MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 59 Kingsford with Hickory Ford Fusion – (finished 2nd, qualified 4th, started 40th after clutch change) – ON THE INCIDENT WITH BORIS SAID. “If I could take it back, I would.; I didn’t mean to get into Boris; I really like him.; He’s a great racer and I’ve idolized him in the past and I still do.; If I could wind the clock back, I would.; It’s just hard racing up there.; He checked up in the middle of the corner.; I was getting something from behind and I wanted to defend my position.; Our bumper bars just hooked and it just turned him around.; It was just the craziest thing I’ve seen.; I feel bad for him.; I can’t take it back. We’re proud of our day.; We’ve driven well and we’ve got a team behind us. We’re back in the points and we’re having a great day.”
MARCOS AMBROSE PRESS CONFERENCE
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 59 Kingsford with Hickory Ford Fusion – (finished 2nd, qualified 4th) - We’re really pleased.; I feel like we had been battling all day.; We had an overheating motor there at the end.; We had to start at the back with a clutch problem and that was still there in the race and we had to watch that.; Then we had to come from the back again because we miscalculated the fuel and we had an ignition stall.; Then we had a penalty on pit lane and had to come from the back again.; It had just been a day of fighting. I really want to first apologize to Boris on one of those restarts.; I got into him and spun him out and ended his day. I just want to answer those questions now before they come up.; I feel bad for him but our day has been fantastic and I’m really proud of my Kingsford guys.; We fought all day and never gave up.; I think if we had another two laps we would have had something for Kyle because he was really starting to go off.; I’m proud of my finish.; This is my best finish since I’ve been in NASCAR.; I’ve got to be pleased.”; DID YOU MAKE A CONSCIENCE DECISION TODAY TO DRIVE LIKE THE TASMANIAN DEVIL? “Yeah, you’re in the whole.; We’ve had a tough year.; We really wanted to have a strong day today.; You’re not going to go and pass 43 cars 15 times like we did today without being aggressive.; And you’ve got to be in this racing to try and come through.; It was really tough racing.; It’s some of the hardest racing I’ve ever done there that last 20 laps.; Then you’ve got Carl [Edwards] and Kyle [Busch] and Scott [Pruett], they’re the best in the business.; We’re hanging on the best we can and trying to race.; It’s pretty awesome.; I’ll probably look back at this race as probably one of my best races in just having to fight all day. Everything was against us, but we fought all day and came through.” I KNOW YOU APOLOGIZED BUT BORIS SEEMED PRETTY INTENT ON GETTING REVENGE SOME DAY AND HE DID TALK TO YOUR CREW CHIEF. “There’s no point in getting in the crew chief’s face because he’s not driving the car.; I’m going to ring him on Monday and hopefully sleep will help him just think through things a little bit more.; I value Boris’ friendship and he is a fantastic racer.; I didn’t mean to do it.; I don’t know what happened, to be honest with you.; I had pretty square contact and all of a sudden, he’s up speed and off to the left.; I caught his rear bumper bar in mine.; I don’t know what happened, it wasn’t intentional.; Racing happens.; Look at the deal last year with Robby Gordon.; Bad stuff happens out there and it’s unfortunate.; I’ll apologize to him to his face.; I’ll apologize to him today in front of the media.; I can’t take it back.; I wish I didn’t do it.; I don’t know how it happened and that’s all I can really say. If he wants to come talk to me about it, I’d like to sit down and just find some common ground.; It’s just unfortunate that that stuff happens but that’s what racing is all about.; That’s what fans turn out for.”
MARCOS AMBROSE (continued) IS THIS FINISH SOMETHING YOU CAN CARRY ON? “I hope so. It’s been a good day for us.; I’m really proud of the Kingsford guys.; Another two laps, I think we would have had the win.; I was really closing on Kyle. I was either going to spin out or win because I was going to give it everything I had.; If I could have gotten within shooting distance, I was going to shoot and try to make a run at him.; I’m just really proud of my guys.; We’re fighting in this championship.; We’re fighting to stay alive.; I feel like I’m a part of NASCAR.; I just really, desperately want to do well.; Today we did well and we’ve just got to keep carrying it on. Who knows what is going to happen in the future, but hopefully this will be a catalyst for better things.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Scotts Water Smart Ford Fusion – (finished 4th, qualified 3rd) – “That was fun.; We just lost track position.; We had a car that could win the race.; That’s good.; It’s too weeks in a row that we’ve been good.; I’m really proud of the Water Smart guys, Scotts, Vitamin Water and everybody.; My crew did a great job and it’s just too bad we got caught up on that caution but we got to fight back and my hats off to Kyle Busch and everybody on that 20 team, they did a great job.; That’s three in a row for them.; The good thing is that’s two weeks in a row that we’ve had a car that can win.; That’s good.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion – (finished 22nd, qualified 22nd) – “It’s all about track position at this road courses.; When we were back there in the back, we struggled to pass.; We had a good enough car that we could have run in the top 10, it’s just all about track position.; We’ve made the right call and stayed out and caught a couple of good cautions.; Up there in the top five, I thought we were set, and then the 22 [Ruben Pardo] spun us out there.; It was kind of a rough day.; There was a lot of beating and banging.; It could have been a lot better but we’ll just have to learn from it.”
KELLY BIRES – No. 47 Clorox Ford Fusion – (finished 31st, qualified 18th) – “Well, we were going to have a good day. We had our pit strategy worked out where we would have easily have been a top-15 car if the cautions didn’t come.; All those cautions at the end of the race hurt us.; We still would have been a top-20 car and probably finished 15th or so and just broke the clutch.; I think it was with one lap to go, down the back short shoot and just lost the clutch.; There’s nothing you can do.; It was a part failure.; Otherwise we did a good job.; My first road race, I learned a ton.; We’ll come back and go to Montreal and we’ll be a lot better.” YOU SEEM REALLY PLEASED. “I am.; But I’m disappointed in the end result with our finish, because it we should have had a solid day.; It hurt us in points, but there’s nothing you can do about it.; We ran hard all day and we were on the track all day. We did everything we needed to do. We just didn’t get the luck on the last two laps to get to the end.; Otherwise it was a good day.” YOU WERE RUNNING IN THE TOP FIVE MIDWAY THROUGH THE RACE, WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND? “I just concentrating on hitting my marks and driving smooth.; Road racing is all about being smooth and consistent. We had a pretty darn good car at the end we got a little bit free on both left-handers and right-handers which slowed us down a little bit, but it was a pretty solid car all day.; It was good enough to be a top-15 car.; We’ll learn from this, go to Montreal and be that much better.”
COLIN BRAUN – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – (finished 33rd, qualified 1st) – “I think at the end there the 3M Ford Fusion was the fastest car on the race track.; I think we had a car that definitely could have won the race.; Right there in the middle of the race, we were just sitting there, biding our time taking care of our stuff.; I’m trying to figure out where our car needed to be right at the end.; I came in for that pit stop and that wheel got away from us for a little bit, but we made some adjustments on the car though.; We were real fast right at the back and got caught up and spun out there by the 33 [Hornaday Jr.]. I guess that’s racing.; After that, we kind of came back in and changed that tire and fixed the front bar because we drug it off having the flat tire.; When we came back out, we were ahead of the leaders and I just basically pulled away from there.; I had a real fast car.; It’s unfortunate the way the events turned out.; We certainly had a fast car.”
BORIS SAID – No. 25 No Fear/Team Smithfield Ford Fusion – (finished 35th, qualified 5th) – “My team Ford Fusion driver Marcos Ambrose just cheap shotted me and took me out.; He hooked my left rear in turn one.; He had me sideways for a while and then just turned me around.; I’m disappointed for everybody at No Fear and Advanced Auto Parts and Rensi Racing.; I’m not going to cry about it, but I’m going to go apologize to his crew chief because it’s going to cost him a car.” A PRETTY TOUGH DAY OUT THERE FOR YOU. “We were in great position.; I just want to thank Ed Rensi and Ronnie Russell; they gave me a great Ford Fusion today and Smithfield Foods.; I just feel really embarrassed for my sponsors, No Fear energy drink and Advanced Auto Parts.” THERE’S A LOT OF CAUTIONS OUT THERE, WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE IS GOING ON?; “Well, there’s bumping and banging and then there’s cheap shots and that was a cheap shot.; Everything else that I saw was good, clean, hard, rough racing.”