JON WOOD – No. 21 The Barnhill Group Ford F-150 – (finished 10th, qualified 16th) – “We could have had a faster truck if we could have fixed it from bottoming out and scraping the track. That was the biggest issue we were having tonight.”
RICK CRAWFORD – No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford F-150 – (finished 11th, qualified 19th) – “We’re on a mile-and-a-half on one of NASCAR’s fastest race tracks. Later in my career, I feel like I’m going drag racing because I feel like we need to straighten up. But I turned more to the right tonight than I did to the left. Our package wasn’t necessarily the package that we were looking for here in Atlanta, but the Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford F-Series pickup was a smooth driving pickup. It needed some correcting after it got a new set of tires. We were trying our best to be best in class and just ended up one spot back.” YOUR TRUCK WAS LOOSE ALL NIGHT? “We were trying our best to adjust on it all night with a track bar adjustment, a wedge adjustment, an air pressure adjustment. We were helping ourselves, we were extending our run from four laps, to 10 laps to maybe 15 laps but we never could put the full run together. That lengthy run there in the middle where we all had green flag pit stops hurt a little bit because we lasted as far as we could with an ill handling truck. Kevin Starland [crew chief] and the whole Circle Bar Racing team we didn’t give up. We started 19th and finished 11th. It could have been a lot worse, like I say and if I can’t emphasize enough, we’re built Ford tough.”
ERIK DARNELL – No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 – (finished 12th, qualified 14th) – “It was a frustrating night. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was actually pretty good. I’m proud of Matt Puccia [crew chief] and all the guys for working on this truck. We were pretty good in practice today. We didn’t get the qualifying position I thought we’d get. Once we started the race, I knew we had a pretty good truck. We moved forward right away. We made the right adjustments on our pit stops to get the truck where it needed to be and I think we were running fifth there for a while and had a really good truck. We had a green flag pit stop and I was trying to get all I can and got caught speeding entering pit road. I feel real bad for the guys because they did an awesome job on pit road tonight. All our pit stops were really good. I think it cost us a top-five finish in the end.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN – No. 10 International MAXX Force Diesel Ford F-150 – (finished 15th, qualified 24th) – “We had a whole lot better Ford than this. We made a few mistakes on pit road and I made mistakes on the race track. We all make mistakes. It’s what happens. I had a lot better MAXX Force Ford that what we showed tonight. Bryan Berry [crew chief] will make this thing better. Good thing, this is just like California, we’re bringing this F-150 back in one piece and we’ll make it better. We had a little issue where I almost tore the wall down and had a little mishap with tires, but I got lucky. I felt something was wrong and saved it. Then we got a caution. In the end, Bryan Berry, what I love, is that he never quits. He told me to come in and we took the chance. We took the penalty to pit early and then ended up 15th and gained five spots from making an adjustment on that last stop. Bryan doesn’t quit on me and I don’t quit on him. We’ll bring our MAXX Force Ford back to Martinsville for the test this week. For a change, I’m actually looking forward to Martinsville. I’ve been struggling on the big tracks, let’s go where I normally don’t like and see what I can do there.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 09 Zaxby’s Ford F-150 – (finished 18th, qualified 22nd) –“We just missed something. This is a different truck than what we raced in California. It’s just really loose all the time and no matter what we threw at it in practice and whatever we through at in the race, it didn’t matter. It was spinning out and wanting to wreck. Luckily we held on to it all day. If you compare it to the 99 [Erik Darnell] and the 6 [Colin Braun], this truck should never turn compared to the set-ups. I don’t know if it is aerodynamics or what but we missed something and we won’t let that happen again. We’ll take new stuff, better stuff all season long and we’ll win with the Zaxby’s Ford F-150.” DID THE RACE TONIGHT HELP YOU FOR SUNDAY? “Just laps. I was moving around and found some different lines that worked when my tires were doing different things. Having additional laps always helps.”
COLIN BRAUN – No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 – (finished 28th, qualified 9th) – “We had a solid truck there on the restart. I thought we had a flat tire and we didn’t. Those guys had a heck of truck they built out there. I thought we had a solid top five truck and it’s a shame we couldn’t bring it home for everybody. The worked real hard on it and it certainly was really good.” YOU DID A GREAT JOB SAVING IT ON THE SPIN. “Yeah, we kind of got stuck in that position where we were trying to get down to the bottom and it was one of those deals where I knew I couldn’t stop in front of everybody. At the same time, I knew I could go all the way down. We were just an incident bystander there and ended up spinning. It was too bad, but I guess we’ll move on and learn from that.”
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