Ford California Truck Race
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES San Bernardino County 200 Advance, Page 1 February 23, 2007 California Speedway Mark Martin, driver of the No. 21 F-150, will have a chance to defend his race title tonight in the San Bernardino County 200 behind the wheel of a Wood Brothers/JTG Racing Ford. Martin, who will make his debut for Wood Brothers/JTG Racing as a teammate to Stacy Compton, commented on his return to the truck series. MARK MARTIN-21-Bad Boy Mowers Ford F-150 - YOU ARE IN A FAMILIAR VEHICLE, BUT WITH A NEW TEAM THIS WEEKEND AS YOU ATTEMPT TO DEFEND YOUR TITLE IN THE TRUCK SERIES RACE. "Well, it's awesome to be back in the truck series. We're just trying to get to know one another and trying to get meshed together. We have a really nice truck here, and Bad Boy Mowers out of my hometown of Batesville, Ark., are onboard. I think that's pretty cool to represent the home folks. The truck is fast, but we're just trying to get all of the pieces of the puzzle kinda meshed together here. I think we can get ourselves in a position to be contenders with the equipment that we have. We'll have to see what the last bit of practice brings us and how things go on pit road and those kinds of things. I believe that the potential to get it done is here." YOU DID NOT COMPETE IN THE TRUCK SERIES SEASON-OPENER, A RACE THAT YOU WON LAST YEAR. DID YOU MISS NOT BEING PART OF THAT EVENT? "I don't know if I missed it or not. I love truck racing and it looked fun and it looked wild. It was definitely an exciting race. I love truck racing, and I'm glad to be out here. I wanted to run at least a few truck races this year, and I'm excited to have that opportunity with the Wood Brothers and Tad Geschickter." YOU WERE KNOWN FOR BEING THE DRIVER OF THE NO. 6 FOR MOST OF YOUR CAREER, BUT HERE THIS WEEKEND YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THE NO. 21, ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT NUMBER IN NASCAR FOLKLORE. "It's an honor and a privilege to be with JTG and the Wood Brothers. The number 21 really means something to me. It really means a lot to me. It might not to some folks, or they might not recognize that, but it's iconic. It's huge for me, and though I may never drive the 21 Cup car, it still has a lot of the same meaning to me. They're heroes, my heroes from the 70s when I was trying to get my feet on the ground and get started racing. There's a lot of history here and it's just a real special opportunity that I have to work with these guys." WITH THIS TEAM BEING RELATIVELY NEW TO THE TRUCK SERIES, ARE YOU BEING LOOKED TO HELP DEVELOP THE PROGRAM? "Yes. I'm to that point in my career where trying to develop one for myself is not really practical. These guys give me an opportunity to do what I love to do, and they get the opportunity to have my experience, input and guidance to help them get on good, solid track. I guess it works good for them, and it certainly is fun for me." HOW WELL DO THE TRUCKS HANDLE ON THIS TWO-MILE SPEEDWAY? "They're pretty stable. They're a lot of fun. They really stick good here and handle good. They really go through the corners and it's a lot of fun. I'm thrilled to be out here and tickled to be representing the hometown folks and having the 21 on the side and working with a new group. It's all fun and exciting." FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES San Bernardino County 200 Qualifying, Page 1 February 23, 2007 California Speedway Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 50 Ford F-150, won his fourth career Craftsman Truck Series pole in qualifying for tonight's 200-mile race at California Speedway. Edwards, who has six victories in truck series competition, captured the pole with a time of 40.827 seconds and an average speed of 176.354 mph. CARL EDWARDS-50-Roush Fenway Racing Ford F-150 (Qualified 1st) - DID YOU THINK THAT WOULD BE FAST ENOUGH TO WIN THE POLE? "I wasn't sure about that. The truck's real good, though. I knew the first lap was going to be better than the second one; the second one was too loose. I drove it into one and I about wrecked, and I thought, 'That's fine. That will be plenty.' YOU SAID THAT YOU A LITTLE EASIER TIME GETTING THROUGH TURNS THREE AND FOUR ON YOUR QUALIFYING LAP. WHY WAS THAT? "The sun is beating down a little harder on one and two and the wind is blowing that way just a little bit and there are some bumps, so that was the one that you try to keep it down on the floor and you have to lift a little bit down there. Three and four is awesome; it has a ton of grip. Mark kinda threw down the gauntlet. I think it's going to be a pretty good battle tonight. I think we're going to have a lot of fun." THIS WILL ONLY BE THE SECOND TIME THAT YOU'VE BEEN ABLE TO COMPETE AGAINST MARK MARTIN IN A TRUCK SERIES RACE. "It will be really neat to race Mark in one of these truck races. Whenever he's racing, he usually the guy to beat, and I have a feeling that he's going to be the guy to beat tonight. I'm real excited to race with him and hopefully it all goes well tonight and we can get the first win for Roush Fenway Racing." WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE RACE TONIGHT? "It's been a while since I've raced here in the truck, but I think it's going to be real good. The way they practice, you're almost wide open around here, so it's going to be really tough to get away. The guy who's fastest will still have a hard time getting away because you can draft here so well. I think it's going to be an unbelievable race under the lights. I stood right up there on the mezzanine and watched Mark and Todd go at it last year and it was spectacular. Hopefully it will be that good this year." DO YOU EXPECT A LOT OF GREEN-FLAG RACING? "I don't know. It's been a while since I've been in the truck series, but as far as I can tell it's pretty wild and there are always some cautions." FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES San Bernardino County 200, Page 1 February 23, 2007 California Speedway MARK MARTIN-21-Bad Boy Mowers Ford F-150 (Finished 23rd) - WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END? "I don't know. All of a sudden my motor kinda revved up, the wheels starting spinning and I got behind in the steering." YOU'RE STILL ABLE TO MANAGE A SMILE AFTER THAT FINISH. "Yeah, I want to thank these guys for giving me a chance. That was a lot of fun. It was awesome. They've got to have cautions at the end." DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE WON IF IT WENT CAUTION-FREE? "We were looking pretty good. But, they have a caution for just about anything. We get them when we don't need one, and we don't get them when we do. But that's OK; we had a good race. That truck was really fast. It was good and I had some fun." HORNADAY ADMITTED TO GETTING INTO YOUR REAR ON THE RESTART. "You know, the thing just kinda lifted up, started spinning its wheels and I got behind on the steering. I just got behind on the steering." STACY COMPTON-09-Zaxby's Ford F-150 (Finished 12th) - "We had a great race truck tonight. I don't know what happened right there at the end. We were charging up, and got as high as eighth, and we were passing on the outside and the inside. We were moving, and for whatever reason, the right front gave up and we got tight with 10 to go and we couldn't hold them off. Those restarts helped a little bit because we were able to cool the tires. I'm a little puzzled as to what happened because we were running our fastest laps of the day, and then all of a sudden it got tight and we were done. It's not a bad weekend. We felt like we had a top-seven truck, and I still feel like we did. It's a little frustrating to end up where we did, but Gary (Cogswell, crew chief) made some great calls and these guys made some good calls alls weekend and we got the truck better from the time we unloaded; it was a night and day difference. It's a good strong team and it's just a matter of time that this team is going to be up there battling for a win." TRAVIS KVAPIL-6-RoushFenwayRacing.com Racing Ford F-150 (Finished 16th) - "We were loose qualifying and I thought that it would be all right once we took some tape off the truck and took some front downforce away from it, but it just seemed like when it cooled off here tonight, the thing just turned better and better and our looseness was compounded. The first part of the race there, we were just terrible. We came in and made some huge adjustments to the truck to get it tightened up. We got it close and then we just kinda fought it for there. We never really could get it to where we needed to be. I'm just disappointed. We were trying some different stuff tonight and we just need to get our act together before we go to Atlanta. This truck is not as good as some of our best stuff, so we need to take a better truck and look at our notes before we go to Atlanta, and we need to get a top-five and a strong finish for this team." IS COMMUNICATION AN ISSUE RIGHT NOW? "I don't think so. I think more than anything, we're trying stuff that this team has never tried before. Without a lot of practice and no testing really - you get an hour or hour and a half of practice and one set of tires to figure it out - and it's just tough to do. We're trying to move forward and get us to the next kevel, but for tonight, it put us a step back." ERIK DARNELL-99-Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 (Finished 13th) - "We were just fighting the thing all day long. I knew from qualifying on that we were going to be struggling. We just didn't make the right choice for springs, I don't think, for the race. We were decent and we made some adjustments on the pit stops and got it better, but then it'd get worse and we'd make another adjustment. We got it rolling decent, but we were back there, and track position is big here with the way the draft works. I got on the outside of Benson at the end, and we were in the top 10 with seven or eight to go and stalled out and got split by some other trucks and lost a couple of spots. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was decent, but I don't think we got the finish that we deserved. But at the same time, we didn't really have the setup we needed either." CARL EDWARDS-50-Roush Fenway Racing Ford F-150 (Finished 4th) - "It was a lot of fun. It was just real loose the whole night. It was some wild racing. That was crazy. I couldn't believe it when I saw Mark get turned right there. That was a crazy finish. Congratulations to Mike Skinner and those guys, but mostly I just had a really good time and can't wait to race tomorrow night." A LOT OF DRIVERS COMMENTED THAT THEIR TRUCKS LOST THE HANDLE AT THE END OF THE RACE. DID YOURS GO AWAY FROM YOU? "It went away bad. It just got looser and looser the whole time. We tried everything we could, but I really had a good time. Just one more time, I want to say that we're thinking about Bobby Hudson back at home and enjoying our time out here." RICK CRAWFORD-14-Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l F-150 (Finished 9th) - "It was a quiet run for the Ford, but on the last few laps we made some bold moves for our F-Series pickup. The Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l had a top-10 finish. It wasn't a top-10 truck, but we fought hard all night long. The Power Stroke Diesels are fun to drive and the Circle Bar Truck Corral keeps servicing them out in Ozona, Texas. We're built Ford tough." WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE LONG GREEN-FLAG RUN AT THE START OF THE RACE? "No, this race is commonly known for a long green flags. I'm surprised that we didn't have a green-flag pit stop at one point in time. This race track is wide and the guys that drive, I think they drove each other clean; there wasn't a lot of wrecking. You can see some scratches on the trucks because they got in the wall. It's like what I told Kevin (Starland, crew chief): to me, it felt like I was running Bristol. I was half on the steering wheel, from one half of the steering wheel to the other. It just wasn't a real smooth ride." -30-