GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – YOUR THOUGHTS ON NHMS AND THE CHASE? “I’m really excited about being in the chase and the chase starting here in Loudon. This has historically been a good race track for us, probably with the old car we ran very, very good here. Then when we transitioned to the new car, we didn’t run good for about a year or year-and-a-half – about three or four races – and then kind of got back on track running good again, so we’re excited about that. I don’t know what happened in that meantime, why we couldn’t get it figured out, but we ran good here in the spring. Obviously, with the rain we didn’t end up with the finish we wanted, but ran very good. I’m excited about starting out the chase here.” 

 

THE ROUSH FENWAY CARS HAVE STRUGGLED, BUT CAN YOU PULL OFF A SURPRISE HERE LIKE LAST YEAR, AND DOES THE 48 SEEM TO BE OFF FROM WHERE THEY’VE BEEN IN PREVIOUS CHASES? “It’s funny because I think last year we maybe looked at the 48 team as coming into the chase not performing like they had been expected to in the past, so that question was there last year. But I don’t think you can count them out. I think they’re gonna run well. Everybody’s got their own group of race tracks they run good at, and we haven’t been as good on short tracks this year as we have in the past, but it seems like our team runs really well in the spring and the fall, so I’m excited about this being the fall race. We’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t know. I don’t have any predictions at this point.” 

 

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RELIEF OF MAKING THE CHASE AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING THE DEFENDING CHAMP HERE? “It’s really good. I finally got to sleep well for a few nights and got to enjoy the two days of relaxation before I had to go to New York and come here and try to defend my win from last year and get the chase started right. That nervousness is back already. We’ve got to go out here and practice and practice well – get the car ready for qualifying – qualify decent so we can get a good pit spot and then run the entire race fast. It’s the same old thing – back to racing and back to being a little bit on edge, but I’m ready for it.” 

 

DOES ANYBODY HAVE AN EDGE GOING INTO THE CHASE? “I really think, if you look across the board, I really think that everybody really, truly has the same opportunity right now. I really do. I don’t feel like anybody’s really got an advantage because in my perception the 14 hasn’t run as well as they had when they were kind of on that firestorm of going like crazy; the 48 is competitive, but as somebody mentioned, maybe not performing up to their own standards, I guess. I would say they’re still doing a pretty damn good job myself, but then you see Brian Vickers and he’s running extremely well. He ran extremely well at Atlanta and ran well at Richmond, and I think the same with us. We’ve been able to pull out two good finishes after not running so well. I don’t think we’re far off from being competitive and challenging for the win. I think if you look at the 12 guys, I don’t know that you could pick a favorite. I don’t know that you could count any one of them out.” 

 

MARK MARTIN HAS SIGNED WITH HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS THROUGH 2011. DO YOU WONDER WHEN HE’LL RETIRE AND WHAT IS IT LIKE WHEN A DRIVER HAS THE KIND OF SUCCESS HE’S HAD THIS YEAR? “For starters, let’s face it, Hendrick Motorsports and their equipment is superior right now and has been at times throughout history. Three championships in a row, Jeff Gordon has several, they’re always winning races, so he’s in damn good equipment and it would be hard to hang your hat up driving and winning races and performing at the level he is, so I certainly wouldn’t be a betting man on when he’s gonna hang his helmet up.” 

 

LUGNUTS AT TEXAS RUINED YOUR CHASE A COUPLE YEARS AGO AND KYLE BUSCH HAD A $20 SUSPENSION PART SCUTTLE HIS CHASE. HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH STUFF LIKE THAT? “It’s really tough to deal with those things. Dumb things can happen and people can make simple mistakes. You can make huge mistakes, but the reality is you’ve got to deal with it and go on. When it happens, you have to try and recover the best you can from it. You’ve got 10 weeks to have to be flawless and every one of us know that, so all of us have prepared the best we can to make 10 perfect weeks. But it’s tough to deal with. It really, really, truly is tough to deal with when something like that happens, and you never know if that’s gonna be the deciding factor until you’re down to the very last race. That lugnut deal happened three to go, we were running third and finished 20^th and lost the chase by 35 points. With pretty quick math you can tell I lost 50 or 60 from that one incident. I made it through Martinsville and made it through Talladega and it got down to the wire and something happened. You just try and avoid all the things you can and if things happen, like I said, you try and recover from it and go on because Tony easily could have had something happen at Homestead and we could have won it, so you never give up.” 

 

WHY IS IT HARD TO REPEAT AT THIS TRACK? “It certainly is a tricky race track. It constantly changes and it’ll change throughout an event. Track position means a lot here. It’s difficult to pass because of how flat it is, so, certainly track position is important, but there are so many factors that go into what it takes to win here. I think that’s why it’s so difficult to repeat and we see a lot of different winners.” 

 

DO YOU THINK WINNING PAST TITLES HELPS IN A CHASE LIKE THIS? “I think being through the experience, I lost the championship by eight points in the Truck Series and 35 points in 2005. That definitely humbles you and gives you the experience of what it’s like to come up a little short and how important every moment of the chase is – from every pit stop to every green flag and yellow flag lap – what to do and what not to do. That experience is valuable and, hopefully, it’ll pay off this year.” 

 

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS WEEKEND? “It’s a nice easy weekend for us – one race. It’s a fun race track. I’ve run well here and I’ve run poorly here, so I’m hoping this is one of the good ones. A year ago, we came here and Greg won and I finished. That was a great start to the chase, so that’s what we’re hoping for. The first practice was a little bit rough for us. We were not quite as good as we need to be, so, hopefully, we can put something together for qualifying and then tomorrow make the car faster in race trim. That would be good.” 

 

IS JIMMIE THE FAVORITE AGAIN? “I think so. I think Jimmie is the favorite. He has to be. He’s shown that he can do it, but the last couple of days we’ve spent a little time up in New York with all the guys and when you really look at the group this year, I think that this is wide open. Anyone can win this thing. I think Juan Montoya has just as good a chance as Jimmie Johnson with the way he’s been running. Brian (Vickers) has scored more points than anyone the last 10 races and there’s nothing saying he couldn’t do that again. And then you look at Greg and myself. Last year, we put together a really strong chase and nobody expected Greg to come out and win the first two and be that fast. Yeah, he’s the favorite (Johnson), but I think this is gonna be a real interesting one. It has that feeling to me.” 

 

FOR A GUY WHO HASN’T WON YET THIS YEAR IS IT REDEMPTION TIME OR A FEELING LIKE ‘IF WE HAVEN’T DONE IT BY NOW WE’RE NOT GONNA DO IT?’ “No, it’s definitely not the latter. It does not matter what you did last week. It doesn’t matter what you did the last 26 weeks. This is a second chance here. This is a new beginning. For the same reason you can’t look at last season and say who is gonna be in the chase this year, you can’t look at the first part of the season and say who is gonna be strong in the last 10. Really, this isn’t lip service. It really has the feel that any one of these 12 guys can win this thing. That’s good for me. I want to be that guy. It seems like the peaks and valleys are a shorter frequency and higher amplitude right now.”

 

TV RATINGS ARE UP. WE’RE TALKING ABOUT SELLOUTS AGAIN. DO YOU THINK DRIVERS HAVE HELPED THIS TURNAROUND ONE HANDSHAKE AT A TIME AND HAVE HELPED PUT PEOPLE BACK IN THE STANDS? “I think that’s a part of it, for sure. I read somewhere, and excuse me if I’m wrong, but I read that NASCAR is gonna allow 300 fans to come to the banquet. They’re gonna somehow give those tickets out and under that article there was one comment and it was a fan saying, ‘This is why I love NASCAR because NASCAR goes out of their way to have access for the fans and allow them to be a bigger part of the sport.’ I think the fans recognize that, but I think a bigger thing is the competition on the track. We have more winners, a more diverse group of people running well and I think that helps, too. I think people enjoy that kind of competition, so everyone is doing their part – the drivers, NASCAR, the teams, the sponsors – everyone is trying to give the fans a better experience.” 

 

HAS YOUR SCHEDULE BEEN ANY DIFFERENT? ARE YOU SPENDING MORE TIME SHAKING HANDS AND KISSING BABIES? “What I’ve done has been primarily through my website and through my Facebook. I’ve tried to be a little more open and connect with the fans a little more through that, and they’ve really enjoyed that. That’s been fun. And then at the track, we all recognize that we’ve got to do our best and I think it’s fair to say that all of us appreciate each fan more now than ever. I think that’s good.” 

 

 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 22nd) – “The car was just a little bit too loose off of two and I had to wait on it, but it was pretty good overall. We’ve got a good car, though. I’m pretty happy with it.”

 

ERIK DARNELL – No. 96 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford Fusion (Qualified 37th) – HOW DOES THIS TRACK COMPARE TO ATLANTA? “This is a place I’m a little more comfortable at, anyway. We seem to have had some good runs over the years here in the truck and even in the Nationwide car earlier this year. This is a place I’m a little more comfortable with. Atlanta was tough to go to for the first race, especially driving one of these cars, but I’m a little more in my comfort zone here.” HOW WAS YOUR CAR IN QUALIFYING? “We were just a little bit too tight. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was decent in practice, but not where we wanted to be. Over here on the Cup side, especially on a day like this, I’ve got to get used to getting about two race runs and then going straight into qualifying trim for practice because you get an hour-and-a-half and then you go right into qualifying stuff. So it’s a little bit different, but I’m glad we’ve got some time tomorrow to work on the car and get it better. Ben Leslie and all the guys have made some good adjustments to it and they’re getting me more comfortable in the car. It was just too tight in qualifying. I didn’t think it would be that bad of a lap, but it wasn’t very good. Hopefully, we’ll get it tuned up for the race.”

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 5th) – “We picked up a ton and I’m really proud of my guys. I can’t say enough about the help that the 16 team – Greg Biffle and Greg Erwin and those guys gave us – because we essentially just leaned on them for everything. It’s cool to have teammates like that, so that will be a good starting spot for us. Hopefully, that will be sixth or seventh, but that’s a big move up for our Aflac Fusion. It was bad in practice. I was not too happy with it, but I’m real happy now.”