GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR TEAM’S CHEMISTRY? “I think our chemistry is really good. We were really fast the last couple of weeks and won at Kansas, so I think the chemistry within our team is really good.”  

 

WOULD YOU CONSIDER THAT ONE OF YOUR TEAM’S STRENGTHS? “I think so. I definitely would.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE BEEN ON A ROLLERCOASTER THE LAST FEW WEEKS? “Yeah. Our race didn’t start out the way we wanted at California. We weren’t as fast as we thought we’d be, so that was a little frustrating, and then we had engine trouble, so that was more frustrating, especially since we were coming off a win at Kansas. So it has been up and down, but we still feel like we’re on the positive side of the momentum.” 

 

WHEN THE MOTOR WENT LAST WEEK WHAT WAS THE EMOTION? DID YOUR HEART SINK? “Yeah, because that was our championship hope, really, to have a good day at California and continue to keep us up front. I knew when that engine blew up that we were just gonna try to get the highest points finish we could, but that’s frustrating to be coming off a win and then end up like that.” 

 

JACK SAID HE’S STILL OPTIMISTIC ABOUT WHAT LIES AHEAD BECAUSE THE PERFORMANCE HAS IMPROVED SO MUCH. IS THERE SOME SOLACE IN KNOWING THAT THE SPEED HAS RETURNED? “I think so. That’s why I said I think we’re still on the upswing. Our mile-and-a-half program seems to be good and pretty strong. We didn’t fire off the first 40 laps of that race like we wanted to, but we never got a chance to adjust on the car and work on it.” 

 

CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE INVOLVED IN ALL THAT MAYHEM AT TALLADEGA?  “It’s tough. It’s horrible when you’re in the middle of those wrecks because there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re just along for the ride.” 

 

DO YOU THINK YOU’LL RUN BETTER THIS TIME? “We race the same every year we go there. We’ve got fast cars and you just try to miss the wreck.” 

 

DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU CAN’T GIVE EVERYTHING YOU WANT ON THE TRACK BECAUSE THE RISK MIGHT BE TOO HIGH? “That’s the risk versus reward and it’s with anything. It’s like gambling or anything you do like investing money on Wall Street. It’s the risk you take versus the reward you get and how far do you want to push the envelope of getting that last position or getting that last quarter-of-a-second getting on or off pit road versus spinning out and hitting the cone and getting a pass through penalty and finishing 26^th. How far do you want to push the envelope?” 

 

DO YOU THEN BREAK IT DOWN ON MONDAY AND PLAY THE WOULDA, SHOULDA GAME? “That’s what the production meetings are for on Monday. We try and learn from our mistakes or our other team’s mistakes. For instance, we probably got our engine tuned up too much, well, the 6 and all the other guys can benefit from that by being aware of that now. Unfortunately, we’re aware of it but we didn’t finish the race, so there are benefits to be learned all across the board.” 

 

DO YOU THINK THE NON-CHASE DRIVERS WILL HAVE MORE RESPECT FOR THE CHASERS THESE LAST FEW WEEKS? “I don’t think so. Everybody is racing for the best finish they can get. These accidents would happen whether it’s in the chase or not. People are racing as hard as they can and accidents are gonna happen.”

 

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – HOW COULD THINGS TURN AROUND FOR YOU GUYS THIS WEEKEND? “We’ve been hoping every week that things will turn around. It seems like our car has been performing a little bit better here the last three weeks or so, and hopefully we can have our cars perform this week like they did last week and Kansas, where we got to the end and got a good finish.” 

 

DO YOU SEE YOURSELVES SIMILAR TO WHERE THE CHILDRESS TEAMS WERE LAST YEAR? THEY STRUGGLED MUCH OF THE YEAR AND THEN SHOWED IMPROVEMENT TOWARD THE END. “I hope so. You never want to go through a period like we have, where we haven’t improved and we’ve actually gone backwards. You never want to go through that, you always want to be getting better no matter where you’re running or where you are in the points. You always want to get better. I think toward the two-thirds mark of the year we started running a little bit better as a group. Greg’s been able to win a couple races and Carl has been pretty close a few times and we’ve been running a little better too, so we’re hoping we can continue that through the last six weeks and carry it into next season, and figure out some things that will make us better and hopefully get better over the off-season as well.” 

 

WERE THEY ABLE TO IDENTIFY THE ENGINE PROBLEMS YOU AND GREG HAD? WERE THEY THE SAME THING? “I never asked what happened to Greg’s car. Our car and AJ was starting to have some problems toward the end of the race. I know our cars had the same issue, which they know what the problem was and they have it addressed, but I’m not really sure what happened to Greg’s car, to be honest with you. I didn’t even ask.” 

 

YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACING AT TALLADEGA? “Everybody always talks about Talladega being the wild card in the chase, so I guess it could be. Any of the races really could be because you never know what’s gonna happen as far as wrecks, but certainly Talladega always has the potential to be an accident waiting to happen. You never know where it’s gonna occur, when it’s gonna occur and who it’s gonna take out, so that’s one you’re never sure where everybody is gonna finish until the race is over – that’s for sure.” 

 

SHORT TRACKS SEEM TO HAVE BEEN THE PROBLEM FOR ROUSH FENWAY OF LATE. WHY? “I think since the introduction to the COT car, the car we’re running now, our short track stuff at the 17 hasn’t been near as good and we haven’t really fixed that to have it where it needs to be and I’m not sure why. Carl ran pretty good on the short tracks when the cars first came out and then we’ve all struggled as a group. Richmond for us was much better at the 17. We ran pretty competitively and even though we didn’t finish the race the way we needed to, there were times in the race where we ran pretty good. New Hampshire wasn’t so good, but I don’t know why it is. We’re working on it and working on all the stuff to make it better, but the short track stuff seems to have been the biggest struggle.”

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “Our Aflac Ford Fusion was pretty decent in qualifying trim. Bob and I were talking about what happened the last time we were here and we actually qualified a back-up car with no laps on it, so we’re way ahead of ourselves in that respect. Last week was very frustrating. I feel like our team has performed at a very high level for a few months now and then last week all four of us had trouble, so it was a very frustrating week.   All we can do is run these next six races as hard as we can and be the team that we know we can be and, hopefully, we’ll come out in a better position that we are right now.” 

 

HOW MUCH PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPETITION GOES ON IN THE CHASE AND DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO STUFF LIKE THAT? “There’s a lot of psychology that goes into racing, but all of that goes out the window once the race starts. If you’re fast, you’re fast. Being confident and being focused is easy to do when you are running well and things are going well. The tough part, I think, is when you’re in a position like we’re in right now. We just came off of a week where we felt like we got kicked in the stomach and we’ve got to keep digging and keep going hard, and I think those are the tough times. It would sure be nice to go out and lead the most laps and win this race and get rolling, but we’ll see where we stand when the race starts, I guess.” 

 

WHO DO YOU FEAR ON RESTARTS WHEN THEY’RE LINED UP NEXT TO YOU AT A SHORT TRACK LIKE MARTINSVILLE? “Martinsville is so tough, especially with the double-file restarts. It’s kind of a chaotic moment when you go down into turn one and it really depends who is over-aggressive, who bumps who, how things shake out. We saw Denny Hamlin surge through the field. That was a spectacular run from 11^th or something on those last few restarts to win that last race. I learned a lot by watching Denny and how he did that, but I don’t know if there’s one particular guy. I think it depends on whose car is good, who is hungry at that time and who can really capitalize on other people’s mistakes. If everybody runs like they should, it’s really hard to pass people two-wide at Martinsville already. It’s when people are over-aggressive that you can take advantage. Hopefully, we can do that. Matt almost won the thing the last time we were there, so I feel like we can run well enough, we just have to make the right calls.” 

 

DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ON THE TV RATINGS AND DO YOU WATCH THE RACE BROADCASTS AFTERWARDS? “I don’t watch the broadcast of the race until sometimes a year later when we’re coming back again. I do talk to a lot of folks and I know that my job is to go out and drive the race car the best I can and give my team and my sponsors and myself the best effort that I can put forth. I believe that everyone on the race track is doing a really good job of that this year. I think you’ve seen really great racing, a ton of emotion, you’ve seen guys just laying it all on the line and, for whatever reason, our television ratings have not been as good as they could be. I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know the reason, but I’d say all we can do is try to embrace all the new technology that we can and try to explain the sport the best we can through the television broadcasts. Aside from that, I don’t really have any suggestions for them. I think I’d be speaking out of place.” 

 

DO YOU HAVE RESPECT FOR WHAT BRAD KESELOWSKI HAS DONE IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES? “Yeah, I think Brad has done a really good job of just maintaining and doing his best. He’s gone over the line with me a couple of times and we’ve gone round and round about it, but still we can walk up to each other and shake hands and go have a good race. I think that says a lot about him as a person, so I feel that we’ve raced really well with one another since Gateway and that’s good. If he wins that championship, which it looks like he’s going to, then those guys have earned it. They’ve done a really good job on the race track and anytime that I’ve had any issue with him, I’ve addressed it. You guys have seen all of that and we have not had any real troubles other than those.” 

DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM IS STILL IN THIS THING? “Hell yes we’re still in it. I go out here and race as hard as I can and if we’ve got a mathematical chance of being in it, then we do have a chance. We don’t quit. That’s not what we do.  I talked to my crew. I talked to PK (Pierre Kuettel) in the window of the car when he was putting up my window net a minute ago and his words were, ‘We don’t quit until Homestead is over.’   And that’s the way we do it. Now, that doesn’t make it any easier or anything, I just think that’s the way you have to approach it. If I gave up with six races to go, I think that would be pretty foolish.” 

 

TALLADEGA IS LOOMING. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT FROM A POINTS STANDPOINT? “I was a little nervous about Talladega while we were up there real close to the point lead, but now I’m really excited about Talladega. I think that race, you could see a huge swing there. If we could go win the thing or run in the top three and a couple of guys could be caught up in wrecks, the chase could look a lot different. That’s Talladega and anything can happen. Man, I have a love-hate relationship with that place, but I am looking forward to it now and I hope that we can come out of there good.” 

 

SHOULD THERE BE RACES LIKE TALLADEGA? “Points should not be awarded at Talladega. In a fair competition they shouldn’t be because it’s so random. It’s just a treacherous race. Now, since there are points awarded, it adds a whole other level of stress to the race. You drive around and if you’re doing really well in the points, every lap your heart is pounding and you’re just trying to predict any wrecks that might happen and the best way to avoid them. I guess in a guy’s position like myself, the reasons that I don’t like it when I’m running well in the points are the same reasons that I look forward to it now.” 

 

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE IN THE MIDDLE OF A WRECK THERE? “As a driver, you’re sitting in your race car just like you guys are sitting in this room right here and you’re all packed together and you’re going 200 miles an hour and one person makes a terrible move and spins out or something happens and all of a sudden this side of the room, everybody’s eyes get wide and you’re stabbing the brakes, you’re looking in the mirror, you’re listening to your spotter, you’re trying to drive through this smoke and the worst is when you think you’ve made it through and then there’s some car that hit the wall and it catches you in the right rear, catches you in the left rear and then all hell breaks loose and your day is over. Then you go into damage control and you have to go through all of those emotions of denial like, ‘OK, my car is not hurt that bad,’ to ‘OK, well it’s hurt bad, but the other guys’ is too and maybe we can beat him out of the pits,’ and then finally you get everything put together and you’re out there rolling around with this car that’s all taped together and smashed up and you’re just thinking, ‘Man, what could I have done to avoid this?’ It’s such an emotional rollercoaster throughout the day and it’s just not fun when it goes like that. That’s the best way I can describe it.” 

 

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE REPRESENTING COMPANIES LIKE AVON THAT MAY NOT BE THE MOST MASCULINE TYPE OF PROGRAMS? “It’s truly an honor for them to approach me and to even begin to talk about it. There are guys in other sports that have been able to do these fragrance deals and make them work really well. It is a little different and it was definitely a different photo shoot. You guys have seen some of the marketing materials and it’s a different way of presenting myself to my fans, but, to me, it’s fun. It’s doing something different and when I go out I wear cologne and I like it. I figured it was a pretty natural fit. I’m comfortable doing a lot of different things. To me, I like doing different things. I like doing stuff that’s new and I like trying new things. This was something that throughout the whole process it was something I hadn’t really ever thought of doing and it was interesting. There were parts where I thought, ‘Boy, that’s a little bit of a racy photo,’ but it really came together well and I’m proud that I did it. The Harlequin thing, I still have people come up to me and they’re like, ‘Well, I was reading this book, Carl,’ and that was one too that when we first talked about it I thought, ‘Wow, that’s outside the box,’ and it’s turned into something that I’m really glad I did. It was fun.” 

 

SOME OF THE GUYS AHEAD OF YOU IN POINTS MAY BE MORE CONSERVATIVE, ESPECIALLY ON SOME OF THOSE RESTARTS. CAN YOU BE MORE AGGRESSIVE NOW IN CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE THAT?  “That’s a great point. I hadn’t thought of it that way exactly on the restarts, but you’re right. It’s just like we talked about at the beginning of this chase, steadily guys have taken themselves out. We took ourselves out of the hunt for the lead, at least for the moment, last week. Greg Biffle might have done the same with their engine failure. Kyle Busch had his trouble, so now you’re getting down to a smaller group of guys who have more and more pressure on them, and I think those guys are more likely to give than other guys. So on restarts and things, that’s definitely part of the psychology of being in the race car. That could play well into a guy like myself’s hands.” 

 

WHAT WOULD YOU NOT DO AS FAR AS REPRESENTING A SPONSOR? “I’ve turned down a couple, but, in general, I felt like Avon was an amazing company to partner with. This was not a difficult decision or anything. I was excited about this one. I don’t know. We all know Stroker Ace dressing in the chicken suit and doing all that stuff. There are lines you have to draw, but I’ve not approached that line.” 

 

YOU’RE A HEALTH FOOD GUY. WHERE WOULD YOU DRAW THE LINE? “For instance, there are some consumable items that I’ve said I’d rather not participate with. No disrespect to any of those companies. They’ve got a business and that’s what they do, but I’m very fortunate that I get to endorse products that I believe in and a good example is Kellogg’s Company. When we first talked to them, they came and gave me a whole presentation about what they do with marketing towards children and the way they evaluate if a food is too sugary to market in children’s programming and things like that, and I was really impressed with that. So that made that decision easy. Some of the drinks like Vitamin Water, for example, only uses real sugar. There’s not the corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup, so that made it a fit for me. I do take all of that into account and, so far, I’ve been very fortunate to not have to endorse something that I personally wouldn’t use. I love Stroker Ace. That’s a real good one.”