Ford Talladega Cup Qualifying

Andy Lally, No. 71 TRG Motorsports Ford “It means a whole lot to the manufacturers and we have a good strong motor here. This Ford is pulling real well. We are a small team and this is a real good effort by these guys. There is no wind tunnel time on this car. We are relying on the Roush Yates Ford power under that hood and some little tricks these guys learn along the way. They have been learning a lot and we have been working behind the scenes as hard as we can. I am proud of them. They have done a good job.”

DO YOU HAVE A PARTNER STRATEGY FOR TOMORROW? “I got to work with Terry Labonte at Daytona and had a blast. To get to work with a veteran like that, you just want to keep coming back and doing it some more. If he will have me I will certainly be willing to push him all day tomorrow. We have a couple other guys we are talking to in case things get shuffled around but Terry is good people and a champion and it would be very cool to get to do that with him again.”

Travis Kvapil, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford “It was a good run. It is hard to really do anything as a driver here. It is all on the team and Front Row Motorsports did a good job. This is a different car than we have had for speedway races. We wrecked our Daytona car earlier in the year and we brought this one here. I have to give a big thank you to Ford and Doug Yates for the great horsepower. The guys at the shop pay attention to all the details and so far, so good. Surely it won’t hold up for a pole but we are solidly in the show and that was objective number one for us.”

DO YOU HAVE A PARTNER FOR TOMORROW? “I think so. It all can go out the window but myself and David Gilliland are planning to work together and be there for each other all day long. We are looking for a good solid day tomorrow because that can go a long way for our fight to get back into the top-35. We want to keep chipping away at it. That is the plan.”

JJ Yeley, No. 55 Front Row Motorsports Ford “It was good. The most important thing is that we are locked in now. The biggest disappointment was that we were in full qualifying trim and had really good speed yesterday. We thought we would pick up a couple tenths today. The first lap wasn’t bad but we didn’t pick up those extra tenths on the second lap. I’m not exactly sure why but again at the end of the day the goal has been achieved and we are in the race.”

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR TOMORROW? “I think you almost have to shoot from the hip. You can sit there and plan but as soon as the green flag drops there are 40 other guys out there to disturb your plan. It is tough because there are 43 cars starting this race so there will be one guy left out, as long as you aren’t that guy you will be okay.”

David Gilliland, No. 34 World Hunger Relief Ford “It doesn’t mean much for tomorrow. I think we have the best average finish on restrictor plate races this year and probably one of the worst qualifying starts, if you average it I am sure we probably would. These races it doesn’t really matter where you start. We do a lot of stuff for our car, drivability wise, to make it drive better which makes you a better pusher which makes more people want to work with you. Right now, Travis’ car is really fast and has good speed and that is who we will be working with tomorrow. I am looking forward to it and feel like we can keep our string of good finishes on restrictor plate tracks going. I am excited to have World Hunger Relief on our car and hopefully we can do a good job for them.”

TONY STEWART SAID THAT YOU GUYS AREN’T GOING TO BE ABLE TO HOOK UP LIKE YOU HAVE IN THE PAST. “Yeah, we aren’t. It is such a tight points battle right now and we are going to try to help the Ford guys out all we can. We are going to go that route. Our teammate Travis made the race and in the past he has had to do stuff to ensure he made the race and had to go behind the wall sometimes and change the oil and stuff like that. This time he is not doing anything like that so we can make a plan to work together and stick together. We are One Ford. That is the goal for this weekend. I feel good about it. Tony was great to work with those last couple of races and you never know what will happen. If you get down to the end and he is out of a partner and something happens to Travis, we are 100-percent comfortable working together, with each other. You never know what can happen on into the race. As far as our initial plan, it is to work with Ford.”

SO WILL YOU HELP IF CARL OR SOMEONE LIKE THAT NEEDS IT. WILL YOU HELP THE CHASE GUYS? “Yeah. I worked with Carl at Daytona and we worked really well together. He was really comfortable with us working together. We have kinda built a rapport with those guys. So much can change throughout this race as you guys know. When it gets down to the end, we are going to leave our options open.”

SO YOU CAN HELP SOMEBODY IN THE COURSE OF A RACE. YOU AREN’T BANNED FROM WORKING WITH ANYONE? “No, we aren’t banned. When you lay out your initial plans you have to think of the big picture and Ford does a lot for us and we would really like to see a Ford win this championship.”

DID THAT DIRECTIVE COME FROM FORD RACING? “You know, obviously they would like to see that. We are here to help them just like they help us if we can.”

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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