Daytona Truck Race Silverado 250
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Silverado 250 Daytona International Speedway February 16, 2007
ERIK DARNELL-99-Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 (Finished 8th) - "We were pretty good, and I've got to thank Carl for coming back out there and helping us because it helped us quite a bit there with that other brand up there; we needed all the help we could get. I appreciate him coming up there and helping us do that. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was good tonight. I couldn't get out front, but when I was behind either Travis or Carl it seemed like we could make a pretty good run. I got shuffled back for a while there and made it up to the front again, and was just trying to hang on there at the end." WAS TONIGHT A LESSON LEARNED? "Yeah, the handling was going away at the end and I was really fighting the thing off of four, and Bodine got his nose under me before I could get the truck back down. It happens. I just got shuffled out and went to the back."
KELLY BIRES-21-Air Force Ford F-150 (Finished 26th) - WHAT HAPPENED? "Unfortunately, we got wrecked there. The guys on the team had really good pit stops all night. We got up in position there before our last pit stop running in the top five, top 10 there, and we just got a little bit behind by taking four tires. It wasn't a bad thing, and I was hanging out there and waiting to make a last charge and unfortunately got taken out there. I've got to thank our sponsor, the U.S. Air Force, for their sponsorship for this race. I just wish we could have gotten them a better finish."
CARL EDWARDS-50-Ortho Ford F-150 (Finished 24th) - WHAT PUT YOU BEHIND THE WALL EARLY IN THE RACE? "I believe it was something with the transmission. The Ortho team is working real hard on it. It shifted fine, just something broke, and I guess that's the way it goes. We'll try to get back out there and help our teammates." ONCE YOU GOT THE TRUCK BACK ON THE TRACK YOU WERE ABLE TO HELP YOUR TEAMMATES. "Yeah, it was a fast truck, but we broke something in the transmission on that restart. The truck was so good and I was cheering for Travis so hard. If I could have got to him, we would have been pretty good. I was going to do everything I could to push him to that win, and if it weren't for the single-file restart there at the end, I could we could have had a different outcome tonight."
TRAVIS KVAPIL-6-K&N Ford F-150 (Finished 3rd) - "I've been here before and I knew that was going to happen. I got down the backstretch and looked in my mirror and said, 'I'm out too far on these guys.' I was dragging the brake down the backstretch and trying to split the air between those two guys, and in doing that I lost a lot of my own momentum. Either way, if I just held it wide open, they would have passed me earlier. I'm disappointed. Our F-150 was the best truck out here tonight and I feel like I let down the guys on the team. I don't know how I could have done it any better. I guess I could have tried blocking Sprague better, but I thought we would have wrecked."
RICK CRAWFORD-14-Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l F-150 (Finished 10th) - "It's not too bad. My hat's off to a great truck from the Circle Bar Racing guys. That Power Stroke Diesel Ford by Int'l ran up front all night long. I think the first 60 or 70 laps, we had a position of about two on the race track. That thing was really running, and we just got loose and I thought I was having a tire go down and backed out of it with about 20 to go. I didn't have good track position when the restart came out, but we made it and got back up in the top 10. We were sort of boxed in at the end, but we made some bold moves with that Ford F-Series pickup." YOUR FEELINGS LEAVING DAYTONA. "You always got to leave Daytona with some kind of insurance for the rest of the season. This is the toughest race and this is the most important race, and just like my crew chief Kevin Starland told me - he made some great calls on the pit box - he said, 'We've got to finish this race first in order to win, but you have to finish this race to carry it on to California.' That's why we're here - we're here to win a championship."
TRAVIS KVAPIL PRESS CONFERENCE
"I've been a part of these crazy finishes here before, so I actually knew off of turn two on the white flag lap that I was in trouble. When I looked in the mirror, I felt like I got too big of a lead when they were side-by-side. I knew that one lane or the other was going to be coming hard and I tried to split the air up between them both as best I could. Todd did a really good job on that all the way to turn four. I didn't know which way I needed to go. I don't know how it all happened, but Sprague got one heck of a push is all I know. I had him at bay and it was like he hit another gear. By the time I realized it, he already basically had position on me I felt like at that point. If I would have moved up on him we would have wrecked, so I kinda needed to give him just enough room and unfortunately it cost me the win. I'm really proud of everybody with Roush Fenway Racing. They gave me the best truck in testing and I had the best truck today. I feel like I let them down. K&N, we just signed them yesterday for Daytona here, so we're really happy to get them out front most of the night, though."