Sam’s Town 250 - Ford Friday Quotes

Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 59 Kingsford Ford Fusion posted the seventh fastest time during Happy Hour at Memphis Motorsports Park. Ambrose talks team changes and improving his skills as a short track racer.

MARCOS AMBROSE - No. 59 Kingsford Ford Fusion - THROUGHOUT THE YEAR YOU’VE STRUGGLED A BIT ON SHORT TRACKS. TODAY YOU WERE AS HIGH AS THIRD IN PRACTICE, WHAT’S CHANGED? “We ran well at Richmond. I don’t think it is anything but timing. We ran well at Richmond and we’ve run pretty well here in practice and we’re happy with it. I don’t think we’ve necessarily been as good on the short tracks as we should have been. We’re chipping away at it. Our intermediate program has gotten a lot better. Our short track program is getting a lot better. Our speedway program is not too bad anyways. I’m happy that we are running good here [in practice], but I want to run good in the race. I want to get a top 10 on a short track and get that perception that I’m no good on a short track out of the way.”

KELLY BIRES AND HIS TEAM HAVE MADE A LOT OF CHANGES TO THEIR FUSIONS. HAVE YOU BENEFITED FROM THE CHANGES THAT THEY ARE MAKING ON HIS RACE FUSION? “It hurts your team because whenever you’ve got change, there’s always a settling period. You’re changing cars and personnel and drivers and stuff and you want to move forward as a group. When you’ve got all the construction, it’s hard to move forward. It’s nice that Kelly’s been in that car and he’s been consistently running well. We’re getting better and better and talking to each other and getting feedback off each other. It’s a good experience right now and we’re building up to a pretty good package for next year.”

HOW WAS THE TRACK THIS AFTERNOON? “It’s a funny little track. You forget after a year what it’s like. It’s a racy place. There’s going to be a lot of action. It’s a real short track. There’s going to be three-wide action, I’m sure. There’s going to be bumping. It’s going to be a tough track to race on.”

TALK ABOUT PAUL FORGIE, A FELLOW AUSSIE AND V8 SUPERCAR CREW MEMBER THAT JOINED THE WOOD BROTHERS TEAM. “Yes, he is. I dragged one over, just one. He’s a good friend of mine. He worked with me in my championship years as my right hand guy. I just feel like he is going to be a good team player for us. Someone that will make contributions once he learns the NASCAR way. We’re going to keep him at the shop and keep him tucked away for a little while. We’ll give him a chance to learn and grow into this sport. They’re no guarantee, but hopefully he does things right and learns enough and down the road he can be an asset to us.”

THIS IS YOUR SECOND YEAR HERE, WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THE DRIVERS FROM OTHER RACING SERIES JOINING NASCAR? “Yeah, Good on ‘em. It justifies my decision to come across. I think it was a shock to my Australian fans and they scratched their heads, but once they see what’s happening here, it’s kind of exciting. I hope that I can run with them in Cup one day, if they’re all heading to Cup, that’s great. I haven’t cemented my future yet, so I’m hoping one day I’ll get to race and get to race them all the way up to the top.”

YOU’RE NINTH IN POINTS STANDINGS. THERE ARE 312 POINTS BETWEEN YOU AND THE FIFTH PLACE POSITION. THIS IS STILL A CLOSE SEASON. “We’ve had such a bad couple of weeks that I haven’t even thought of looking at the points. We’ve just got to deliver. We’ve got all the promise in the world and we just want to deliver. I don’t look at the points; I don’t consider myself in that. I’m not going to points race. I’m just going to go out there and try to run as well and try and finish as far up as I can.”

Bobby Hamilton Jr., driver of the No. 35 McDonald’s Ford Fusion is the 2003 winner at Memphis Motorsports Park in the NASCAR Busch Series. Hamilton Jr. is sixth in the point standings and talks about returning to Memphis.

BOBBY HAMILTON JR. – No. 35 McDonald’s Ford Fusion – YOU ARE A PREVIOUS RACE WINNER HERE IN MEMPHIS. “Yeah, we won here, but that was the past because everything changes so much, like tires are other situations. We have won here, but we’ve also run bad here, too. Short tracks are the same everywhere you go. For instance, Bristol you can get caught up in somebody else’s mess and just get completely turned around. You pretty much know how your day is going to be with the last 50 laps, where you are at and what situation your going to be in. That’s when you can try to figure out if you’re going to have a good day or bad day. It’s typical short track racing. If you start up front and have a really fast car the whole time you are here, it’s going to be a good day for you. But if you start in the middle and work on your car and driving aggressive at the same time it will get you in trouble. It all starts today on practice and what you’ve got to work with.”

HOW DOES TODAY’S COOLER AND RAINY TEMPERATURES EFFECT RACING WHEN TOMORROW THE WEATHER IS GOING TO BE CLEAR AND A LITTLE WARMER? “Well, the tires will be cold, so it will be slick but that’s something we deal with every week as far as the tires. The temperature will be easy on the drivers but it will be hard to get the cars going, but after five or six laps, that all goes away. It will be typical short track racing.”

Stephen Leicht, driver of the No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion responds to NASCAR’s overturning penalties imposed at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Busch race. With the penalty overturned, Leicht regains 25 driver points but remains eighth in overall standings. He also talks about returning to Memphis Motorsports Park where he made his NASCAR Busch Series debut in 2005.

STEPHEN LEICHT – No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion – ON NASCAR OVERTURNING THE PENALTY. “I really need to thank Robert Yates, Ryan Fugle [shock specialist], my crew chief Bruce Cook and the whole team. They worked really hard on that and never gave up. They kept pressuring NASCAR and kept appealing. I have to thank NASCAR for finally realizing that there really wasn’t anything wrong with it. Those points are really critical to us and we really need the owner points and driver points. Those are really important to all of us.”

TALK ABOUT MEMPHIS SHORT TRACK RACING. “This is a tough little track. This is where I ran my first Busch race in 2005, we finished 13th and since then we haven’t been able to do as good. We’re looking for a good run. We’re pretty excited about the paint scheme this weekend. We’re running a St. Jude’s Research paint scheme for the kids. Some of the kids designed cars this weekend and we’re really looking forward to running ours.”

FOR THE LAST SEVERAL RACES, YOU’VE WORKED WITH A NEW CREW CHIEF. HOW IS IT WORKING WITH HIM? “Bruce Cook has been the crew chief for five or six races full time. He’s doing a great job. He was my car chief for about a year and a half. This is the first time he’s been my crew chief. We have a lot of chemistry and a lot of history together and he’s doing a great job.”