RICKY RUDD – No. 88 Snickers Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) – “We’ll take it. It was really uneventful. I was a little bit tight everywhere, but it wasn’t too bad. We were 17th in practice and we talked about it. I told Butch not to change the car too much because I would change myself. I thought I could probably gain more speed by me changing me than him changing springs. I tried a couple of things and it seemed to work.” HOW WAS THE LAP? “It didn’t feel like that good of a lap. I was gonna run a second lap because I didn’t think the first was all that great, but Butch said, ‘I’ve seen enough right now. Bring it in while you’ve still got something.’ The Snickers guys worked really hard on this Ford and we’re really happy. We picked up from where we practiced while most guys went the other way.” IS RETIREMENT AN OFFICIAL WORD WE CAN USE NOW WITH YOU? “Yeah, I think you can call it retirement. I’m not looking, but if something fell in my lap with a very limited schedule where you rotate a few drivers through the system I’d maybe take a look, but I’m probably more actively pursuing that rocking chair on the porch or on the beach than I am a ride right now.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 12th) – “I’m really happy with the speed we got out of that lap. From a feel standpoint I felt like we were off a little bit on our balance, but we still got a good lap out of it. We’ve been fairly quick since we unloaded, so I’m really happy with that lap time.”
ROBBY GORDON – No. 7 Camping World Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – “That’s not bad. It was a decent lap for us. We were loose in practice and we tightened it up. A lot of guys got loose, so it came to us a little bit. We predicted it would get loose, so it worked out well for us.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NEW SURFACE? “It’s a lot different obviously compared to what raced on before because there are no bumps anymore. It’s gonna be important to qualify good.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) – “It’s good. To start up front here is a big deal. I’m really proud of my guys. It was easy to drive, so I just drove it around and that’s the best we’ve ever qualified here. I’m not gonna be upset about the pole. I’ve been way in the back here, like 30th and 40th, so I’m not gonna complain about second right now.” HOW WAS THE CAR? “It’s been pretty good since we unloaded and I’ve got to thank my guys for making it so easy to drive. I thought, ‘Man, if we could just be up near the front this would be great,’ and right now we’re sitting second. I’m trying real hard not to be frustrated about not getting the pole and trying to look at the positive of being second right now. The reality is it’s a race we’ll be starting up front. Pit selection is a huge deal so I couldn’t be happier.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Irwin Ford Fusion (Qualified 3rd) – “This is a good car. The Irwin Industrial Tools Ford Fusion was really good in race trim. We really killed ourselves when we switched to qualifying earlier. We messed up, but we went back to the trailer and re-grouped. It’s so hot here this weekend that it’s real easy to get frustrated because you’re just sweating your guts out, but we’ve got a good Ford this weekend.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NEW TRACK SURFACE? “I still have kind of struggled, it’s the same thing. We’ll have to wait and see. It should be interesting on race day with how wide the race track is because you can run the same time on the top or the bottom. There might be more wrecks because I don’t think you’ll be able to root guys up out of the way and get underneath them and make the pass. You’ll probably need to be on the outside.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 4th) – “That was certainly a little faster than I thought we did run after I got through with the lap. The car was a little free in and a little tight off, but the second groove had some good grip and on new tires you can kind of abuse them a little bit. It wasn’t too bad of a lap. That gives us a good starting spot and it’s pretty cool to start in the top 10 at Bristol.” HOW MUCH HAS THIS PLACE CHANGED FROM YOUR FIRST VISIT? “The track is just a lot more forgiving. There’s more room. The last time we came here in the spring if you didn’t hit your marks exactly and be on the bottom and get on the throttle early, you just weren’t gonna get a good lap in. Now it’s a little bit wider and the banking from top to bottom is a plus for racing. If your car is not exactly right, you can move around a little bit. It just worked out good. We’ve got a good AAA Ford for tomorrow night’s race and I think we’ll have some fun.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY PRESS CONFERENCE
“It’s certainly a lot different. In year’s past you just had to kind of get up underneath the guy. If you were on the outside, you just had to kind of commit that you were gonna let him go and fall in behind him. It’s gonna be different now. I really think the outside is gonna be the preferred groove. In the Busch car yesterday you could really roll up on the outside of guys and it’s hard to make your brain comprehend that you can do that here. You’re so used to trying to get up underneath him and all of a sudden you get on the outside of a guy and with the way the banking was before, if you got on the outside of somebody, you’d pancake the wall. The way it is now, the car just continues to have grip up there, so it’s gonna be a lot different. I’m sure all of the guys that aren’t running the Busch race tonight will pay a lot of attention. I didn’t get to watch the truck race, but they said the outside worked really well. Typically, if the trucks or the Busch cars run a little bit off of the bottom, when the Cup cars get out they go straight to the wall. I think it’s gonna be a different race than you’ve ever seen here.”
ARE YOU A DRIVER THAT NEEDS VISUAL CUES HERE? IS IT BRAND NEW? “I think so. In year’s past, you kind of knew what you wanted your car to feel like and everyone that’s watched a race here remembers the guys dropping their left-front on the black part of the race track getting into the corner and then you’d kind of run up about a foot and then drop your left sides off to the asphalt coming off and that’s where the grip was. If you didn’t hit that, you had to check up so you didn’t get into the wall. I watched some of the guys qualify before I went out and in Busch practice yesterday, you’d see guys that there were a car length off the bottom and you’d think, ‘No chance.’ The 22 car was on the pole for awhile and wasn’t anywhere near the bottom of the race track. It’s really hard and I can’t imagine for somebody like Ricky Rudd, who has run 50-some races here, to go through that because, for me, when I pulled out in the Busch car the other day, if I ran the old conventional line, it was just slow. You just had to slow down so much and the race track is a little bit slower, so the gearing that we have – I noticed in the Busch car and the Cup car that we really don’t have enough gear – you’re like 200 or 300 RPMs off from where you would like to be, so when you give up that little bit of speed it’s really magnified with not being able to have the right gear.”
WILL SLOWER MAKE FOR BETTER RACING? “I don’t know. I’m really curious to see how the Busch race goes tonight and how that works with passing on the outside. I watched some of the guys, even in the Cup practice, go all the way up the race track and your first thought is, ‘Oh, he’s wrecked. That’s why he’s up there,’ but you don’t gain any ground on him. It’s gonna be different and it’s gonna take everybody a little while to learn what we need to do. It’s definitely different.”
