Biffle and Edwards Advance to Sprint All-Star Race
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Finished 24th) – “Our car was good. We had to start dead last because of the qualifying deal and the car was really good, so we decided not to pit and take tires. We were in third and I drove into three and somebody must have been right up underneath my back bumper or something. That got me loose and I slid up into David Ragan. I stayed in the gas and then came down and when we were three-wide just as we got to that thing the hole closed up and ended our night early. It’s a shame, but we were running good. I feel good about our car and feel good about what we learned for next week. I’m looking forward to coming back.” WE’RE SEEING SOME BIG MOVES OUT THERE. “Yeah, I think everybody out there would be racing different if it was a points race. Only two positions count.” DO YOU THINK RAGAN TAPPED YOU FOR TAPPING HIM EARLY? “That’s what they said, but I don’t think so. We were going and it just got real narrow. I was in the middle and the hole just kind of closed up there.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE STRATEGY OF NO TIRES? “I think track position was really important, but, more importantly, this 3M Ford Fusion is driving really good. I got a little too aggressive. I’ve got too much of a qualifying setup in it, so it’s a little harsh to drive on the front tires. Out front it’s really, really good and I’m excited about making the All-Star Race.” DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WIN? “I’m pretty tight. We’re gonna have to do some adjusting on this car, but it’s a little rigid on the front. We’ll have to wait and see, but if I get track position and we free it up a little bit, they’re gonna have their hands full.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 10th and voted in by fans to All-Star Race) – “It means the world for the fans to vote us in. Hopefully, I can go out there and make them feel good about it and run well, and represent all of them well. We were just talking about the car. We’ve got to work on it a little bit, but when we got in some clean air we were really fast. Hopefully, we can get it to run that way the whole time. It would be the greatest thing in the world to give that check to Speedway Children’s Charity, so we’ll see what we can do.”
ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 19 Hunt Brother’s Pizza Ford Fusion (Finished 11th) – “We just got really tight. We were tight the first run and came in and put two tires on and that made it a lot tighter. We were just missing something in the front end and couldn’t get it to react to anything.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 6th) – ON FIRST SEGMENT “I felt like we were really good. I was driving conservative and not overdriving the car while waiting for the last 20 laps. On that restart, Biffle just got in front of us getting into [turn] one and I felt like we were still good to race him down the back straightaway, but then the 38 just drove it into three and just couldn’t keep it off the bottom. He was trying all he could to keep it down, but he just couldn’t.” ON IF HE TAPPED GILLILAND BACK AFTER THAT “Well, it’s tough to tap him when he’s still behind me. He was still on my inside and certainly I was going to crowd him all I could coming out of four. After he runs over me, I didn’t want him to pass me, too. So, yeah, I crowded him, but he was obviously doing the best he could and it was just one of those things.” ON LEARNING ANYTHING FOR THE 600 NEXT WEEK: “Yeah, I wish this car didn’t get torn up. I think a couple of the changes that we made were good. Obviously, I guess with Matt and Greg, we’ll see if they learn anything here in this next race, but we’ve still got a little work to do.”
GREG BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE – “I feel a lot better that we’re in, but I feel a lot better because our car is running good. That’s what I feel good about. I’m excited about the improvements we’ve made on our race car. I got a little too aggressive, I think. I’m gonna make an adjustment here and see if I can fix it for the All-Star, but I went pretty aggressive to try and get the car to drive good and get it right down on the track. It’s kind of a handful, but it’s got a lot of grip and I’m gonna do what I can. I’m gonna drive my butt off in this All-Star Race and try to get it up through the field.”
IS IT HARD TO FORCE YOURSELF TO RACE MARTIN KNOWING YOU’RE IN A POSITION TO ADVANCE? “Yeah, it was. I was looking in the mirror to see how far back the 31 was, but I didn’t have any tires. I was a little too tight in the center of the corner and I just had to ease it in the corner and let it roll a little bit. I was going as fast as I could go while preserving my tire to make it to the end. Once he got by, I tried to move around a little bit and I wasn’t as good. I saw the 31 kind of catching me a little bit, so I kind of refocused and started backing my corner up a little bit and started to drive back away from the 31. Actually, I probably caught Martin two or three car lengths over the distance, but he probably backed off to save a little bit as well. I think my car is driving good. We’re gonna make some adjustments for the All-Star Race, and I think it’s a huge advantage being able to run that and know what we’ve got getting ready for this next one.”
HOW BIG OF A MISTAKE DID IT SEEM LIKE IT WOULD BE WHEN YOU DIDN’T PIT FOR TIRES? “I thought we were a sitting duck. I’m running second, so, basically, the moral of the story is when everybody came behind me I could have had free tires. I could have had two tires on it and not lost any track position, provided we just had a decent pit stop. So it sucks when you give up free tires, meaning you’re the last guy that didn’t pit and then nobody stayed out. So you’ve got nothing to lose and got at least two for free, and I hate passing up that opportunity to have bullets in the gun, but I thought they were gonna mow us down. I thought they’d drive by us – the 31 and all those guys. These cars are still just super aero-sensitive. You’ve got to get air on the front of the car. That’s what Martin did, he just moved around. My car is really good up top against the fence in three and four and I never got there this whole race. I ran up there once or twice, but there at the end once I had the 31 beat, I wish I would have gone back up there and looked around to see how the car drove before I adjusted on it. I thought it was gonna be a huge mistake, but, obviously, it’s not.”
AS FAR AS THE FR9 MOTOR. HOW DID IT FEEL AND DOES IT BODE WELL FOR NEXT WEEK? “I think so. The engine ran really good. I was really happy with the power and really happy with the way it came up off the corner. I’m really excited about this All-Star Race. It’s kind of like we got a free pass. We got in it and now I’ll see if I can get my way to the front.”
WILL YOU RUN THE FR9 NEXT WEEK? “No, I think our next scheduled race is Michigan for the FR9. Michigan on – from then on we’ll be running the FR9 to my knowledge.”
