FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Camping World RV 400 Advance, Page 1
Friday, September 26, 2008
Kansas Speedway
Roush Fenway Racing teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth finished 1-2 last weekend at Dover. Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M/Sherwin Williams Ford Fusion, is the first driver to win the first two races of the Chase; he is just 10 points behind leader Carl Edwards heading into this weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway. Biffle also won at Kansas in 2007. Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion, has four top-10 finishes in his last six starts.
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M/Sherwin Williams Ford Fusion – ARE YOU A STUDENT OF HISTORY? YOU ARE THE FIRST DRIVER EVER TO WIN THE FIRST TWO CHASE RACES. FROM A HISTORICAL ASPECT, IS THAT SIGNIFICANT TO YOU? “I think so. Anything that you do that nobody else has done is kind of cool. I don’t want to say I want to win more, but I’m more focused on how we can keep it going more than reflect back on what we’ve been able to do so far. I think maybe at the end of the season I could look back easier, and say, ‘That was pretty neat to win the first two Chase races.’ But other than focusing on that, I’m focusing on the first three. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but that’s really what I’m concentrating on – is winning here versus we made history the first two weeks.” AND YOU ARE A DRIVER THAT BELIEVES IN MOMENTUM… “Absolutely.” SO, THIS SITUATION – TWO CONSECUTIVE WINS, RETURNING RACE CHAMPION – PLAYS RIGHT INTO YOUR WHEELHOUSE. “Yeah, right into the wheelhouse. We won here last year, we’re good on mile-and-a-half tracks, and we had a great Charlotte test. Man, I feel good about it.” GENERALLY SPEAKING, TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS SERIES YOU HAVE TO BE GOOD ON THE MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS. HOW DOES THIS TRACK COMPARE TO THE OTHERS ON THE CIRCUIT? IS IT MORE SIMILAR OR DISSIMILAR? “No, this is a dissimilar track. This is more like the old Las Vegas, maybe. It drives a lot flatter. Most mile-and-a-halves we go to have more banking, or drive like they have more banking. I can’t tell you the nuts and bolts of what the banking is – you go to Chicago or you go to Texas, Atlanta and those tracks, and they drive like they have more banking. This track drives like it’s flatter. That’s just how this race track compares.” BEFORE THE CHASE, YOU WERE REFERRED TO AS A DARK HORSE. NOW, EVERYBODY IS AWARE OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING. AS A DRIVER, WOULD YOU RATHER EVERYBODY KEEP AN EYE ON YOU, OR WOULD YOU RATHER COMPETE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP WITH LESS NOTICE? “You know, I hadn’t really focused a lot about what other people think. I knew coming in that people were saying, ‘That dark horse,’ or ‘He’s one of the guys to keep an eye on.’ That’s about as far as I’ve really thought about it. Other than winning these couple of weeks, how they changed their mind or what they’re kind of predicting now, I haven’t really gotten caught up in that. I’m still focused on: How am I going to win here, right now? That’s what I’m thinking about.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – DID THAT SECOND-PLACE FINISH AT DOVER HELP GET YOU BACK INTO CONTENTION? “Yeah, we needed a good finish. Obviously, I don’t want to say out of it, but we got a big blow at Loudon, obviously, so we just need to start doing what we did last week: lead laps and try to be in contention.”
FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Camping World RV 400 Advance, Page 2
Friday, September 26, 2008
Kansas Speedway
KENSETH, continued – DO YOU FEEL LIKE ROUSH FENWAY RACING RIGHT NOW IS THE BEST TEAM GOING? EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE GOING WELL FOR ALL OF THE TEAMS. “We’re two weeks into the deal, and there’s good tracks and there’s bad tracks for individual drivers, for organizations, whatever, and it seems like our organization with this car has been really good at Dover and the mile-and-a-halves with higher-banked tracks. We struggled at the flat tracks. But, yeah, it feels like it, because Greg and Carl ran so good at Loudon and that’s usually been a bad track for us. So, it feels like it’s going better.” THIS IS ONE OF ONLY TWO TRACKS LEFT WHERE YOU HAVEN’T RUN THE NEW CAR. HOW DO YOU THINK IT WILL WORK OUT? DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE ENOUGH NOTES FROM CHICAGO AND SIMILAR TRACKS? “Yeah, we’ve raced it everywhere else, Chicago, we’ve done a lot of testing of tracks like that, so I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal.” BECAUSE OF THE RACING AND THE TESTING, DO YOU EXPECT WE’LL SEE BETTER RACING HERE AND ATLANTA AND TEXAS AND THE OTHER MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS? “Yes. I think it will better than earlier in the year. I think we’ve learned some stuff about our cars, and we’ve raced them at all of those tracks. Hopefully, we’re smarter than we were six months ago.” AS MORE AND MORE TEAMS AND GOODYEAR GET USED TO THE CAR, DO EXPECT THE RACING WILL GET BETTER AND BETTER? “Yes and no. It’ll make it a little bit better with testing, but on the other hand, we can’t change anything on the body, and aerodynamically we’re stuck with what we have. So, if there’s an aero deficiency that we can’t pass as good as we used to or get up behind somebody or whatever, we can’t fix that. But, certainly, the areas that we are allowed to work on, we’re trying to fine-tune to make better, and I think we’re improving. Goodyear can also help us a lot with the tire, when they get a little racier or softer tire it seems to make the racing better. Like last week, they probably brought a little softer tire, a little faster tire, and I thought the racing was better. So, hopefully, we can continue down that path.” ON ROUSH FENWAY RACING’S SUCCESS. “Last week we performed really well – but as a group, Roush Fenway performed really well last week. Carl and Greg ran really good at New Hampshire, too. So that kind of gives up hope, I guess, for the rest of the races this year. We’ll take it one week at a time, and hopefully we’ll keep our performance where it’s been.”
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