Ford California Busch Race

FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Stater Bros. 300 Qualifying
February 24, 2007
California Speedway

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 60 Fusion, spun on his first lap of qualifying this afternoon in turns one and two and was unable to complete his qualifying attempt. While the car suffered no damage, Edwards failed to post a qualifying lap time and will start tonight's event from the 40th position.

CARL EDWARDS-60-World Financial Group Ford Fusion - DID YOU HAVE EQUIPMENT ISSUES ON YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? "I don't know, probably just an issue with my driving. But, we didn't tear it up, and that was what was good."

DID YOU HAVE A TIRE GOING DOWN ON YOUR WARM-UP LAP? "I don't know. I don't know if it was down before or after. It was down after, for sure, but I don't know."

WAS IT A CASE OF JUST GOING AFTER IT TOO HARD? "It was real, real tight. I think I just turned the wheel a little too far and stood on the gas too hard when I finally got it turned, but it definitely snapped around way quicker than I expected. I can't tell; it just got me."

MATT KENSETH-17-Dish Network Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) - THIS IS YOUR FOURTH BUSCH WIN HERE. "That was a lot of fun. These are the guys that make it good. It's all about the cars that you drive and these guys give me great cars. Drew Blickensderfer (crew chief) gave me a great car today. He's the crew chief for this thing this year. Jimmy (Fennig) did a good job of getting this group together, and Drew has done a great job over the winter of even making the cars a little better. The best pit stops that I think we've had in a Busch car probably in a year and a half. Them guys did a really good job today." IT LOOKED LIKE CLEAN AIR WAS IMPORTANT. "Yeah, really we had some other things going on. We had some tires that our car liked and some that it didn't like, so we just had to get the right stuff on at the end. Luckily, we got that caution flag. Without that last caution with 30 to go, we weren't going to win. Once we got that, we had one good set of tires left lying there and I thought we were going to have a fun time. I didn't know if we could beat Kyle and Jeff, and then Casey snuck up there at the end, but I knew it was going to be a good race." ARE YOU GOING TO BE THE ONE TO BEAT TOMORROW? "I don't know about. I don't think we're going to be the guy to beat. I think we have a pretty good car. They've working on it hard at the shop and Chip (Bolin) and the guys have done a good job with it this weekend. Robbie worked hard on it last week. I think we're OK for tomorrow. I don't think we're great, but I think we're pretty good."

GREG BIFFLE-16-3M Ford Fusion (Finished 5th) - "Well, it wasn't too bad of a run. The 3M Fusion ran really good all night. We had to work on it some. I was too loose, and probably the worst thing, we got a piece of paper on the grille and the car really, really loose after a pit stop, so we put a bunch of wedge in it and then we found we had paper on the grille, took it off and then it was too tight. So then we had to come back and loosen it up. We probably had one of the fastest cars here, but just never got track position. We had a little hiccup on that last stop; we had a lug nut fall of the left front and it kinda cost us track postion. But, we got back to fifth and not a bad night for us overall."

CARL EDWARDS-60-World Financial Group Ford Fusion (Finished 4th) - "I'm just really proud of my guys. The whole World Financial Group team worked hard to get it driveable and get us back up to the front. It was a lot off fun. I'm really excited Matt won it. It's good for Dish Network. They came over to my motor home and they're going to put one in my motor home, so I'm pumped about that. I was just having a good day and thinking about Bobby Hudson back home." WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT YOU CAN APPLY TO TOMORROW? "I'm going to go talk to Matt Kenseth; that's what I learned. He's pretty fast here. I did have a good time and it was fun racing."

DAVID RAGAN-6-America's Tire Ford Fusion (Finished 18th) - "We fell way to the back and then lost all of our track position, and it was just a matter of getting the car back in position to make a run back to the front. We realistically had about a 15th-place car and finished 18th. We made laps, finished the race and just have to improve on that." WHAT DID YOU LEARN FOR TOMORROW? "The characteristics of the car, the track is going to be about the same, and hopefully we leaned some with the car. I don't know, ask me that question tomorrow. We'll see." DID YOU GET THE CAR BETTER BY THE END OF THE RACE? "It's disappointing when you feel like you're a top-12 or 14 car and we just couldn't quite get there. I think we realistically had about a 15th-place car. It was good to finish all of the laps and it was a decent rebound from Daytona. Certainly we have to improve on that week in and week out, but we'll take and learn from it, and that's our car that we're going to take to Vegas, so at least we have something to work on."

MARCOS AMBROSE-59-Kingsford/Bush's Baked Beans Ford Fusion (Finished 25th) - TALK ABOUT GOING TO A BACKUP CAR AFTER WRECKING YOUR PRIMARY IN QUALIFYING. "That's big time racing and you just have to take those licks and stay confident. I was shell-shocked there in the race early on and just tried to recompose myself and managed to do all of the laps and get a finish with a car that we've only done two laps on. All in all, we can't complain. That's the first time that I've ever spun a car out before the green flag. I don't know what happened. I'm not blaming anyone but myself. I don't know what happened, but halfway through third gear it just decided to spin out. I wasn't even over 100 mph, so work that one out." WERE YOU TIMID AT THE START OF THE RACE HAVING NEVER TURNED A LAP IN THE CAR BEFORE THE GREEN FLAG? "I was shell-shocked after what I had done in qualifying. I hadn't driven this car before. I've never used a backup in my life, so this was the first time that I've done that. Hopefully it will be a while before I do it again."