Ford Kentucky Busch Race
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Meijer 300 (Busch) June 17, 2006 Kentucky Speedway
CARL EDWARDS-60-Henkel Ford Fusion (Finished 36th) - WHAT PUT YOU BEHIND THE WALL AT THE START OF THE RACE? "I started in second trying to be conservative, and I shifted to third and we broke a transmission. I know Jeff McElwain and all of the guys that build these transmissions do a great job; we have great transmissions. I've never broke one like that. It must have just been a bad part or something; there are no gears in it right now. It won't go." YOU HAD 41 OTHER CARS PASS YOU ON THE START AS YOU CREPT DOWN THE FRONTSTRETCH. "It was pretty interesting. The guys did a great job. We have a great crop of drivers and everybody did a great job of not running us over, and I appreciate that."
GREG BIFFLE-66-Cub Cadet/Duraflame Ford Fusion (Finished 7th) - YOU HAD A STRONG CAR BUT YOU WERE FORCED TO THE TAIL END OF THE LEAD LAP AFTER AN PIT ROAD INFRACTION ON LAP 185. "I had the best car, by far. NASCAR said I passed the 99 coming to pit road, and we went down on the apron and he didn't go, so I went around him. I don't think he knew whether he was going to pit or not there at the end and it cost us. NASCAR made us go to the tail end of the longest line for that and it cost the Cub Cadet Ford a chance at the win here tonight."
ASHTON LEWIS, JR.-25-United States Marines Ford Fusion (Finished 5th) - YOU OVERCAME A 32ND-PLACE STARTING SPOT TO POST YOUR FIRST TOP-FIVE OF THE SEASON. "It was a tough race. It's crazy because we didn't really struggle in practice, but we weren't fast. I kept telling Todd (Brewer, crew chief), 'You know, the car doesn't feel that bad. It feels good to me.' We made some changes for today and qualified horrible and we were really loose, and I felt like it was going to be a good thing, we just had to let it come to us. The Team Marines Ford did, and I couldn't be prouder for these guys. I've said it all year, and I don't care what kind of driver you are, you don't drive any better than your equipment is, and these guys are giving me some great race cars right now to drive. This is the car that we had at Darlington earlier in the yea, and every time we brought this thing out, it's bee a top-10 car. We didn't get the finish we wanted at Darlington, and we took it to Nashville and actually had a great race car there and turned around and brought it here. The guys put a lot of extra effort into doing that and I really appreciate them doing that because it meant a lot to me to bring it here. I'm just glad we rewarded them for all the hard work."
TODD KLUEVER-06-3M Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) - "We got trapped a lap down and we weren't very good. I thought we were going to have a really good car, but I don't know. Me and Mike Kelley (crew chief) are sitting here scratching our heads right now. We'll get it figured out. The bonus is that our bad days now are 17th instead of the 30th, where we were running. We're building and we're going to get it. We're going to find the couple of things that really click for me and be fine. It was a really weird race tonight. There were so many cautions right away and then different strategies, and then all of a sudden we got a long green-flag run and I think some of those guys started pitting when the caution came out. It was just a crazy race and I don't think too many guys got their laps back, so it was tough."
JOHN ANDRETTI-10-Freedom Roads/Camping World Ford Fusion (Finished 15th) - "We got caught on pit road when the caution came out, and that cost us a lap and that's what it came down to. Otherwise, we drove up to the top 10 every time, and then we got caught on pit road that one time and it killed us. But, to come back and be the first car a lap down, that's about as good as we could have expected from that point on because there were some pretty good cars that were a lap down. I'm happy. We had a good-handling car and we just need something to go our way." WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE RECORD NUMBER OF CAUTIONS TONIGHT? "I've never been here before, so I don't know, but I like the race track. It's nice and wide, and it's a good track to race on. It can get a little frustrating because guys can get a run on you and you can't quite clear a guy, and that gets pretty frustrating."
STEPHEN LEICHT-90-CitiFinancial Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) - A CAREER-BEST FINISH FOR YOU HERE TONIGHT. "I can't thank this whole CitiFinancial team enough. The car was running great all night. We had a tight issue all night long, put on sticker tires and it would be a rocket ship for about 20 laps, nice and free, and then it would just keep getting tighter and tighter. This is the best finish we've had this year, other than the road-course race, a top 10 and it's my best career finish. It feels great. I can't thank Robert Yates Racing enough. Robert kept me in this car and Doug Yates gave us a great engine here tonight. It was really a team effort tonight." IT SEEMED LIKE THE TIMING OF THE CAUTIONS PLAYED AN IMPACT TONIGHT? "Yeah, we were actually getting ready to pit about one lap after that caution came out. I think that saved us because we probably would have went a lap down. Sometimes being lucky is better than being good and we'll take that any day. We had the car to keep us front and on the lead lap, and that's what matters."
MICHEL JOURDAIN, JR.-15-Double Stuff Oreo Ford Fusion (Finished 18th) - "I think we probably met our expectations. Once the race started we had a very good car. We had a couple of bad runs where we got extremely tight, and it was the long one that we lost our lap and that hurt us a lot because I think we were better than 18th, but it's the way it goes sometimes. The cars are much better here at ppc now than last year. It was much, much better, and I wish I had this car last year, but I think it's good to come out, and not have raced in a long time, and we were running quite decent."
KENNY WALLACE-22-AutoZone Ford Fusion (Finished 20th) - "We had a bad night. I guess on the second caution of the night, nobody knew the caution was coming out and I got into the back of the 06 car and killed my nose. I bent the whole nose in and we couldn't get the tape to stick and I was pushing and it was just a really bad night. It's amazing that we even got 20th. It's just disappointing. I'm devastated, but we finished 20th and that's all there is to it."