DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 28^th) – “We picked up almost a second from where we were in qualifying trim yesterday, but we just started way too far off in our first practice on Friday. This is a new car, so it took a little while to work some of the bugs out. We spent a little extra time in race trim yesterday, so I didn’t expect to go out and sit on the pole, but I felt like we could run a little faster than that, so we’re working through everything. Hopefully, the UPS Ford is good for the race, but I’m glad we’ve got two more practices today.”

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 19^th) – “It was okay. I got through turns one and two pretty well, and then in turn three I got a little bit tight. And then I thought it wasn’t going to turn in four, and I actually got the curb on the inside, so it gripped a little better. I think turn three was my only trouble, and that’s where I think I lost some time.”

 

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 37 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 38^th) – “I guess it’s about exactly what we expected. Everybody has been picking up about a half-second to seven-tenths, and we picked up six-tenths from yesterday. It’s bottom of the board or so right now, which is kind of where we were yesterday, unfortunately. We made some changes overnight and I think the car responded well. The grip level was really good right there and I probably could have had a little more speed out of it knowing the track conditions were gonna be that good. With the few adjustments we made, we could have gone a little bit more from last night. It’s about what we expected. We didn’t come here full blown qualifying or anything like that. We’d obviously like to qualify better, but I’m kind of not too worried about it either.”

 

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 19 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 27^th) – “It is pretty hot out here. We’re just a little tight and that’s what we’ve been fighting since we unloaded. The Stanley car has been just a little too snug through two and four to make that fast lap, but the car is in the race track and it’s consistent. We’re gonna switch it over to race trim right now and go from there. We didn’t have the best draw in the world, so we’re gonna make the most of it. Usually, Todd is really good at this race, so we’re gonna build a lot of adjustability into it and go from there. We should be okay.”

 

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 16^th) – “I’m not very good at qualifying here, so no matter what I think it’s gonna be my best qualifying ever, so you’ve got to take the positives. The car was really good. It’s just a tough place to get it right. Yesterday, we were decent and just trying to get the line exactly right. I didn’t want to overdrive the place and kill the lap, so I probably underdrove it just a little bit and left a little bit on the table. I probably left a couple tenths, but it’s a long race and the car has been pretty good. We’ll just go work on race trim here and keep working on it, but so far, so good.”

 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 7^th) – “It was a good run and it’s all because of these guys. Our car wasn’t that good yesterday and they kept working on it. This is our latest and greatest chassis – one of our best cars coming out of the race shop – and I’m happy for them. The engine ran really good and I’m pretty happy with it. This tells me we’ve brought a car we can compete with here. We weren’t that good yesterday and we needed to get better, and these guys just worked on it. We knew what we did here last year. We qualified up front and ran up front, but we’ve just been off since we got here and the car was perfect. That was a perfect lap for us. The engine ran great with lots of power. I was a little nervous. I’ve been watching this thing on TV and I knew going out late the track is hot, so that was a conservative lap for me. I’m excited because I think this car could have been faster for sure.” YOU’VE GOT TWO MORE PRACTICES TO GET IT BETTER. “Yeah, I think we just leave it in the garage for the rest of the day. It’s running good and I just don’t even know what to say because I left some on the table out there. They hate for me to say that, but I was a little conservative on the throttle in a few corners and was just nervous about messing it up, but the car handled good.”

 

BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified 31^st) – “We ran faster than we did in practice, but it still isn’t good enough. You can’t do anything about the draw, and I know some guys run faster in that deal, but what we try to fight and what they try to fight is a whole different war at the end of the day. It’s just frustrating.” WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IN THE RACE? “You can’t pass here. It’s probably the world’s worst race track to pass and you just have to do whatever you’ve got to do to get there. At least you’ve got the whole race to work on it, but we’ll see.”