CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Qualified 4th) – “I’ve just got to thank my crew. They did a good job. Bob was telling me, ‘P1, P1.’ I hate to break it to Clint, but I would have run a faster lap if I would have known (laughing). No, I couldn’t run any faster. That was a good lap for us. It was a huge gain. I’m so excited about the last two weeks of qualifying. We had a great qualifying effort at Richmond and this is by far my favorite race track. I couldn’t wait to start the weekend.” WAS IT SLICKER OUT THERE FOR QUALIFYING? “I thought the track was really good. We picked up a ton. Our guys did a really good job of making adjustments. A lot of guys were really loose, so I’ve just got to thank Bob and those guys for being on top of it and making it really drivable. It was good.”

KEN SCHRADER – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) – “I thanked the guys for giving me something quick enough that I didn’t have to hold my breath real long. The Motorcraft Fusion was good. It was good in practice. We picked up like four-tenths and you’ve just got to – it’s time to qualify. We went home for two weeks and I’ve got to apologize to Little Debbie and Motorcraft about that. I don’t like that. Everybody on our deal just really went to work on these cars and here we are.” A GOOD EFFORT. “We’ll take it. When you’re one of those go or go home group, we were eighth out that group in practice, but we made it back everytime. We were never out of control, so I knew that we had something left there. The guys brought a good car and I just want to thank Little Debbie and the Air Force.” DOES THAT STRESS BUILD AFTER MISSING TWO STRAIGHT RACES? “This week, like right now, I feel like, ‘Oh yeah, it builds,’ but, as a driver, I can make more difference here. So that means I can do better or I can screw up, so there’s more pressure on you here as a driver.” SO EXPERIENCE PAYS OFF AT A TRACK LIKE THIS? “I wouldn’t say it’s experience. We were decent in practice. We made five runs, but I never went out there with the attitude of, ‘OK, I might wreck.’ I knew it had some left.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 3rd) – “I was a little bit worried after practice. I didn’t have the best practice, but we made the right adjustments again. I didn’t have a very good one and two, but three and four was great. I think it’ll be a top five again for us and, all but Richmond, we’ve had top five starts in the car of tomorrow so I feel pretty good about it.” HOW TREACHEROUS WAS IT OUT THERE? “When I saw the cloud come over there were two or three cars that still had to go out and the track temperature went down like 10 degrees. I thought, ‘Man, it would be nice to get a cloud.’ I got in the car and I asked Larry, ‘Is there any chance for a cloud?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ It’s actually hotter now than when we ran our mock-up runs in practice and you always want to pick up when it comes time to qualify. When it gets hotter it’s hard to do sometimes, but we made good adjustments today.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Ameriquest Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd) – “I tell you what, I feel bad because I got into one and two and got back to the gas and the car was really, really good. I kind of hesitated in holding it flat all the way across there, and then when I turned to come down the hill it was a little tight and I had to come off the gas and I didn’t feel like I got the run down the backstretch that I needed to be on the pole, so I said, ‘Well, I’m just gonna go down in here and put up a solid top 10 number,’ and we got a little loose and kind of chased it up and just left a little on the table down here in three and four. I left two-thousandths of a second out there, but I just didn’t think one and two was gonna do it.” A GOOD STARTING SPOT GOING FOR THREE STRAIGHT. “Yeah it is. I tell you what, our Ford Fusion Ameriquest car is really, really solid. We felt like we had the fastest car in race trim practice. We have another practice this evening, but I feel like we have one of the fastest cars here for tomorrow night’s race.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY AND GREG BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE

JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – “I had a really good three and four and felt like I made up some ground down there I felt like and ended up with a good lap. We didn’t have that great of a practice, but Larry Carter and the guys did a great job today of making the right adjustments and putting the right setup in the car when it came time to qualify. All of the car of tomorrow races, I think we’ve been in the top five except for Richmond, so qualifying has been really good to us and a lot of the races have too. We haven’t been as good in race trim as what we had in qualifying, but I think our car is OK for race trim. We certainly have some work to do tonight and I think the practice that we had this evening is gonna mean a lot more than what we had this afternoon with as hot as it was and with the sun out and everything, so tonight will be important.” ROUSH FENWAY HAS THREE OUT OF THE TOP FOUR IN QUALIFYING. IS THIS A SIGN YOU’RE CATCHING UP TO HENDRICK AND IT’S CYCLING AROUND? “I think Hendrick is ahead of the rest of the organizations right now, but not just in the car of tomorrow. They’re really fast when we go to the intermediate type tracks also, so the 24 and 48 and the 5 – those guys are just really strong right now and it doesn’t really seem to matter whether we’re at a car of tomorrow race or a downforce-type track, they’re fast. They seem to be a little bit better with the car of tomorrow stuff. I think they’ve done more testing. I don’t know that for a fact, but you hear the rumors in the garage that Hendrick has done a lot of testing at Iowa and various other tracks, so they probably have learned more faster than the rest of us have.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Ameriquest Ford Fusion – “Going out last wasn’t that big of a difference. The temperature didn’t cool off a lot, but it sure did a lot for my confidence. I sat over in my motorhome and watched about 60 percent of the cars hit the fence and my confidence kind of shrank rapidly when I saw that. I had mixed emotions going out there and trying to do a 29.80 because we went 30.10 and I knew it was three-tenths faster that I had to go. I just wasn’t probably prepared to put it all on the line, but we had a great lap. I got into one really well, got across one and two good, and I didn’t turn down the hill and didn’t get off down the backstretch as good as I needed to to get the pole, I thought at that point, so I eased it back a little bit in three and four so I didn’t make any mistakes and just ran as efficient of a lap as I felt like I could around there – good and solid – and was only two-thousandth’s short of the pole. I would have never thought it would have been that close, but, who knows? You can always go back and critique your lap.” WILL THE CARS HANDLE OK IN THE RACE OR WILL WE SEE THEM HITTING THE WALL LIKE TODAY? “I think what you saw today was a preview of what the race is gonna be like. It has to be. We’re all putting a little bit extra out there in qualifying, but this race track is slick and it’s difficult to get around and it’s difficult to stay off the wall period – especially when you try to start racing side by side. I don’t think it’s gonna be easy at all. The one thing that’s gonna help and is probably gonna make a huge difference is that it’s gonna be night time, so that instantly gives the car instant grip by the temperature cooling down and the sun getting off the race track. So that’s probably gonna be a huge factor tomorrow night and tonight as the race track temperature comes down. But you will see a fair amount of cars probably skin the right side a little bit. I think we saw a lot of guys it didn’t hurt their speed. We saw Mayfield and some other guys, it depends on how you hit it and what it does. It didn’t hurt the 25’s speed.”