Subway Fresh 500 - Ford Thursday Quotes

Following his first career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series victory earlier this season at Atlanta, Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Scotts Taurus, drove home to Missouri, another in a number of long race-related drives he's made over the years. That one reminded him of another very important trip he made four years ago, one to Phoenix International Raceway, site of Saturday's Subway Fresh 500. Before practice today, Edwards recalled that trip, explained why he likes Arizona and why he was looking for scorpions and snakes up the hill outside of the track earlier today.

CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Scotts Taurus - HOW WAS THE DRIVE HOME FROM ATLANTA DIFFERENT FROM THE DRIVE YOU MADE TO PHOENIX A FEW YEARS AGO? "It was a lot different drive. The drive out here to Phoenix, my first time, it was my first pavement race, it was the 2001 Copper World Classic in a Silver Crown car. It's something I wouldn't really recommend. That was a wild and pretty big step. It was like I had my whole career riding on that weekend. We definitely had all of our family's money riding on success that weekend. I drove out here by myself and didn't really have a clue what I was doing, and was just hoping for the best and decided that this was it, you know? It's all or nothing. I'm going to come out here and I'm going to do my very best. That drive was a long drive. It was exciting. I had a lot of fun. It was probably one of the most satisfying weekends of my life. That ride home from Atlanta was so neat because it reminded me about all the other drives I've taken all across the country, just like all these short-track racers all over the United States. It was neat. It meant a lot to drive home after a weekend like that." HOW DID THAT RACE AT PHOENIX END UP? "It was awesome. We came here and we made the show, which was the biggest goal. I think we finished 19th, which was great. Just making the show was awesome. The consolation race, I think we started 23rd or 24th, and finished fifth or sixth and we had to finish sixth to make it into the show, and that was a big deal. So, I was racing for my career there, and that was pretty cool." AFTER YOU WON AT ATLANTA, HOW DID YOU AND YOUR CAREER CHANGE? "It was a really satisfying experience. I think internally it's extremely motivating and gives me a lot confidence and gives our team a lot of confidence. It changes my outlook, just a little bit, on the level of performance that's acceptable to me and our crew. To go out there and win a race like that, you know, 'Hey, okay, we can do this. We can go out here and win these races.' And it just sets the bar higher. Really, it's awesome, it's an awesome feeling. The last few weeks after that we've had bad luck and had bad weeks, and there's a lot of solace knowing that we get a little bit of bad luck out of our way, we're a winning team. It's just a confidence builder." ON ROUSH RACING'S PERFORMANCE IN 2005. "There's no weak team here, I don't think. I think that everybody's doing amazing. It's awesome, it's motivating to say the least. There are times when I'll be running in the top 10 and I'm still the fifth Roush car on the race track, and it's like, 'This is unbelievable.' These guys are amazing. They're motivating. They motivate me a lot." WERE YOU UP ON THE HILL OUTSIDE OF THE TRACK LOOKING FOR SNAKES EARLIER TODAY? "Yeah, with Tom Giacchi, my coach driver and one of my really good friends. I love it out here. I like the weather and it's an awesome place to go hiking, so we were looking for scorpions and snakes. We found one scorpion, that's all we found." IF YOU FOUND A SNAKE, WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO DO? "I just wanted to see it. I grew up in Missouri. We don't get to see stuff like that. We have deer. Deer are cool, but scorpions are pretty intriguing."

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools Taurus, put up the 11th-fastest speed - and fastest by a Ford driver - during Thursday's first practice session for Sunday's Subway Fresh 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. The defending NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series champion, who is from Las Vegas, previously raced at PIR in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Southwest Tour.

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools Taurus - YOU RACED HERE IN OTHER SERIES, AND YOU'RE FROM THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY. THE WEATHER FORECAST FOR SATURDAY IS FOR TEMPERATURES TO BE IN THE 90S, AND THE RACE WILL START IN LATE AFTERNOON. HOW MUCH HEAT DO YOU EXPECT THIS TRACK TO HOLD HEADING INTO NIGHT? "It'll hold a little bit more than people think. The track doesn't necessarily speed up that much at night from what I've noticed in the desert southwest. With the asphalt here being so old, it's going to be hard to see what it does, but there's definitely going to be some shadows, and the way we're going to be racing at night the corners might not look the same to the eye, you're going to have to adjust to it as you go. And, we've never seen a spark here out on the race track, because we've never been under the lights, so you'll see sparks in odd places that you've never seen them before." DO YOU THINK THE SETTING SUN WILL BE A PROBLEM? "Definitely. It's going to be tough, driving down the front straightaway, looking at the sun for a while, but that's the direction of our sport. And that's tough; if we start the race here at 8 o'clock, it'd be 11 back east, so it's something where the drivers will have to put up with it for a little bit, but then it'll be a great race, in primetime Saturday night, for the fans that'll be watching it here or the fans watching on east coast television." AS THE DEFENDING NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES CHAMPION, HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO ENJOY WHAT YOU'VE ACCOMPLISHED? "Each week there are small tokens that you can take away. It's being parked first in the garage area, it's going out to the race track to hit practice first, just the notoriety that comes with it as well, whether we're doing media events or hospitality events, people approaching us as champions and calling us that. The team feels it, I feel it, it's great and it gives you that drive to go and do it again. It's something that you spend, for me, 26 years, all of my years led up to that point at Homestead last year, and I seemed a bit lost in the off-season but now I've found a nice, solid direction on what to take for my next journey in life and that's win another championship."