Ford Mexico City Busch Race
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Telcel-Motorola 200 Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez March 4, 2007
JORGE GOETERS-27-STAR Motorsports Ford Fusion (Finished 7th) - TALK ABOUT RECOVERING FROM THE EARLY-RACE INCIDENT. "The team did very, very good work repairing my car and everything. I was very pleased to have my opportunity to race with Brewco Motorsports. I'm very excited. This is the kind of race that everybody loves; nobody knows who's going to win until the white flag is coming out." DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE BALE TO GET BACK INTO THE TOP 10? "We came back very strong. We had to take care about some positions and be careful. At the end, I pushed hard to do better and to get better places. It was good for me. I think the team is happy, and Scotiabank and Xtreme Gel is very happy." DID YOU THINK MONTOYA WOULD BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH THE FIELD TOWARDS THE END? "He has to do it. He knows this track very much and he's a great driver, especially on road courses, so congratulations to Juan Pablo." IS THIS AN EVENT THAT NASCAR NEEDS TO EXTEND? "Yes. This is our Daytona 500, so we are going to say to keep it here."
TODD KLUEVER-16-3M Ford Fusion (Finished 11th) - TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY. "We were tight and I learned a lot. I told Eddie (Pardue, crew chief) that I didn't think that he was ever going to free it up enough. The more I learned, the faster I went and tighter we got. I think that was just because I didn't go fast enough in practice." WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH THE WAY THE RACE PLAYED OUT TODAY? "I expected the mess at the end because it's kinda everybody fighting for their track position then. I was surprised that it went so long at the beginning without a caution." YOU ARE SPLITTING THIS RIDE WITH GREG BIFFLE. HOW TOUGH IS IT NOT RACING EVERY WEEK? "I have to go watch Vegas, which sucks, don't get me wrong, but Greg will run good there and these guys will have another good run and hopefully we can keep our owner's points up. Hopefully we can get a mention as Carl wins the championship this year; maybe we'll get a mention for an owner's championship. I get to get back in at Atlanta in a car that was mine last year with a brand new body on it. I'm really excited about. It's going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait."
MICHEL JOURDAIN, JR.-17-Dish Network Ford Fusion (Finished 25th) - WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END? "Well, the 66, he kicked me out many times, and I was having problems with restarts. We were having a little bit of a misfire every restart, and it was really hard because we were losing positions there. Then, with two laps to go somebody wrecked me and I don't know who it was. Those cautions at the end hurt us really, really bad. We were running 15th and I thought we were going to be able to finish there even with the damage, but every time we had a restart we were losing a couple of spots." IS THIS AN EVENT THAT NASCAR NEEDS TO RENEW? "Yes, of course. This race here is the best, and I just need a good result."
JON WOOD-47-Clorox/American Red Cross Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) - "I didn't hit one car all day. I got hit several times, but I finally got to come here and finish where I deserved to. All of my guys did a great job in the pits. They made the right calls on when to pit and when not to pit. Track position was critical, but the bottom line was that I drove as if I was the only car on the race track. By doing so, I kept my nose clean." WOULD YOU LOBBY NASCAR TO RETURN HERE NEXT YEAR? "As aggravating as it is and as big of a hassle as it is to come down here and do all the stuff associated with it, the track itself is a lot of fun. I have had a lot of fun. I can tell you this, I'm blown away that I was the first non-road course or Cup driver to finish. But, that'll be the last week that I can ever say that."
CARL EDWARDS-60-Scotts Ford Fusion (Finished 4th) - DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR THE TOP THREE? "That's about all the Scotts Fusion had, but I had a blast today. We're all thinking about Bobby Hudson, and he's doing real well; he builds these cars. It's a lot of fun. I just had a blast out here. There was some excitement. That was wild with Juan and Scott and Boris and all of the guys. I just had fun racing with them. On one of those restarts I was going down the corner with Denny Hamlin, Juan Montoya, Boris Said and Scott Pruett, and we're all out-braking each other, and I'm thinking 'this is pretty cool, man. I'm living the life."
MARCOS AMBROSE-59-Kingsford/Bush's/Matchlight Ford Fusion (Finished 8th) - COMMENT ON THE INCIDENT WHERE YOU GOT SPUN, AND DRIVING BACK THROUGH THE FIELD. "A couple of things. I'm just really proud of the guys. We've had a tough weekend. We were holding the top 10 there - fifth or sixth - fighting with Boris. That was awesome just to experience that and race against those guys. We learned so much here this weekend. We were flat out holding sixth spot, and then when we had the spin, I guess it's just restart type of deals. J.J. spun too, so he probably got hit from behind. I don't know what happened to him, but I got spun out and then he spun out. But, that's NASCAR. You've just got to roll with it. I put my head down and just tried to come back through as best I could. We missed our setup a little bit, but I think we got the best result that we could have hoped for." IS THIS THE MOST COMFORTABLE THAT YOU'VE FELT IN A BUSCH CAR? "Well, I guess so because I know what I'm doing. But, I love the ovals. The ovals, to me, are the best thing that I've ever done in my life. I'm glad that I can run a couple of road courses, but my passion is with the ovals."