Kahne Leads Ford Qualifying Effort at Terrible Triangle
KASEY KAHNE, No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) – ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN “It felt pretty good. The car was balanced and I thought we made pretty good speed; we were just a little bit off of some of those guys. It was a pretty good lap. The guys did a nice job, but I am surprised we weren’t a little bit quicker. The car feels good, it feels like the lap is good and the car is good, we just have to get a little bit more out of it I guess.
WHAT IS THE KEY FOR SUCCESS ON SUNDAY? “We just need to have a good practice tomorrow and get the car balanced … get it like it is right now, but for race trim. If we can do that we should have a good race day.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Kellogg’s/Cheez-It Ford Fusion (Qualified 26th)- ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN “It was okay, better than I usually qualify here. Usually I slam it off the curb and qualify it 35th or something. We didn’t hit the curb and picked up about a second from practice. I think it will hold up for a pretty good position.
YOU MENTIONED THE PAVEMENT EARLIER, HOW DID THAT TREAT YOU AND WHY DO YOU LIKE IT? “I just really enjoy the character that this track has. It has some bumps and a really nice smooth piece of pavement up there that is way off of where you normally run so you have to decide as a driver if you want to run up there or at the bottom. That character is what a lot of these tracks really need … it makes it fun.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Qualified 15th) – ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN “It was a good run compared to where we ran in practice. Obviously we are out early and I am sure a lot of people are going to pick it up compared to us. For us it was good because that is the best we were today. We made some changes from practice and we were in clean air, so it is hard to see if there were any big changes from practice until now, overall I am good with it.”
PAUL MENARD, No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 33rd)- ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN “We really struggled in practice and tried to go back to how we unloaded and the car ended up better in qualifying. It still isn’t fast enough though. Hopefully the weather holds out tomorrow and we can work on it.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS RACE TRACK? “It is a cool track. If we came here once a year it would be perfect. It is a unique track for sure. There are a lot of parts about it that are a lot of fun and a lot of parts that aren’t a lot of fun. It is a good mix.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 38th) – ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN “It wasn’t very good. We didn’t have the greatest speed out there, but it was a pick up from where we were in practice. The car was a little tight out there which is what we were fighting in practice. I probably didn’t get through the tunnel turn as good as I had been earlier. We lost a little bit of speed there because I missed my mark just a tick. You really have to hit your marks here. We still have work to do on the car and we spent most of today in race trim. We have some ideas of what we need to work on. Overall the speed wasn’t there, but the balance of the car was there, so that is a good sign.”
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 28th) – ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN “The car was really fast, I think I probably just under drove it on all three corners. I just didn’t know how much drift the car was going to have. I think we have a pretty good race car come Sunday.”
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