUT WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND SIGNIFICANCE IGINIFANCE IN WINNING THE FINAL BUSCH SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP. "I'm very pleased to be a champion. That's great. I don't know what to say. I can't thank Jack enough for giving me the opportunities that he has in my career. And for PK for working so hard, I know that his hair was pretty grey when we started but it's shiny silver now. We've been working really hard and I appreciate all the guys' effort. I really have to congratulate Jeff Burton and Richard Childress Racing and they showed tonight how strong they can be. They did a great job winning the owner's championship. They're a good group to share this with and outside that, I can't wait to do it again next year. We're gearing up, hopefully, we can have a season next year all season like the beginning of this season. We were really on a roll. I'm really excited about next year and hopefully we got that big-clawed monkey off our back like Jack talked about. I think tonight was a good run for us. It was a great rebound from the beginning of the race and that will be something to hang our hats on for the winter time."

EDWARDS (continued) - YOU WON THE TITLE BY A PRETTY BIG MARGIN, TALK ABOUT THE SATISIFACTION LEVEL. "It's great. I'm glad Kevin [Harvick] didn't compete in every race this year. Those guys do a great job. We were off to a better start even to where he was last year. At the beginning of the season we were just on an unbelievable roll. It's fun to be a part of something like that. The first half of the season we made it to the 11th race before we ever race outside of the top 10 and that's what this team is capable of. About that time, the started talking about the championship being a runaway. I'm just glad I was the guy leading the thing. It's not very often that you get to have runs like that. I'm just glad to be driving this race car."

ROUSH (continued) - THERE'S TALK ABOUT THE BUSCH SERIES BEING BROKEN. DO YOU THINK IT'S BROKEN, IF SO WHAT WOULD YOU DO? "The simplest thing that I can think of, for the sponsors that I talk to and for the NASCAR officials that I've talked to, everybody agrees that we need to have the Cup drivers to help attract attention and relevance to the Busch Series or the Nationwide Series. And we need to have the Cup sponsors and they're doing their part as well. It's not real easy to separate that. I guess if you didn't want the Cup people involved, you'd have it at South Boston and a number of other places where you don't have Cup races and you don't have the Cup crowd. I had a conversation with Robin Pemberton regarding the rumors that are out there that the Cup drivers were going to be excluded and Cup teams would be excluded from competing for a championship. He assured me that that would not be the case in 2008. They were however, looking at the prospect where they can engage Nationwide drivers that didn't compete it the Cup series to a greater extent. The suggestion I made is that they have a chase, not unlike we have for the Cup Series, take as many as you want, eight, 10, 12, 15 drivers to that to compete for the championship run. When you assign the points, you assign additional points for the drivers that haven't competed seven times in the Cup Series, then give them more points. If you think you need to weight the Cup drivers down with 50 points or 100 point burden or whatever it is, do that and let the Cup drivers come from the back and see if they can overtake with their experience and with their arguable advantages. See if they can overtake the Nationwide regulars. He didn't comment on that, he said he'd consider it."

EDWARDS (continued) - WERE YOU COGNIZANT AT ALL OF THE KIND OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RACE WITH MARK MARTIN AND JEFF BURTON? "I didn't know that. That's cool though. I mean, obviously, to be up there racing with Jeff Burton and Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth, guys that, the closest I got to those guys before was getting the same RC car bodies like their cars back in the day. So, it's very cool to be able to race with those guys, to be up there fighting for a win with them. And especially Mark, that was neat at the end of the race to be able to race with him like that. Just because of how much he's done for my career personally and before I even knew him how much he inspired me to work hard. And so, that is pretty neat."

EDWARDS (continued) - HOW MUCH LONGER CAN YOU KEEP UP THE PACE OF DOING BOTH SERIES FULL TIME? "The racing part is easy. I mean I love it. The time I get to do what I really love to do is then. So that part is easy. And Jack and everybody's been, PK, and all the people that work around me have been doing a great job of making things as easy as they can be on me. I still voluntarily take on more stuff, more marketing partners and things like that because we have got everything tidied up enough that I have extra time and energy. But it's fine, man. I mean this is the third full year now. Crazy how fast it goes. But I'm enjoying it."

ROUSH (continued) - A FEW YEARS AGO, YOU MENTIONED THAT ONE OF YOUR GOALS WAS FOR CARL TO WIN A BUSCH SERIES TITLE. WHAT'S YOUR NEXT GOAL FOR HIM? "Well, he's in his second year in the Cup series, finished tied for second in points with Greg. Because he had won one less race they declared him third. But we kind of slipped from that. That we got to do better. We missed the Chase last year but then, of course, made the Chase but didn't make much of it this year as it worked out. He's a championship contender and with the changes that we made in the organization, with Robby Reiser taking the helm for general managership. There will be some cross pollination of the things at 17 that we're doing that will help Bob Osborne and help the team and so I'm anxious to really accentuate all the positives and try to get a Cup championship for Carl before he's 30 years old."

KUETTEL (continued) - WHAT IS YOUR BEST MEMORY OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP? "About 20 minutes ago out on the stage I'm kind of new to the Busch Series. Two years ago I came into this deal and watched it from afar and it's always been the Busch Series ever since I've known it. And it's great to come in here and top it all off with that standing on the stage out there."

EDWARDS (continued) - WHAT IS YOUR BEST MEMORY OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP? "Yeah, that is a huge highlight. I think for me personally as a participant in the Busch Series, the win at Gateway was the biggest moment for me. That was the neatest thing in the world to win that close to home. To see the whole crowd stick around for the interviews afterwards. And I just felt like that was one of the neatest moments of my career and I'm glad I got to be a part of that."

ROUSH (continued) - WHAT IS YOUR BEST MEMORY OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP? "Most of my history in the Busch Series has been with Mark Martin in one of our Busch cars. He was a staple there for so long; 18 years he was with the team. And he was in the Busch Series, I think with me all but maybe two years of that. And when he broke the record for winning the most races in the Busch Series, I really felt the weight of that. And I was really proud to have been with him for all that time and felt glad for the support that the Busch Brewery Company had made of the series, so that it was there for us to race. That was really a big deal."