Aaron’s 312 - Rookie Thursday Quotes

Marcos Ambrose was the top Raybestos Rookie in the first practice session for the Aaron’s 312 this afternoon at Talladega. Ambrose posted the fifth-best overall speed. David Ragan (eighth) was the only other Raybestos Rookie to crack the top-10.

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 59 KINGSFORD/BUSH’S FORD: YOU HAD A GOOD LAP. “Well, it means nothing at all. We’re going to be five-wide here when it gets serious out there and you know, we’re three, four-wide already in practice [smiles]. We’re getting a great draft and we’re putting a time on the board but I didn’t really want to be out there that long doing that. We’re really happy. I think we’ve made some good gains after Daytona on drafting up to the pack so I’m looking forward to it.” IS IT A RELIEF TO COME HERE AND NOT WORRY ABOUT QUALIFYING? “You mean not have to worry about handling? Yeah, handling means nothing here [smiles]. It’s great fun, it really is. I’m having a blast out there. It’s great fun but at the same time there’s a lot of risks involved in tearing your gear up before the race. It’s good fun drafting and bumping and going high and low and three and four-wide. It’ll get serious on race day and that’s really when we’ve got to be doing it and not anytime soon. You know, yeah, it’s great to not to have to worry about qualifying so much and all that other stuff but at the same time there’s other things to worry about, too.” DO YOU AND THE SPOTTER REMIND EACH OTHER TO BE PATIENT DURING THE RACE HERE? “Tad [Geschickter, car owner] he’s my team boss up there on the spotter’s stand. I think he’s got his own concerns about trying to get the car back in one piece as much as I have [smiles]. And we work great together. He’s a fantastic spotter. He helps me a lot out there when we’re three and four-wide. We’re doing it fairly safely out there at the moment and really happy doing it. We don’t want to do it too often but it’s not a worry when it happens.” WHAT IS THE MAIN THING YOU LEARNED AT DAYTONA THAT WILL HELP YOU HERE AT TALLADEGA? “Just experience. Here we are running. We’re going good, feel really confident and bang, straight on into the draft in the mix of everything. It’s great. I can’t wait to get back to Daytona. I’m really looking forward to that night race where we’re going to be slipping around a lot more. If I could have my time again back there at Daytona I’d just love to have a red hot go. I know we’re headed back there and I’m real excited about that.” COMMENT ON THE NEW SMALLER RESTRICTOR PLATES. “It’s going to wad us up even more than what we were, I guess. You know, we gained a second on the racetrack and it was 150 rpm on the tach. So you knock 150 rpm out and it’s going to be about a second. Everyone is changing gears now so that’s a bit of a change. It’s going to change the way the air goes into the motor. These superspeedway cars are so fine in their adjustments on making the motor run or not. It’s going to definitely affect some cars more than others. But they did that on the Cup deal here last year and it didn’t affect the racing then so I think it’s going to be fine.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD: ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR CAR? “I’m extremely pleased with it. This is one of our backups from earlier in the year that Mark [Martin] raced in Daytona and Chad Norris and everyone were friendly enough to give it back to us. The guys have been working really hard on the superspeedway program. You can tell all the Roush cars are going to qualify well and race well. We’ve got our car pretty close but man, the track’s got so much grip and it’s really too easy out there.” IS IT A RELIEF TO JUST FOCUS ON THE RACE? “It’s going to be important to qualify well because you’re in that front half. Certainly you can pass here and still be comfortable but even on the Cup side, that’s going to give us a chance just to go out there and make laps and do a little small adjustments. That helps me focus a little better. We just need to get back on track this weekend. If you do start in the front that gives you that race mode to ‘Hey, let’s try to stay up here’ and just stay out of trouble. But if you’re mid-pack or the back, then you’ve almost got to say ‘Look, we just need to cruise around here in the back like we did in Daytona and race ‘em at the end.’ Depending on how we qualify is going to determine how we race.” COMMENT ON THE NEW SMALLER RESTRICTOR PLATES. “It’ll be a little more critical to keep your rpm up where before you could afford to get out of the gas just a little. But the smaller plates we get the more crucial it’s going to be to stay in the throttle.”