Ford Sweeps the Podium at Kansas
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES O'Reilly 250 (Truck) July 1, 2006 Kansas Speedway
TERRY COOK-10-Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l F-150 (Finished 1st) - YOU LAST VISITED VICTORY LANE 94 RACES AGO. "Man, this is huge. The competition level has gotten so tough in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and we've been so good on the mile-and-a-half tracks, and to finally put it all together is huge. ppc/Power Stroke Diesel Engines has built some great trucks, and we've skated on the verge and we just can't seem to get over the hump and today we did." TALK ABOUT THE 151 CAUTION. "I was trying to get my knees to stop knocking. It's been so long. That's the beauty of the Craftsman Truck Series. They are such great competitors around here and everybody will race you clean. We saw what momentum did for Johnny Benson and we're hoping to get some here today." WITH THE STREAK OF NOT WINNING GROWING NEAR 100 RACES, DID YOU EVER DOUBT YOURSELF? "When you're heading into the grave for that long, you start doubting yourself and you start reaching. I knew that during the off-season with the hiring of Dennis Connor (crew chief) that we were building a championship-caliber team. Todd Bodine and his team have had a great season to date, but I guess the 10 truck is just starting to build a little momentum." TALK ABOUT THE DECISION TO GET TIRES BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE. "That was all Dennis Connor and I saw on that last run, the guys that had sticker tires and the guys in front of me that were on old tires, I was having a hard time getting around them, so I felt at that point that Dennis had made the right call, and he certainly did."
RICK CRAWFORD-14-Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford F-150 (Finished 2nd) - "This is a pretty nice truck, the Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford F-150. A lot of bold moves out there today, even from the get-go. I had a lot of fun. Kevin Starland (crew chief) made some great calls in the pits and super pit stops by my guys. I just really appreciate it, and I just like entertaining the folks and putting on a great show here at Kansas City." YOU WERE ON A DIFFERENT PIT SEQUENCE THAN SOME OF THE OTHER DRIVERS THAT WERE EARLY-RACE CONTENDERS. "I've raced short tracks a long time and I've been on some wore out race tracks and I was in conservative mode with about 40 to go. I just didn't have anything for the 10 truck. Congratulations to the Power Stroke Diesel team. Terry Cook and all of the guys over there, and they even got some of my guys on the pit crew, so I congratulate them. That's all we had." HOW WAS THE HEAT INSIDE THE TRUCK TODAY? "I feel OK. I'm good. The heat wasn't a concern, winning was. I'm proud our Ford was making some bold moves out there, even from the initial start of the race. My Ford F-Series pickup was really strong and really tough today. Go down there to pit five and that's an old team, even the guys back at the shop. It was a whole Circle Bar Truck Corral effort. I just hate it, Mr. Mitchell told me this morning when I told him that A.J. Foyt had a knee replacement, I called him because he always wants to talk to A.J. Foyt. I called him and told him what happened, and he said, 'Well, you usually finish where you qualify,' and I told him all I need to do is pass one truck. I don't guess I did that for him today."
MARCOS AMBROSE-20-Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards Ford F-150 (Finished 3rd, Top Rookie) - "Man, I'm just so excited. I excited for the team. I joined Wood Brothers/JTG Racing this year and they've been so good to me. I started my first one-and-a-half mile oval at Charlotte and crashed on the fourth lap after qualifying third. We had to wind it back a little bit and regroup and just understand how to race these things. Todd Bodine and Brendan Gaughan and those guys have helped me a lot here this year with just taking me around each track and showing me what I should and shouldn't do, so I can just confide in them. Those guys and the Wood Brothers team, and Ford, who plucked me out of Australia to come over here and have a crack at it. And my wife, I dragged her halfway across the world with a two-month-old baby. What a special day for us. It just means so much." YOU RACED IN THE TOP 10 ALL DAY. "Well, we qualified fourth, and the plan is at these tracks that I haven't been to before, it's just ride around where I'm comfortable to learn and try to move back to the front towards the end of the race. Every race but this one I haven't been able to come back to the front because I just haven't had enough experience. I feel more comfortable with the trucks, I feel more comfortable with the people that I'm driving with. You have to get to know the guys you're racing with, so you can react or predict what they're going to do out there. I just hope we get a little bit of respect for running good today and just build on this. We're not going top three every week. We're aiming for a top-10 if we can, and anything above that is a bonus this year."
DAVID RAGAN-6-Scotts Ford F-150 (Finished 6th) - "The Scotts Miracle-Gro Ford F-150 was awesome all day. It was a little tight in traffic, but when we got out on our own it was really a rocket ship. Mike Beam (crew chief) and them make great calls all year and that was another great call. We came in and took tires with 20-some to go and we felt like that would help us get back to the front, but obviously track position was a little more important. We learned a little bit, and brought the truck home in one piece, and it was a pretty good points day for us in the owner standings." YOU POSTED A CAREER-BEST TRUCK SERIES FINISH. "We've had some fast trucks and it's just cool to get out there and race with those guys. Todd and Mike Skinner and David Reutimann, some of those guys, are awesome to race with, so I had a good time and built some confidence. The confidence has always been up, but it's up with everyone and I look forward to going to Kentucky."
RICK CRAWFORD PRESS CONFERENCE
YOU QUALIFIED SECOND AND FINISHED SECOND. TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN. "I didn't pass a truck. It was a great run by the Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford race team. Kevin Starland, what he's calling in the pits, putting fresh tires on there with a long distance to go. If you notice, the track was really not dominant to new tires because the guys that started back in the back - 15th or further back to come in that last stop - couldn't get it done. Usually I'm on the end of that deal, but Kevin did a good job in the pits today. I'll tell you, the Roush-Yates engines under the hood, you've (Ambrose) got one, Terry Cook's got one, and those babies were bad today. I really appreciate that. But, my guys in the pits, great job, but I just hate finishing second. I'm a competitor and this will eat at me until Kentucky."
WHY WAS TURN FOUR A PROBLEM TODAY? "I watched one of the wrecks in turn four today. I was with Bob Uecker on the front row for that one. One of the guys ran off on the apron and just lost control and hit the guy beside him. If you notice, turn four is sort of like Kentucky's turn four. You go in without any banking and then the banking comes up to you as you exit the corner, so guys are running 180, 190 mph down the back straightaway with no banking to start with. That's initially where the problem starts."
YOU'VE RUN WELL THIS YEAR. "My payroll is one up. I'm being very serious. Tom Mitchell with Circle Bar Truck Corral, our owner, used to be in Indy Car racing back in the early 80s and has been with me for 15 years. It's quite an honor. He gives us all the avenues and equipment and everything we need to run good. We've really never had all of the people in place and it's hard to get good people to stay with you in nowadays racing. As demanding as Cup is, they're hiring the good people away from you. Right now, we have 22-24 people on a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team, and I can tell you right now that everyone has a specified job and we have a bunch of specialists and engineers. We have a Ford engineer, Robert Brooks, that's with us each and every week going over strategy with Cowboy (Kevin Starland). I even offered to take his computer for a ride around the track. I tell him that that's not necessarily what I'm feeling, and let's see if the computer can feel what I'm feeling. But anyway, I'm just explaining that the strength of our team is building and built around good people, and that's the reason we're running better right now. But, we have great equipment, too."
TALK ABOUT THE DECISION TO TAKE YOUR LAST SET OF TIRES EARLY. "We had taken our allotment of tires and we knew we were inside our fuel window, and Cowboy watched how many truck pitted or stayed out on the race track that last stop, and I think Skinner came out first and he was 15th on the grid with a little over 20 laps to go. That's a little hard to overcome, so that was our strategy there. It worked out, finally. Finally I'm sitting here because things work out for me."
MARCOS AMBROSE PRESS CONFERENCE
DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE BATTLING FOR THIRD ON THE LAST LAP? "I knew we were in the top 10. It was a cluster out there, to be honest with you. I'm learning every time I go out and I've just got some great people around me. The Wood Brothers/JTG Racing team and Gary Cogswell, my crew chief, and all of my guys gave me good pit stops all day. Coming here this year, I've never raced on an oval, ever. I've never driven a stock car ever, so thanks to Ford for allowing me to come out here and have a crack at it. There's been so much to learn and I couldn't have been here today without great support from Ford, Wood Brothers/JTG Racing and all of the guys involved. Todd Bodine and Brendan Gaughan have been great to me, too, and I've been able to go up to them and ask them questions. I raced against them today, too, and it's kind of hard to race against people that you respect and admire. I'm just thrilled to be here. Thrilled to be in NASCAR and thrilled to run good. I'm just a lucky boy."
"It's very hard to adapt. I've never driven on ovals, I've never driven stock cars. I've come from a road-race background, so it's been a very difficult transition and wasn't one we expected to be easy. We're still in the learning process of all that. The move from Australia, I was kind of a big fish in a pretty small pond and now I'm small fish in a huge ocean over here. I've really got to find my mark. I'm a pioneer, I guess, on any international level to come across here and try to make NASCAR stick. I'm definitely one of the few Australians that have driven in NASCAR, so that will probably be the best result ever. We're breaking new ground and I'm here to hopefully find my own little spot in NASCAR. I just want to compete and be part of the whole show. I don't want to steal a ride off another young fellow from America."
TERRY COOK PRESS CONFERENCE
"Wow, what a day. We rolled off the trailer fast and we've been doing that the past four or five weeks, so we just haven't been able to have any luck during a race. Several times this year we've had trucks that could win, just something happens. We qualified fifth and drove up to second, and no sooner do I get to second and I feel a right-front tire going down. We cut a right-front tire down. We have bead blowers. We run a hose that blows cool air on the sidewall of the tire to keep the tires cool, and unfortunately they're wrapped with wire inside and I think a piece of wire got in the tire and cut it down. We pitted under green and lost a lap and then got it back through the Lucky Dog and restarted 32nd and drove all the way up to, I think at that point, 10th or 11th. Then the cycling of pit stops, I had a great pit crew and had great pit stops and cycling and a great strategy by Dennis Connor there at the end. I think a lot of teams thought they needed to take tires later and we saw early on in the race that tires weren't that big of an issue. Our truck was so good, we packed it with fuel to go to the end and just set sail. Once we got the lead and got clean air on the clean, it was just unstoppable."
GIVEN YOU HAD THREE TOP-10 FINISHES HERE, DID YOU FEEL YOU HAD TO GET A TOP-THREE FINISH OR WIN THIS WEEKEND? "Honestly, yeah, just because our program has gotten so strong over the last, what we feel, four or five weeks, maybe even six weeks. The summer stretch has always been my strong point, and we're in race seven of a nine-race stretch across the summer here. We've always run good at the mile-and-a-halfs, and our program has excelled another fold and my crew chief Dennis Connor told me for the first time in a long time that not only is he ready to win again. In other words, he's built a team up to that level because he just joined us during the off-season. But, for the first time all year long, he felt that our team was finally ready to win, and the very first weekend he said that, we put it in Victory Lane. The guy's got three Craftsman Truck Series championships under his belt. I can't tell you how many wins and poles, and he's just a plethora of knowledge. He guided this team to victory today."
"A little, but happening on whatever lap it happened -18, 19 or 20 - it was very early in a race of 167-lap race. I knew if we kept our head straight and kept cool we could overcome this. I thought we were two laps down. The crew chief told me we were only one down, which was fortunate for us. The truck was so good that I think we could have drove past the leader and got one of those back and then got the Lucky Dog to get the second one back. Fortunately at that point, we were only one lap down and we elected to take right-side tires only when we popped the right-front tire. That's misfortune, but, man, I just can't tell you how good that truck was. I've got a great spotter, a new spotter this year with Tony Hirschman. He guided me through the field, back in the 30s. The thing here about Kansas, a hot day like this and the track gets so slick, so you're really sliding around out there. You really have to use your head and you've got a lot of rookie drivers out there. I'm the rookie driver coach, so I know what I'm dealing with each and every week, and I know who I can race hard and who I can't, and fortunately today everybody drove a safe, clean race."