Ford Talladega 2 Post Race

FORD TALLADEGA FINISHING ORDER

11th Carl Edwards

14th Greg Biffle

15th Trevor Bayne

18th Matt Kenseth

19th Marcos Ambrose

21st Travis Kvapil

22nd David Gilliland

28th David Ragan

31st AJ Allmendinger

34th Terry Labonte

39th Andy Lally

42nd JJ Yeley

Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford (Finished 19th) “I am alive, so that is good. Man that was tough. I am disappointed with the result but with everything that was going on out there and with as much stuff as happened I am pretty thankful that we were just able to cross the finish line at the end. I would certainly have liked to done better for Ford and for Stanley and my guys, but we will just move on from here.”

Carl Edwards, No. 99 Subway Ford (Finished 11th) “That was a heck of a day for teamwork. Greg (Biffle) did an unbelievable job of sticking with me and we get to come out of here extending our points lead, which is good. It is good for Ford and good for Subway and everybody. I am pleased that we are able to get out of here with the points lead intact because you just never know what can happen here and to extend it is just great.”

David Ragan – No. 6 UPS My Choice Ford (Finished 28th) YOU SAID OVER THE RADIO AT THE END THAT YOU WEREN’T SURE WHAT HAPPENED DURING THOSE LAST TWO LAPS. “We’ll have to look at it. Our engine ran well all day; our car was fast and I think we had an opportunity to win. We just did not have the power. I don’t know if when that wreck happened we ran over something and it knocked a plug wire off or what happened. It was a good day, just a bad finish. Luck just wasn’t on our side.”

Andy Lally, No. 71 Ford (Finished 39th) – POST WRECK INTERVIEW “I feel good and it is a testament to the safety of these cars. That was a pretty big hit and I am fine. Everything did its job. I just can’t stand that we aren’t out there right now. We had a decent car and we had a real good push partner with Terry (Labonte). This Ford was running strong all day.”

WHAT HAPPENED EXACTLY? “It just felt like someone drove through the back of me. I have no idea. The back end started turning and I have no idea if I got lifted up or if the air came off the side. Once it started turning that much it was gone. I was just along for the ride unfortunately. This racing is crazy. It is funny because at Daytona when everybody was a tandem it was actually easier. Now you have a few guys riding, it makes it harder because every other couple laps you get these massive closing rates. That is what happened to us. We were passing a slower group on the bottom and the top.”

David Gilliland, No. 34 World Hunger Relief Ford (Finished 22nd) “Our World Hunger Relief Ford Fusion was really fast paired up with Travis (Kvapil) today. And we found out that we worked better when I was doing the pushing. I didn’t really have any temperature issues so we didn’t have to break apart all that often for clean air or anything. I was hoping for a better finish than 22nd. We certainly had the cars for it, but we got shuffled back at the end there and we just didn’t have enough time to advance as much as we could’ve if there were a few more laps in the race. I’m happy the No. 38 is back in the top 35, though. That’s good for our organization as a whole. And I hope running up front got some good attention for World Hunger Relief, too.”

Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Jeremiah Weed Ford (Finished 18th) “It was a frustrating that we ran up there most the day. David was a great drafting partner and he broke something on the last restart, broke something in his engine. I had to try to find somebody with two laps to go and that is hard. Trevor also really tried to help me at the end and that was the first time we did that all day and we didn’t have our timing right. We got in up there real high and had a bunch of cars pass us. It was disappointing to run in the front all day and then finish where we finished but we made it through so I guess the damage could have been worse.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE (POINTS LEADER)

YOU NOW HAVE A 14 POINT LEAD OVER YOUR TEAMMATE MATT KENSETH. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT AND YOUR DAY OUT THERE? “I don’t know that I have ever been so excited about 11th place. This race was one that was nerve-racking for everyone but we came in here with a small points lead and that was a huge day for us. I cannot believe how much Greg helped us today. I owe him a lot. Greg stuck with me all day. On the last lap he was driving my car from back there. We got separated and he was screaming, ‘Go, go, go.’ Somehow I found him and he pushed us back up there a little bit. It was a very good day. I appreciate Subway being on board and it is good to get them a good finish even though it is not a win, it is a big battle in the war and a huge day for us.”

GIVEN THE DYNAMICS OF TALLADEGA, IS THE BEST YOU CAN DO TO HOOK UP WITH A TEAMMATE LIKE GREG AND PRAY THAT NOTHING HAPPENS? “Yes, it is a very spiritual event. You just have to hope that the guy sticks with you. I don’t know how to describe it to you guys. You were just asking Jeff (Burton) if he would have done anything. It is a tough, tough race. If you finish it with your car in tact then you feel good. You feel like you got away with something.”

DO YOU THINK IN RETROSPECT THAT MAYBE YOU AND GREG WAITED TOO LONG TO MAKE YOUR MOVE? “If you look at the things that could have happened or should have happened, we probably should have had a couple of green white checkered the way people were bouncing off each other and the way things were going. If I had to do it over again I would do the exact same thing and I bet you the outcome would be wildly different, better or worse. At the end of the day we had a shot at it. Our car was in tact and we could drive up there and that was our mission. It went well for us.”

WAS YOUR DRAFTING DAY A BUILDING PROCESS? IT SEEMED LIKE YOU GUYS SWAPPED AROUND A BIT AND AT ONE POINT TREVOR BAYNE PICKED YOU UP. “Yeah, there were times when we kind of did our own separate thing. Our plan was always to be within sight and be able to come back and work together at the end. We knew we could only do that if our cars were together. It is easy to look at the outcome of the race and say that you finished 11th and be mad that you didn’t finish better. I still believe that the plan we had worked out well and I am happy with the outcome. If you can look at it from my perspective. In 2008 we came in here and was frustrated with myself for taking myself out at this race. I was prepared to lose the point lead but I wasn’t going to accept it from making a mistake and losing control of my car.”

THERE WAS MUCH MADE BEFORE THE RACE ABOUT THE FORD OR ROUSH FENWAY EDICT THAT YOU GUYS ALL STAY TOGETHER AND ALL THE FORD DRIVERS HELP EACH OTHER. JEFF GORDON WAS APPARENTLY DISPLEASED AT THE END FOR TREVOR BAYNE LEAVING HIM. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT? “Fist thing, I don’t know what happened with Trevor and Jeff. Trevor is a stand-up guy and I am sure he did whatever he thought was best. Its not like we got together and planned to do anything, at least I wasn’t a part of any plan to make things hard on anyone else. That was not the idea. The plan was that we should stick together as Roush Fenway and as the Ford group and try to help one another as best we can. I thought we did a good job with that and I saw other teams doing the same thing. You never know what is going to happen. We didn’t think that plan would go through to the end. We thought that some of us would be crashed or have trouble or something like that and then people would mix up partners and stuff.”

IS THERE A SPECIFIC REASON YOU ASKED IN THE DRIVERS MEETING ABOUT LIFTING ON THE LAST LAP? “I feel like the biggest risk we have here is what I talked about on Friday. We had a wreck and then people just come to this conclusion in their mind through whatever that they are going to stand on the throttle and drive through the wreck and that is the cool thing or right thing to do. I feel like that is the biggest risk, an accident where a guy is upside down or stopped and us as competitors don’t really know what point we are racing to. If we see something like that I think a lot of folks are reluctant right now in the sport to lift. They think it is cool to stay on the throttle. You can’t ask competitors to quit driving and not give everything they can but I hope NASCAR will clarify that stuff a little more in the future so we don’t have a problem because of this.”

CARL, WITH YOU AND MATT OUT FRONT 1 2, IT’S NOT A VERY BIG POINTS LEAD, BUT DO YOU LOOK AT THIS THING AND SAY, AT LEAST ROUSH FENWAY RACING CAN ALMOST KIND OF TAKE A BREATH HERE AND SAY THAT WE’RE IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE? “No, no. That would be nice. I’d love that. We’d have to have a hundred point lead to take a breath. Anything can happen. I’m proud of our team, where we’ve come from, how far we’ve come in the last 18 months. It’s unbelievable. It’s a testament to how hard everyone’s willing to work, how much responsibility everyone’s willing to take for the things we needed to fix. We’re doing well. It’s fun. I’m a little nervous about Matt, honestly, because I know how good he is and how good his team is. Having him in second doesn’t make me breathe easier competitive wise.”

YOU SAID IN JANUARY YOU FELT BETTER GOING INTO THIS YEAR THAN YOU DID AT THE END OF ’08. HAS IT PANNED OUT THAT WAY OR WOULD YOU HAVE NEEDED MORE WINS? IS IT COMING TRUE? “I still feel we’re performing better because we’re a better team now. I feel like now we are a better team than we were in 2008. I feel we’re fast for reasons that are more fundamental reasons. We have better engines, our engineering is better, our cars are better. We don’t just have a trick, skewed rear end housing, a new car we figured out quick or something like that. I feel like we are competitive week in and week out. Even when we have a bad day, it always seems that one of our teammates runs really well and we have someone we can lean on. I still feel better about this year than 2008. Just glad to be in the position I’m in. It’s amazing to drive these Fords right now for Jack. It’s a lot of fun.”