NASCAR (BCS) - Edwards Wins at Nashville

FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Pepsi 300 (Busch) Nashville Superspeedway April 7, 2007

Carl Edwards took the checkered flag for the 11th time in his NASCAR Busch Series career with today's victory. Edwards started eighth and went to victory lane for the second consecutive race at Nashville Superspeedway (June '06).

In seven Busch Series races this season, Edwards has driven to victory lane two times - in back-to-back races - and extended Roush Fenway Racing's all-time series win mark to 86, the most in series history.

Ford has now won 148 NASCAR Busch Series races all time, and three in 2007 with two different drivers (Edwards-2, Kenseth-1).

Ford's win today is its fifth Busch Series victory at Nashville Superspeedway (Riggs-2, Edwards-2, Biffle-1).

CARL EDWARDS-60-Dish Network Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) - "I'm very fortunate to be driving for Roush Racing. Man, it's a great team. I really had a lot of fun out here. It's a great race, it's a great track and it's an honor to finish in front of David Reutimann like that; he was running really well today." TALK ABOUT COMING FROM THIRD ON THE LAST PIT STOP TO TAKE THE LEAD. "I was a little nervous coming off third, but we had a loose right-front wheel for the last two runs. The right-front wheel kept coming loose, so they took their time and got it right. Jason Leffler was just doing a great job. It was really hard to catch him. It's really hard to pass here if you're a little bit tight; it's really tough. But, it was definitely worth it. This is unbelievable to win this guitar, and I really just appreciate everyone coming out and I hope they have a great Easter weekend. Drive safe." THIS IS YOUR THIRD GUITAR TROPHY. HAVE YOU LEANED HOW TO PLAY THE GUITAR YET? "I can play a couple of songs; I'm just no good at singing. If someone else can sing, I can play."

STEPHEN LEICHT-90-CitiFinancial Ford Fusion (Finished 8th) - "It was OK, but track position is important and we just fought tight all day long and we couldn't fix it." WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE LONG GREEN-FLAG RUN AT THE START OF THE RACE? "I was surprised it went that long of a run there early on, both of the two runs. The track itself just got tighter and tighter the more rubber that we laid down. For us, that was worse because we were already tight. We just have to figure something out to get these things turning better in the middle. That's the only place that we're losing right now, and if we can just figure that out, we'll be really good. The entire CitiFinancial team did a good job." DID THE LACK OF CUP DRIVERS IN THE FIELD ALLOW THE BUSCH DRIVERS TO SHINE TODAY? "Yeah, but at the same time, when they're not here... Don't get me wrong, the CitiFinancial team did a great job this weekend and finished eighth and got a top-10, but without the Cup drivers out there, you know if they were here that they would be in the top 10. So, an eighth would probably be a 14th or 15th, so you really have to look at like: If the best competition was here, where would you be? We just have to get it better."

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR.-35-McDonald's Ford Fusion (Finished 9th) - YOU GOT UP AS HIGH AS THIRD AT ONE POINT. WHAT HAPPENED FROM THAT POINT? "So of those guys got better and some of them maintained the same, but like I said, when we came out 15th after coming in seventh or, that killed us. It's so hard to pass here anyway, so it was just one of those things you have to deal with. Like I said, if this was Richmond or Charlotte ion anywhere else, I'd been tickled to death to walk out with a top-10, and it would be no different today." A TOP 10 IS STILL A SOLID FINISH. "Well, we're looking at the big picture, which is points, and I'm sure we gained some and moved up some, and that's what it's about." WAS IT GOOD TO COME HOME? "Yeah, always." WAS THE PLAYING FIELD LEVELED THIS WEEKEND WITH THE CUP DRIVERS? "Yeah, and I'm going to tell you that the biggest thing that you'll see is that they didn't get two or three hours before our race, and Carl Edwards wasn't the ball of fire that he was normally with these Cup things. That tells you right there how you can fix it. There's nothing wrong with letting those guys run with us, but you have to at least give some of the guys a fighting chance. We just missed it a little bit, and that's just part of it. That's just something that we need NASCAR to look at to give us a fighting chance. Those guys get two hours of practice before the race even starts and they kill us, and you can't even keep up with them. Today was a prime example. He was on the same schedule we were and he was an average car through the race. At the end of it, he got better and better, which they adjusted better. But, we all had a fighting chance up to that point. We just misadjusted. That's all anybody is asking for on this Busch side. We're not whining. We just want a fighting chance. If you practice two hours before our race, you're going to be better than we are."

MARCOS AMBROSE-59-Kingsford/Bush's/Matchlight Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) - YOU STARTED SECOND, BUT IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD YOUR HANDS FULL AT THE START OF THE RACE? "The first couple of laps was fine, but we just had an imbalance on the car that wee couldn't get rid of all day. It's another good day for us, really just learning every time that we get in that car. It's not the result that we were looking for, but we finished the race and we probably cemented ourselves in the top 10 again in points. That's all we could ask for." WAS IT GOOD NOT HAVING A LARGE NUMBER OF NEXTEL CUP DRIVERS IN THE FIELD TODAY? "Well, we probably finished a couple of spots better than we would have. No, not really. It's good to have those guys in the field. It's good for the drivers, anyway. It lets you know where you're at."

DAVID RAGAN-6-Coats/Discount Tire Ford Fusion (Finished 36th) - WHAT HAPPENED TO PUT YOU BEHIND THE WALL? "Well, I don't know what happened in front of us. Two cars just got together and were wrecking, and like a race car driver looking ahead, the spotter was telling me what was going on and I slowed down, and Steven Wallace obviously had his eyes closed because he just ran right into us. It ruined our day. We had a great Discount Tire Ford Fusion."

JASON KELLER-27-Cottonelle/Dollar General Ford Fusion (Finished 33rd) - WHAT HAPPENED? "I just got in there and it's one of them deals. The Cottonelle guys were really making some good changes and adjustments. It's just a shame. We got ourselves pretty close to getting the Lucky Dog there, and it's just a shame that we had to come in here one race and wreck a car like that for them. I thought that I could drive on down in there, but I crowded a little bit."

RICHARD JOHNS-25-FreeCreditReport.com Ford Fusion (Finished 34th) - WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT WITH THE NO. 27? "I'd like to see a replay. I thought I gave him enough room but maybe I didn't, but that's just a racing deal I think. I don't think it was intentional or anything like that."

WITH THIS BEING YOUR BUSCH SERIES DEBUT, WERE YOU ABLE TO LEARN SOME THINGS FOR NEXT TIME? "Yeah, I learned a lot. At the start of the race we weren't that good, and I just kinda rode around and learned a lot and we made a lot of adjustments, and I think that helped. The adjustments we've learned, we can carry on to other races, and I leaned a lot just being able to follow some of these guys around. It's a tough end for the FreeCreditReport.com Ford Fusion, but we'll put it back together and we'll be back in a few weeks."

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

"That was a blast. The car was so great in practice. The Dish Network Fusion was so awesome that I felt really confident going in. I felt like it was our race to lose, and then they dropped the green flag and we went backwards like a rock. I was really nervous there for a little while because I thought we must have missed something. PK (Pierre Kuettel, crew chief) and the guys did a great job of regrouping. I was feeling pretty rough there and they made the car a lot better. They made some pretty good-sized changes for this place and the car got better. The right-front wheel kept coining loose, and I don't know if it was because it was chattering and it was making it loosen up, but I told them, I said, 'Man, I think the right-front's falling off.' We pulled in the pits, and they said that sure enough it was. That happened one more time and we got a lucky pit break, and at the end they took some extra time and got the wheel tight. We came out third because of that, but the car was so great that I took my time and it made it pretty simple to get back up to the front. I can't thank my guys enough for having such a great car and being able to respond to the adversity today."

"I'll never forget that night. We came down here and I felt like we had a car that was as strong as the car was today. We were leading the points and we were rolling around and they said, 'One to go. One to go to the green.' If they would have thrown that green flag, we would have got the points, but as we were going into one it started raining and they didn't throw the green. That was a tough one. That really hurt. I didn't realize how bad it hurt us there until the end of the year came around and we really needed those points. Racing doesn't ever owe you anything, but it sure does feel good to run as well as we have lately here. It's such an awesome facility. I was looking around today and I can't believe how nice this race track is. We pulled in, and I brought two folks with me that hadn't ever been to this track and the first thing that they said, 'Is this track new? It looks nice and the track is beautiful.' That's the long version. I love racing here for a lot of reasons, but that night, you're right, it was a rough one."

"I don't know that I've ever raced on a day this cold. Maybe on a local race track - the ice breaker in the springtime when it's the first time out - sometimes it's pretty cold. This is a pretty chilly day to race. I guess it's awesome to know that that many fans came out on such a cold day. For us, we're probably the most comfortable folks in the house on a cold day."

"The cars are usually about 40 or 50 degrees warmer than it is outside. It was nice in the car. It was great. It's a great day to be a race car driver as far as comfort."

"I don't have any general goals to beat records. The goal that I have every day is to be the best race car driver that day. If we run 30th, that's what we do, but if we win the thing, that's what we can do. I guess, no. It's awesome to have our year compared to Kevin Harvick's last season because that was just amazing. Like everyone else, I couldn't believe how well they ran. Hopefully we can run that well this year."

"I just really enjoy racing. We had a little circle down the street that we rode our bicycles around in the dirt, and I would run 100-lap features by myself just imagining that I was racing, as a kid. I think that's what a lot of these guys - guys like Kenny Schrader and Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon and all these guys - I think they really enjoy driving. I think we're the happiest when we're driving race cars. That's nice of my competitors to have respect for that. I have a lot of respect for them. It's neat. I was thinking about it with a couple of laps to go: I'm leading this race at a beautiful race track and it's a holiday weekend and I'm doing exactly what I love to do and people are paying me for it. I feel very fortunate and I truly enjoy it."

"My thoughts going into Texas as far as the Nextel Cup season is concerned... We have had a spectacular season so far in the Busch Series. The Cup season, I feel like we have a lot of ground still to make up there. I feel like our Office Depot team can be a lot better. I can do a little bit better. My pit crew has been working really hard. Bob Osborne and our new engineer have been working really hard. The thing that I'm nervous about in the Cup Series, I don't know if this Car of Tomorrow is going to be good for us or not. I can't quite tell yet. I definitely am excited to go to Texas with the success that we've had there. Hopefully we can continue to run in the top 10 and make the Chase, and by that time be good enough to make a rally for the championship."

"I wasn't too sure. I've seen Jason Leffler do some amazing things. I used to hang around the No. 2 truck and kinda help them out in the summers when I was really young. I got to see him drive and how great of a driver he is. You never know. You never know if on that last stop if they made some adjustment and that he was going to be screaming fast. I knew that we were going to be all right when he started getting held up behind that 20 car and he couldn't get by him, the lapped car. That gave me a lot of hope. At first, he got out there and I thought this could go a couple of different ways and hopefully we're fast."

PIERRE KUETTEL PRESS CONFERENCE

"We were a little worried about the wheel deal. We thought we were pretty confident coming into this deal. I was a little surprised that the car was that tight, but I guess it was so cool and it had cooled off a lot more than I thought, and we were just kinda really plowing in the middle. We made some pretty wholesale changes with air pressure and the car came back to life. Once that happened, Carl got back pulling through there, I think, on that second stop after we freed it up, he just came right back up on the leaders. It was looking pretty good. Then we had the incident with the wheel. We're going to go back and research that and find out why that happened. It happened one more time after that. It was about after 40 laps. We caught a break on that last caution and it was only 40 laps from the end, so we knew we were pretty good to go; we spent that little bit of time. We lost two spots in the picots, but as good as the car was, we knew he was going to make it back."

"No, not really. We were pretty fortunate that yesterday the temperatures were relatively close to today. Like I said earlier, I must have missed it a little bit because I couldn't believe that it was as tight as it was in the first part of the run. Luckily we were able to adjust that with air pressure and get right back to where we were."

"He's not pushing the button when he's screaming. He's always said, 'I'm always yelling inside this car. You should hear what I say before I push the button.' He was pretty calm today. Like I said, I think he got a little bit down on that first part because we were so tight, and we were so good yesterday, but once we made those adjustments and the car came back around he was full focus again. He was all right."