Ford Texas Trucks -
post-race quotes
BOBBY EAST - No. 09
Zaxby's Ford F-150 -
(finished 8th, qualified
13th) - YOU WERE IN THE TOP
10 MOST OF THE RACE. "Yeah,
we're happy. The Zaxby's
Ford F-150 was great. We
unloaded good and Chad
Norris and the crew did a
great job. Our performance
was because of him, Mike
Beam and Matt Puccia. I want
to thank everybody. I want
to thank Jack Roush for this
opportunity."
JON WOOD - No. 21 Air
Force Ford F-150 - (finished
10th, qualified 4th) - "In
reference to my comments
after qualifying about how
we're doing; we're doing a
lot of different things now
with springs. All in all,
we've thrown out our old
set-up and we're starting
over something brand new
that's pretty much opposite.
Prior to this week, we
didn't know how to start the
race the way we needed to.
Next week we'll know how to
make it better during the
race because the only part
that we were missing was
knowing what adjustments did
what, given the fact that
everything is now backwards
from what it was." ARE WE
SEEING A TURNAROUND IN YOUR
PROGRAM? "I don't know.
You'd like to fire off
immediately and know
everything but in a
realistic world, that
doesn't happen, particularly
when it appears as if we're
a Cup-backed truck team. But
there's only so much that is
applicable to what we do.
We've pretty much done it on
our own." ARE YOU PLEASED
WITH YOUR FINISH TODAY? "As
long as we keep getting
better, that's all I care
about."
BRENDAN GAUGHAN - No. 10
International MAXX Force
Diesel Ford F-150 -
(finished 15th, qualified
21st) - "We moved up to at
least 12th at one point.
Normally, I'm really good at
restarts and I feel bad that
I let the team down. It was
a typical Bryan Berry [crew
chief] night; he works hard
for me. The guys on pit road
worked hard for me. They did
shock adjustments, spring
rubbers, tire pressures and
track bars. The worked their
tails off. I kept my tire
guy busy with up and down
and up and down on tire
pressures. The boys gave me
the best Ford they could
tonight and unfortunately,
it wasn't enough for us. I
think we ended up 15th, and
it looks like we stayed the
same in points. It's real
tight still. It's
unfortunate that we had
another tough spot. Jack
Roush keeps giving me good
engines and the boys keep
giving me good Ford trucks.
We'll be at Michigan next
week with a different truck.
I've had a win there in the
past, let's see if we can't
find another one."
COLIN BRAUN - No. 6
Con-way Freight Ford F-150 -
(finished 22nd, qualified
20th) - "We just got free
off of turn two behind Matt
[Crafton] and I just made a
mistake. I thought we had a
truck that could have
challenged for the win
there. We certainly had a
top five truck there pretty
easily. I just feel bad for
all these guys. They worked
so hard on the truck getting
it ready. That was probably
one of the best trucks we
had there. So it's terrible
to wreck it and have to go
back and fix it. These guys
did a great job. I think we
made 17 or 18 pit stops
after we wrecked and never
gave up. The guys did a real
good job, I just feel bad
letting them all down." BUT
YOU HANDLED THE TRUCK SO
WELL AND AVOIDED OTHER
TRUCKS, DOESN'T THAT SHOW
YOUR DEVELOPMENT AS A
DRIVER? "I thought we had it
there for a second and then
I just ran out of race
track. If that wall had been
back six inches, we would
have been all right there.
At one point I kinda had to
give up and just let it hit
the wall and avoid trying to
spin down to the inside.
It's an unfortunate day for
everybody here in the No. 6
Con-way Freight Ford F-150
team." WHAT DID YOU LEARN
FROM THIS RACE? "I learned a
lot just coming up through
the pack there from the back
and racing with those guys
and how important it is to
have a good pit crew. Those
guys did a great job on pit
road and got us a lot of
spots on pit road. I also
learned that it's important
to be patient and let the
race come to you. I learned
a lot there. Unfortunately,
when we wrecked, just how
these trucks drive and how
much you can get away with
and how much you can't get
away with."
ERIK DARNELL - No. 99
Northern Tool + Equipment
Ford F-150 - (finished 24th,
qualified 22nd) - "It was a
frustrating night, again.
That's the way our luck has
been going. We cut a right
front tire on the restart
getting into turn one. Then
we had to do a drive through
penalty after that. And then
that got us a couple of laps
down and we never could
recover from that. We were
actually pretty decent again
today. This was the same
Northern Tool + Equipment
Ford F-150 that we had in
Charlotte. We're happy it's
still in one piece. We'll
tune on it and go to the
next one."