Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, was the first Ford driver to hold his Q&A session Thursday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway. He addressed the assembled media in the infield media center.
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – ASSESS YOUR TEAM SO FAR THIS YEAR? “Certainly it’s been up and down for us. We would have liked to have run better as of late. We had a pretty good run up until about three races ago. We have not had the best finishes – some circumstance and some that’s just where we were running – but, overall, I’d have to say it’s been decent. We’re ninth in points still in the chase with a little cushion – not much – with some good race tracks in front of us. I think that’s what we’re looking forward to is some great race tracks coming up for us. But, overall, I’d say it’s a satisfactory season. We’ve had a couple opportunities to get into Victory Lane and haven’t quite gotten there yet, but we’ll keep working on it.”
EIGHT RACES UNTIL THE CHASE. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO GET READY? “Really, we’re working as hard as we can every week to bring the best race cars we can. We know that we have eight more races to make the chase and it’s important that we have the best possible equipment that we can bring right now. We’re doing lots of simulation stuff. We’re doing a little bit of testing at tracks where we can go and simulate some short track scenarios that we feel we’re lacking a little bit on, and we’re wide open. We’re racing as hard as we can. We’re not taking big risks, but, at the same time, we’re racing for the win.”
DID GOODYEAR DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY WITH THE TIRE TEST FOR INDY THIS TIME AROUND? “Certainly they’ve had their hands full with that race track. A couple of issues. One is that it’s no secret that this car is harder on the right-side tires, and when we go to a high-speed, flat race track like that, it’s very demanding on the right-side tires. And plus the race track is diamond-ground or grooved and I think you guys have all been through that process, so that’s been very difficult for Goodyear to build a tire that can withstand the loading and how abrasive that track is. They, to my knowledge, when we were there for the tire test we did, I think they’ve done a fantastic job picking a tire or coming up with a tire that will last and drives competitively. I ran out of gas coming down the frontstretch on a full fuel run and the tire was just about wore out, so it was a perfect matchup of the amount of fuel the car will hold and the distance it will go and still have rubber left. I think they’ve done a great job and I don’t think we’re really gonna have tire issues going back. Some teams might. The thing is when you get a tire that that’s close to being perfect, it’s easy to get on either side of that.”
DID THEY TEST IN A DIFFERENT MANNER? “The testing procedure was different in that I think the entire field had tested Indy at one point. I think they had every car there and every team there multiple times. I think Tony Stewart tested there two or three times. I know Matt tested there at least twice and possibly three. We tested there once, so I think they wanted to get a lot of rubber. They wanted to see a lot of different race cars with different setups and different times. Let’s run on the track right after it rained and see if the tire still has the durability it does on a green race track as it does when it’s rubbered in. Process-wise, they did a lot more there because, obviously, of what happened.”
LOOKING BACK AT THE ACCIDENT LAST WEEK. ARE THERE THINGS YOU LOOK AT FROM A SAFETY ASPECT AND AT WHAT POINT DO THESE LAST-LAP WRECKS WITH THE LEADERS BECOME A CONCERN? “You certainly always need to protect us from ourselves. We can get ourselves in trouble no matter what. You’ve got to always watch for that, but restrictor plate racing is its own animal and the thing is we’re crashing on the straightaway and the crashes are two cars. It’s not multiple cars. It’s not one guy cutting one guy off. It’s two cars involved in these wrecks at the ends of these races and it’s the first and second place guy trying to get the trophy. There’s no way to fix that, for sure. None of the other cars are involved. The restrictor plates aren’t involved, it’s just unfortunately what’s gonna happen at the end. The thing that concerns me is just the safety aspect of the cars getting slowed down enough after there’s a crash like that. He got hit multiple times. Some thought of mine was, ‘Are people slowing down or are they trying to still race to the line to get their finishing position?’ I’ve got a concern with that because he got hit by the 9 and then got hit by other cars. He got hit by a car that was behind me on the race track pretty hard, which tells me that maybe that guy wasn’t slowing down as quick as he could have been. So that’s one concern. When we have these wrecks at the end of the race, how quickly does the caution come out and are we racing back the line? Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick raced all the way back when the third and fourth-place cars wrecked – or third and fourth, I was running fourth and Kyle was third and Matt was right there. So that’s probably my biggest concern is safety – a guy getting hit two or three or four or five times. And, of course, staying out of the fence was the key this time.”
ARE YOU GUYS BEING MORE DANGEROUS OUT THERE BECAUSE YOU FEEL SAFER AND FEEL INVINCIBLE? “I can tell you one thing, you can get hurt in these cars. It hurts when you crash at 175 miles an hour. I think there are some guys pushing that envelope thinking that somebody is gonna give. They’re playing chicken. When one guy is moving over to block, you’ve got three choices. One, let up on the gas. Two, move over and let him run you up the race track, or, three, spin him out. Guys are testing that to see what they guy is gonna do. When you can see the checkered flag from here to there, it’s tough to just rollover and play dead, but, at the same time, you don’t want to get turned around on the frontstretch in front of the whole field. But you can get hurt in these cars and it does hurt when you crash in these things.”
NASCAR IS TRYING TO IMPROVE ITS GREEN EFFORTS. JACK ROUSH IS INVOLVED IN GREEN VEHICLES. DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING AS A RACER? “I know it’s obvious we’re racing, but we’re continuing to work on getting better fuel mileage and performance out of our cars, and I think we do things personally to try and make an effort at being more environmentally friendly. I recently ordered a Hybrid car – the Fusion – as a shop car and for people to come to town. I’ve got running around to do. Last week I’m in the process right now of doing a study of putting solar panels on my building in Mooresville to convert it to be a greener building, so I think there are lots of things we can do to be better about it, but, certainly, racing is an element where I’m sure there are ways to improve and I think we do a pretty good job at it now, but I’m sure there are ways we can improve that and that’s why NASCAR has people on that staff.” IS THAT YOUR RACE SHOP? “It’s my personal shop in Mooresville.”
Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, became a father for the second time earlier this week. He spoke about that during his Q&A session before Thursday’s practice session.
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – KATIE HAD THE BABY ON MONDAY, SO SHE LISTENED TO YOU. “Yeah, she did good. I told her I would make it worth her while if she did that on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, so now I just have to make good on my promise.”
HOW IS IT BEING A FATHER FOR THE SECOND TIME? “It’s good. It’s only been three days, but it’s good. You get very little sleep the first couple of days, but it’s been really good. Everything went really smooth, actually. Everything seemed to go really smooth. Katie is doing really good. She had a really good pregnancy and delivery, so everything was good.”
HOW WAS YOUR WEEK CHANGED? “As far as my schedule during the week, it really didn’t change at all. I really didn’t have anything to do this week, which turned out really good, but my week itself changed a lot.”
HOW? “Like I said, I really didn’t have anything to do this week because her actual due date was last week and the baby came within a day or two of that, so I had the week all blocked off where I didn’t have a thing to do, so, actually, my weekly schedule didn’t really change, except for hanging out down at the hospital and doing all that fun stuff.”
WHERE YOU ARE IN POINTS NOW, ARE YOU APPROACHING THINGS DIFFERENTLY WITH 8 TO GO? “No. We’re really doing everything the same. To be honest with you, I’m surprised we’re even in the top 12. We ran not the greatest and finished even worse. For the last few months we just really haven’t had any good finishes. Even last weekend, we probably had a top-three car and with the tire situation and the late cautions on the short runs our car wasn’t very good and we didn’t get the finish we need there, either. So we’re very, very fortunate to be where we are in the points right now and we all know that we need to start finishing better and need to start finishing at least as good as we’re running or better. We still haven’t been able to do that, so once we start doing that, I’ll think about it more. But, to be honest, I’m just happy and surprised that we’re in it right now.”
CAN YOU PINPOINT AN AREA YOU NEED TO WORK ON? “Really all the areas. There’s not really one thing and, really, honestly, a lot of it is stuff that we don’t have a ton of control over, it seems like. The tire thing last weekend, a lot of people had problems and they wouldn’t let us run more than 20 laps before there would be a caution because they knew there were tire problems and our car wasn’t really set up for a short run, it was set up for a long run like we always have at Daytona – hot and slick and handling and all that stuff, and it just didn’t play into our favor. It’s just stuff that we really couldn’t control a lot once we got into the race. It’s just something different all the time. We never can quite get our finger on it, but I feel like we’ve been running a little bit better lately and that helps a lot because the better you run, the better chance you have of getting some finishes and getting some more points.”
THIS IS A HOMECOMING FOR YOU AND DREW. WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH HIM? “It’s been good. I love having Drew around. We’ve been getting along really good. I think we’ve been getting a little bit better every week. The first couple of weeks were almost too good to be true, obviously, and it’s been a lot tougher since then. Those first two weeks were pretty smooth, but Drew’s been doing a great job. He’s been learning a lot. He knows what it takes to do this job and we’ve been communicating well together and well together with Chip and the team, and I just think it’s gonna continue to keep getting better.”
WILL THERE BE A LOT OF FAMILY HERE? “I always love coming up here. It’s a really cool race track and it’s a part of the country that I’m pretty familiar with growing up a few hours north of here, so it’s fun to come down here. I always see a lot of family and friends and guys I used to race against, stuff like that.”
ARE YOU WELCOMING THE OFF WEEK COMING UP? “Yeah. The schedule this year – usually everybody just complains about the schedule – the but schedule this year is a lot better than it’s been in the past, in my opinion. With this off-weekend in July and we have another off-weekend at the end of August, we haven’t had that in a long, long time to kind of give you a little rest before the stretch to the end of the year. I’m really looking forward to this weekend. For me personally it couldn’t have worked out at a better time, having the baby this week. And for the crew guys it’s nice to have it broken up a little bit and have a week off to get rested up and if there’s anything we want to work on, get it worked on and get ready for the stretch.” WILL YOU STICK AROUND THE HOUSE? “Yeah. I don’t have a lot of plans. A week from Tuesday I’m racing at Slinger, but I’ve got a week-and-a-half before that, so I don’t really have any plans other than being around home.”
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion, spoke to reporters following practice for Saturday’s LifeLock.com 400 and addressed a variety of issues.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – HOW HAS THE NIGHT RACE HERE CHANGED THINGS? “The track changes a little bit with the night race, but not a ton. This place is fun. It’s got some character. It’s got some bumps and different grooves, and I really enjoyed the race last year. We made it all the way to the lead and had a little bit of mechanical trouble, but it should be good and it’s good for the fans, too. I like these night races.”
THE TRACK HAS WEATHERED OVER THE YEARS. “Yeah, the older the asphalt gets the better it gets at all these places. The only bad thing about the night race is just waiting all day for it to start. Other than that, they’re great.”
A LOT OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY COMING UP? “Yeah, we’ve got a lot of folks coming and that’s gonna be cool. This place, I’ve got some friends over in Iowa and some friends from Missouri and some friends in Champagne that come up here every once in a while. It’s pretty cool.”
WHAT OUTSIDE INVESTMENT AND BUSINESSES ARE YOU ASSOCIATED WITH? “Someone once told me it’s the three g’s – guns, ground and gold and those are the best investments. I don’t have any gold, but I’ve got some farm land and that’s been a lot of fun. Missouri is a beautiful place and I don’t know how many acres total I’ve got, but I’ve got a few places that add up to quite a bit, and Back 40 Records has been a lot of fun, and somehow I keep acquiring airplanes, but those just use money. They don’t make any money. I’m just trying to save all I can and still have a little bit of fun.”
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN BACK 40 RECORDS? “The music that we’ve done so far with Back 40 Records has just come from the folks that we started the label with – the artists. That’s the music that they were into, that’s what they love, and it’s not a hip-hop label or a country label – it’s whatever we can create that people enjoy that’s what we’ve been doing.”
PEOPLE ARE COMPARING LAST WEEK’S WRECK TO YOURS AT TALLADEGA. IS THAT FAIR? “Yeah. From what I could see of the replays I think it was almost an identical situation. In my wreck I barely started to block. Brad really held his ground. I think the Daytona wreck Kyle blocked a little more, but it happened so quickly that you can’t really tell. The scary part, when I saw the replays, is all the people standing against the fence at Daytona. If they would have been standing against the fence like that at Talladega, it would have been really bad. I guess we are gonna keep racing like that. I guess that’s how it’s gonna be, so the only thing I hope happens is they get those fans away from the fence because nobody in this garage wants any part of something bad like that happening.”
ARE GUYS GOING TO TAKE MORE CHANCES NOW THAT WE HAVE SOME HISTORY BUILT UP WITH THESE KIND OF FINISHES? “I don’t think anyone is gonna take any more chances, but it looks like you don’t want to be leading coming to the line at these races. If you look at a year ago at Daytona, Kyle and I were side-by-side, neck-and-neck and we had a caution, so it stopped everything before we got to the finish line, but those races really crescendo. You can feel it. Your heart is pounding and you’re coming to the start-finish line, and I guess it is what it is. As long as we’re gonna race there, those are finishes we’re gonna have, but I firmly, firmly believe that NASCAR and the tracks need to make sure they keep those fans away from the fence.”
SHOULD THEY GET RID OF THE YELLOW LINE RULE ON THE FINAL LAP? “The yellow line wouldn’t have made any difference there at Daytona. You’ve got to have a line somewhere because you don’t want people in the grass, but it’s not the yellow line rule. It’s the track. We’re racing 190 miles an hour on tracks that we could be racing 210 or 220 miles an hour on. Until you make the Goodyear tires give up a little more than they did at Daytona, where you have to lift off the throttle, or you knock the banking down, you’re gonna have finishes like that. You’re gonna have wrecks.”
WE SAW SOME PASSING HERE AFTER THE FINAL PIT STOP LAST YEAR. WILL WE SEE THAT AGAIN SATURDAY? “You never know, but this place does give some great racing. It’s a lot like an Atlanta or Texas. It’s got multiple grooves. The asphalt is getting a little bit old and that lends itself to really good races and, hopefully, a good finish. I didn’t pay close attention to what happened last year here, but one of the guys was just talking about it how Kyle got by Jimmie. I don’t remember how it happened, but I guess it was a pretty good race.”
IF NASCAR WERE TO STEP IN AND START JUDGING BLOCKING AND OFFICIATING THAT MORE, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? “I think it’s a bad position for NASCAR to have to be in to make those kind of judgment calls. NASCAR has done a really good job of trying to make as few judgment calls as they can. I think that’s good for sports. I think things need to be black and white. I don’t think that’s the way to do it. I think the way to do it is to take grip away from the cars, so that you have to lift. You’ll still have some awesome racing with drafting down the straightaways. They don’t need to slow the cars down. I think they’re going the right speed. Worst-case, I still don’t think they can make it over the fence and I don’t think they need to just dirty them up because that keeps the pack closer together. I think they need to take downforce away or take grip away from the tires, and I think it would be alright.”
MIGHT THE ACTIONS OF THE DRIVERS FORCE NASCAR IN THAT DIRECTION? “Now more than ever you’ve got to get wins where you can. With Brad and I, it wasn’t like one of us was out to get the other guy and I don’t think Tony and Kyle were out to get each other. It’s just you’re playing at 195 miles an hour, you’re playing with inches and that’s what you get.”
THAT COULD HAPPEN ANYWHERE WHEN TWO GUYS GET TOGETHER. “It’s not going to. It might happen. It’s a 1-in-25 chance you’ll have a finish like that anywhere else, and it’s about a 1-in-1 chance you’re gonna have it at Talladega or Daytona.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MILWAUKEE MILE BEING ON LIFE SUPPORT? “Something is not right about that. I’m not a track owner or promoter, but something is not right when it looked to me that they had 50,000 people there. I don’t know how many they had, but it was a lot. It looked pretty packed for a fairground and everybody was having a good time. It’s a great race and, man, I hate to see a place go away.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY RITUALS ON RACE DAY? “No, not really. I try to stay away from it because if you miss it, then it’ll bother you, so I try to stay away from any rituals or routines or lucky charms. I’ve left it just at my wedding band. That’s it. As long as I’ve got that, I’m OK. If, for some reason, I lost it, I think I’d be alright anyway, so I’ve tried to get away from that.”
CHICAGOLAND QUALIFYING
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 25th) – “It should be good. We were real fast in race trim. We just didn’t put much effort into qualifying and we’re gonna end up 25th or 26th. This is a track you can pass on and, hopefully, we’ll be able to make it up in the race. It’s nothing to worry about. We’ve just been focusing on race trim.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 17th) – “That’s a decent pick up. I wish we could have gone a tenth faster and I think we all would have been really happy, but that’s better than what we’ve been. I think our UPS Ford is pretty decent. I was pretty happy with it in race trim. We made a few qualifying runs and, like I said, I think we improved every time but we still need just a little bit more to be up front, but I think we’ve got a good race car for this weekend. It should be fast on Saturday.”
BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified 8th) – “It was really good. The guys made some really key changes in practice. We unloaded and we were decent. Most of those guys were making race runs while we were making qualifying runs right off the get-go, but they still went in the right direction. From what David Hyder and Len and Eddie, and all the guys that pull behind this deal, and Ford Motorcraft and all the people that have pulled together and helped us, we have come a long way in the last three races.” TALK ABOUT THE MOVES YOU’VE MADE WITH A COUPLE GREAT FINISHES THE LAST TWO STARTS. “We have and I think we’ve really learned a lot. If we can just keep working our setup and get a little bit better each and every time, that’s where we need to be. We just need to keep working this thing out, working together and improving our communication. I’m just looking forward to racing.”