Ford Drivers Talk Atlanta Motor Speedway

 

ERIK DARNELL – No. 96 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford Fusion – “Obviously, I’m very excited to be in this position that I’m in right now. It’s kind of a little bit unexpected, I guess, it kind of all happened in a hurry, but I feel very fortunate to be in this position. I’m very excited about making my first start this weekend. Atlanta is a track that I really like. I’ve run well here in the trucks in the past. It’s gonna be a little bit of a challenge, a learning curve for me. I haven’t spent much time in a Cup car before, the COT car, doing testing or anything like that, so it’s gonna take a little bit for me to get up to speed, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. Those guys have a great team put together over there with the Academy Outdoor Sports Fusion and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I think it’s gonna be a fun weekend.” 

 

HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS WEEKEND? “A little bit of both. Obviously, I have to go there and show that I’m able to do this and I’m capable of doing this in a Sprint Cup car because this is where I want to be down the line. To tell you the honest truth, I don’t know that I have anything lined up next year yet on the Nationwide side or the Cup side or anything like that, so I think this is kind of my opportunity to go out there and show that I can run in these cars. Realistically, for this weekend I don’t think I could put a finishing position or a number on it, but I think, for us, it’s gonna be to go out, be solid in practice, make changes to the car to make it faster, qualify well and run all the laps. That’s the big goal for this weekend. If you’re sitting on jack stands, you’re not learning anything, so, for me, it’s gonna be going out there and just running all the laps and trying to get a good finish out of this and proving myself. I think that’s a big thing. I’d like to earn a chance to race one of these things next year and this is my opportunity to do it with these seven races right here, so I’ve just got to go out and be solid and, hopefully, everything will kind of fall into place.” 

 

HOW MUCH DID THIS CATCH YOU OFF GUARD? “It was a little bit unexpected. I didn’t really know a whole lot about it before it actually happened. As far as I was concerned, I had seven more Nationwide races this year and that was gonna be it for me, so it kind of came out of the blue. But I guess the sponsors had been talking about doing something a little bit and I’m fortunate to have Academy Outdoor Sports and Northern Tool + Equipment that want to do this with me, but, honestly, it just kind of came out of nowhere. Everything has come together really quick. They had to go put seats in the car this week and had to go talk to the team and talk to the crew chief and try to gel with them a little bit before we came out here this weekend, so it did happen in a hurry, but, so far, everything has been going very well and I look forward to going out on the track and seeing what I can do with the car.” 

 

DO YOU THINK IF YOU DO WELL THIS COULD LEAD TO SOMETHING NEXT YEAR? “That’s what I’m hoping, but, to be honest with you, right now, I don’t really know what’s gonna happen next year yet. I didn’t have anything lined up on the Nationwide side as of now, that I know of, so, for me, this is my chance to go out and kind of prove myself. Hopefully, we run well. Hopefully, we have some good finishes that can turn into something for next year. That’s what I hope for and that’s what I would I would definitely like to see happen because I do want to make it to the Sprint Cup tour one day. Being a young racer, this has always been my dream to make it to this level and this is gonna be my chance to go out there and show what I can do, but as far as plans for next year or anything set in stone, there’s nothing there yet. It’s all gonna depend on these seven races. Hopefully, they go well and we can turn that into something, but as far as these go, that’s all I’ve got right now.” 

 

WERE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THIS ENDING BOBBY LABONTE’S CONSECUTIVE RACE STREAK? “Yeah, I think so and I’ve got nothing but respect for Bobby Labonte and what he’s done in this sport. Obviously, he’s a champion and a great race car driver, and I don’t think this necessarily had anything to do with him. I think this was Yates Racing had races that needed sponsorship and we were able to bring a little bit of that over to him. Obviously, being with Roush Fenway Racing and coming up through their truck and Nationwide program, they have an affiliation with them. Ultimately, down the line they probably wanted to get me in some Cup races eventually anyway, but with the way it is over there right now with five cars – they’ve got to go down to four next year and I don’t really think they had too much room to do that – so when this opportunity opened up, they said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ Again, I really feel like these seven races are gonna be my chance, my shot to show that I can make it at the Cup level and if this doesn’t work out, I don’t know where that puts me for next year, but, obviously, we had the sponsorship, they had the races open, and they said, ‘Go for it.’ It’s nothing against Bobby Labonte. I kind of felt bad for him. I was happy to see he’s in that 71 car this weekend. I like him. He’s a class act 100 percent, but with the way the sport is these days money is a big thing. Fortunately, North Tool + Equipment was able to bring some of that to the Cup deal and we’ll roll with it from there, but this is my shot. It’s nothing against Bobby, but I’m glad to be in the car and fortunate to be in this opportunity.” 

 

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGE OF GETTING TO THIS POINT? “I feel grateful that Roush gave me three years in the trucks to go out there and kind of learn the tracks and racing in these full-bodied cars is something that I wasn’t used to running short-track late model stuff growing up. I feel like the truck series stuff could have gone a little better than it did, but we had some good results. I ended up fourth in the points last year, obviously, and I really feel like the Nationwide Series we’ve run very competitively over there this year. I think we ran up front and had a possible shot to win at Darlington. We sat on the pole at Milwaukee. The Nationwide stuff has been going very well and because of that, it kind of gave me my shot to do this. I think eventually, they wanted to try and see if I could do it at the Cup level and they wanted to put me in a car and see what I can do, and I guess this was the time to do it. I feel I’ve kind of proven myself in the lower two series and this is gonna be my shot and this is gonna be my chance to do it. I’m thankful to them for giving me the opportunity to kind of develop in the lower series and, hopefully, this is gonna show that I can do it at the Sprint Cup level and I can do this on Sundays because we’ve been doing it on Fridays and Saturdays for a while.” 

 

HOW DO YOU NOT OVERDRIVE UP HERE AND SHOW YOU CAN DO IT IN A CAR MANY VETERANS ARE STILL STRUGGLING WITH? “It’s definitely gonna be tough. There’s a lot on my plate, not only for this weekend, but the six races following this. Again, I haven’t really tested one of these things very much, but in the little bit of testing that I’ve done, they’re way different than a Nationwide car, they’re way different than a truck. They’re harder to drive. They’ve got more horsepower, but I almost feel that benefits me as a driver. I don’t know why, but for whatever reason a couple years ago when we had more horsepower, I seemed to do better with those things – when you actually had a little bit of throttle to control the car – obviously those drive a little better than these do, but it’s gonna be tough, there’s no question about it, especially being a rookie in this deal and making my first start at Atlanta. But, like I said, with what I’ve done up to this point, with the series that I’ve run, with the tracks I’ve run at, I think we’ve had some pretty good results, and at one point you’re gonna have to make this step and do it and this is it for me. It’s gonna be tough, but I’m gonna go out and learn with the team. Those guys are an established team and we’ve got an established crew chief, and they’ve been together for a while, so they should be able to help me out a little bit with that. Plus, I’ve got some good teammates and some good people I can talk to at Roush Fenway with their experienced Cup drivers, and I’m sure they’ll be able to help me out a little bit, but at one point down the line it’s gonna come to where you’re gonna have to take this step and this is it for me. There’s a lot of pressure, but I think we’ll be all right.” 

 

YOU’RE BACKING UP CARL IN THE NATIONWIDE RACE. WHAT WOULD YOUR GAMEPLAN BE? “That was originally the plan, but Max Jones and Jack kind of talked to each other and said that I’ve got a lot on my plate this week and just trying to concentrate on the Cup race, so Matt Kenseth is gonna be on standby for Carl for the Nationwide car now, which is good for me to let me focus on the Cup car at least for this weekend.” 

 

IS THIS TRACK BETTER THAN MOST TO MAKE DEBUT OR HARDER THAN MOST? “It’s probably a little bit of both. Like I said, I’ve run well here in the trucks before. I feel like I know the track pretty well. It’s gonna be a completely different beast doing it in a Cup car, though. If they had given me the opportunity to start on a mile track or a half-mile track – Martinsville, Bristol, Phoenix or a Loudon – it might have been a little bit easier kind of getting into this, but there’s no question it’s gonna be tough. This is a place that I really enjoy running at. It’s got high speeds. It can kind of go either way with that one, but I’m looking forward to getting out there and doing this. It’s gonna be a challenge. It’s gonna be tough, but I think we can do it.”

 

 

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK ON MAKING THE CHASE? “We’ve got to beat all the guys we’re around to get in. There are about five or six guys that are really close in the points and whoever outperforms the rest of them will make it in, so we’ve just got to go out and run as hard as we can and hope our results will be good enough.” 

 

HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR RESULTS WILL BE AT THESE TWO PLACES? “I honestly have no idea. I don’t really know. I feel like our stuff has been running better lately, like we’ve been gaining a little bit of momentum and have been a little more competitive and we’ve been doing a good job on pit road and all the things we need to do, but you just never know. You’ve just got to come and race for 500 miles and get the best you can out of it.” 

 

IS THERE MORE STRESS SINCE YOU’VE MADE EVERY CHASE SO FAR? “You maybe think about it a little bit more when you’re not in the race car, but I don’t know if there’s necessarily more stress. You have 26 weeks to try to make the chase and these are just the last two weeks. Each race you have to do the best job you can and put forth the best effort you can and get as many points as you can. Through certain parts of the year we probably haven’t capitalized on all the races we could have and got all the points we could have, so we’re in this spot and we just have to race as hard as we can and do the things we know how to do and hope that’s good enough.” 

 

DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE GUYS YOU’RE BATTLING IN THE POINTS ARE ON THE TRACK? “No, not anymore or less than I would any other race. I don’t really keep track of what anybody else is doing. The only car that we can control the outcome of and how it runs and how it performs is our own car, so we really just concentrate on that. Certainly, we’ll look at it when the race is over and wonder where everybody else finished and how you’re stacking up in the points, but during the race, really, you’re just trying to race all the cars on the track and get the best finish you can.” 

 

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE POINTS-WISE GOING INTO RICHMOND? “You want to be 150 points ahead of the bubble is where you really want to be so you could start at Richmond, but that’s probably not realistic, so you want to have as many points ahead of 13^th as you possibly can.”

 

 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PRESSURE, IF THERE IS ANY, AT THIS POINT? “Certainly there’s a lot of pressure. We’ve got to run well here and we didn’t run well here in the spring. This is a good race track for us, though, so we know we just have to execute good and get our car right for this race and do the best we can. We know it’s not gonna be perfect. We know we’ve got a little ways to go, our program is off a little bit company wide. But we’re gonna fight tooth-and-nail and certainly not give up.” 

 

DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE CHASE DRIVERS ARE ON THE TRACK? “Yeah, you kind of know when you’re out there but you don’t pay that close of attention. You have an idea of where they’re at, especially if you’re racing right around them, but you can’t really consume yourself too much with that. You just do the best you can.” 

 

DO YOU CHANGE THE WAY YOU DRIVE THESE LAST TWO RACES AND PLAY IT SAFE? “I don’t think we can. I don’t think we can play it safe. Our goal here Sunday is to stay on the lead lap and try to get a top-five, top-10 finish. Certainly, we’re here to win, but so far it doesn’t look like we’re gonna be fast enough to win, but our focus is to run good. We’re not gonna change our gameplan now. We’re gonna focus on what we have been for the last 20 weeks.” 

 

DOES IT HURT MORE IF YOUR RIGHT FOOT IS BROKEN COMPARED TO YOUR LEFT WHEN DRIVING ONE OF THESE THINGS? “One would think, ‘Boy, ‘I’d rather have it be my left foot because you’re using the gas pedal all day,’ but the other thing is the gas pedal is much easier to push than the brake pedal. The brake pedal is hard to push. You’ve got to stop in the pit box. If there’s a wreck in front of you. You’ve got to get on the brakes to get to pit road. You’ve got to push on that pedal hard, I mean, really hard, so I would think that the gas pedal may end up being easier on the foot because the gas pedal is pretty soft.” 

 

YOU GIVING CARL SOME GRIEF ABOUT THIS ACCIDENT? “Yeah. I haven’t talked to him yet, but I told him that if he needed help getting around the garage area my motorhome driver is available with a golf cart, but I was talking to Matt or Jamie and I said, ‘At least he could say he was playing rugby or football or scaling a mountain or something,’ but playing Frisbee. It’s fun to joke about, I guess.” 

 

YOU HAD YOUR BOAT DOCK INCIDENT. THESE THINGS HAPPEN. “You can get hurt doing the easiest and dumbest things. I fell down on the corner of a platform on the back of my ribs two days before Bristol of all places. Stuff happens, I guess.” 

 

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO GO TO YOUR CAR OWNER AND TELL THEM SOMETHING LIKE THAT? “That’s tough. I hate those phone calls. Those are probably the hardest.” 

 

SOME NFL PLAYERS SAID THE OTHER DAY THAT THEY THING YOU GUYS ARE TOUGH ATHLETES. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? “We respect all kinds of sports and it’s good that those guys in other sports give us respect because this isn’t easy. The thing you’ve got to remember is there are no timeouts, no breaks, no water break – nothing. I’m not saying football or any other sport you can sit down, but there are innings, you’re up to bat or back out on the field – offense, defense – so you do get a little breathing time. This is four-and-a-half hours and alligators are trying to eat you. There’s no rest for the weary. It’s tough, but it’s cool that they give us props and know how tough it really is.” 

 

MENTAL TOUGHNESS TOO. “That’s part of this sport. You’re in there for that period of time, it’s that hot, it’s easy to relax or lose concentration and focus and you can’t do that inside these cars.”

 

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF GETTING IN AND OUT OF THE CAR? “The race car is really the simplest part of having a foot injury. I feel for all the folks who have to go around on crutches. That’s a lot harder than it looks just to do everything, so it’ll be a little bit of a learning experience for me. I’m always up for a challenge, but my big thing is I just hope this heals up to where it’s a zero issue in the race car, where I don’t feel anything here in the next couple of weeks. That would be really nice, but right now it’s pretty good. It’s not perfect, though.” 

 

WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES DURING PRACTICE? “The biggest challenge in practice was in the Save-a-Lot Nationwide car. You spend so much time wide-open in that car. In the past, I’ve had a habit of bending pedals because I feel like the harder I push on that pedal the faster the car goes, and now I have to really, really push on it softly, so that’s been a little bit tough. The Cup car is pretty good.” 

 

WHAT IS THE PAIN LIKE? “The pain isn’t that bad unless I push too hard on the pedal and, trust me, I know right when I push too hard on the pedal. But I’m very fortunate. The two bones I broke, broke in a manner they said was one in a million. It could have been pretty bad, so as long as I just don’t walk on it or push anything too hard, I should be all right.” 

 

DO YOU HAVE A RELIEF DRIVER TONIGHT? “Yeah, Matt Kenseth is gonna help me out tonight if we need anything, which I thought was pretty cool. I’ve had really great support from all my teammates – Matt, Greg, and everyone – and then for tomorrow I’m not quite sure what we’ve got yet, but I think Travis Kvapil has offered to help out, so both of those guys are champions so that would be great to have them.” 

 

WHAT KIND OF PROTECTION DO YOU HAVE FOR THE FOOT? “What they did was they said they could put a cast on it, but then I couldn’t remove it. So what they gave me was a walking-type boot that I’ll wear all the time, except for when I’m in the car, and then Mid Mo Orthodics made a carbon piece for the bottom of my shoe and then a form-fitting piece of plastic that goes on top of that, so the sole is rigid. They say as long as I keep my shoe laced up tight, as long as that stays rigid, I can’t really do any damage.” 

 

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO HEAL? “If everything goes right and goes well, and I don’t injure it any further, they say eight weeks is how long I have to wear that boot. But I’m hoping a little bit of strength will come back. I only need about 10-20 percent of the strength in those bones to drive like I normally do. It’s just walking, running and things like that which are gonna require that full eight weeks.” 

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON MAKING IT THROUGH BOTH RACES? “That first practice session didn’t go that well in the Nationwide car. It took me a little while to get used to it, but the Cup car was great. I felt almost 100 percent, so that was good.” 

 

HOW MUCH RIBBING HAVE YOU GOTTEN? “I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I want to go play Frisbee. I don’t want to go play Frisbee right now.” 

 

IS IT A SECOND ‘F’ WORD YOU CAN USE? “Yeah, Frisbee is not four letters, but it’s an ‘F’ word for sure.” 

 

ANY PAIN MEDICATION? “I’m not taking any pain medication at all and I don’t plan on taking any. The only thing that I would do is if, after the race on Sunday night, if I couldn’t sleep or something like that I might take something, but, right now, I haven’t gone and filled any prescriptions or anything.” 

 

WHAT WAS JACK’S REACTION? “Jack’s reaction was something along the lines was, ‘You just can’t go a day without showing everybody how dumb you are, can you.’ (Laughing) That’s how Jack is. When I hurt my thumb I told him I thought it was gonna be all right and he said, ‘Damn straight it’s gonna be all right.’ At least he can see the humor in it. He understands. We’re gonna race no matter what, it’s just up to me.” 

 

WHEN DO YOU HAVE THE MOST PAIN IN THE CAR? “It’s really simple. The harder I push on the pedal that’s when it hurts the most – when I push hard. So what I’m trying to do is get out of my habits because, as a driver, that’s just one of your inputs. There are times when I slap the throttle pedal really hard and I just can’t do that right now, so I’m just having to be a little more tentative and think a little harder about my throttle application.” 

 

WHAT IF YOU WIN? NO BACKFLIP? “I hate to say it, but I probably won’t be doing a backflip for six to eight months no matter how many races we win. But it was pretty cool yesterday at the Aflac Cancer Center. Jody Lawrence, the girl who designed my car, she said, ‘It’s no problem. I’ll be there and I can do a backflip,’ so Jodi volunteered to do one if we won on Sunday. The car is pretty good, so she better be ready.” 

 

IS THIS MORE EMBARRASING THAN JIMMIE FALLING OFF A GOLF CART? “I don’t know. It is what it is. You could get hurt doing anything. Of all the things I’ve done the last few weeks are things I do all the time. I never thought I’d break a bone playing Frisbee. I rode my motorcycle to the University where we were playing Frisbee, so I just guess you never know. Things happen.” 

 

INSIDE IS IT FRUSTRATING TO BE IN THIS SITUATION? “There’s nothing I can do about it. Things happen.  When I went into the hospital the other day I walked through the front door on some crutches and there was a guy sitting there that was missing the bottom half of one of his legs, so I have nothing to complain about. I can still do my job pretty well. I think we’re as fast as anyone in race trim. I was a little bit nervous before I got in the car, but I guess it’s just one more thing. I think we’ll be all right.” 

 

ANY CONSIDERATION OF GIVING UP THE NATIONWIDE SCHEDULE? “No. I’m gonna race every lap that I can. If I can physically do it, I’m gonna do it.” 

 

HOW MUCH DOES THIS TRACK CHANGE AT NIGHT? “We just saw in practice when the sun came out the track slowed way down, so I think when the sun goes down and the track cools off, it’s gonna be a lot faster race track. The setups are gonna be different. The amount the cars are traveling is gonna change, and I think there’s gonna be a premium for crew chiefs that can predict how the cars are gonna handle in really cool weather.” 

 

HOW MUCH PRESSURE DO GUYS ON THE BUBBLE FEEL NOW? “I feel like I’m on the bubble still, but I know what that pressure is about. In 2005, that race at Richmond took a lot out of me. There was so much stress trying to make it into the chase and it’s tough. I can imagine that those guys right now are feeling really, really, really stress.” 

 

DO YOU FEEL ON THE BUBBLE? “A little bit. I mean, anything can happen. Until we’re mathematically in it, I’m not resting on anything. We’ve got to go out and win this race.” 

 

WOULD YOU HAVE FELT BETTER IF YOU BROKE YOUR FOOT DOING SOMETHING MACHO? “When it happened, we all kind of sat there and looked at each other. My buddy said, ‘We can come up with something a lot better than Frisbee,’ and I said, ‘No, everybody would find out anyways.’ I enjoy Frisbee. It’s fun. Those stories are true. It is a dangerous, dangerous sport – I’m here to tell you. (Laughing). It’s just what it is. You can hurt yourself doing anything.   The great thing as far as my sponsor is concerned, I didn’t even think about it until afterwards, they called my wife and sent us the claim sheet and I get a check for breaking two bones in my foot, so I understand how Aflac works now really well.” 

 

WHAT DID YOUR WIFE SAY? “Kate helped me out a lot. She got me in to get an x-ray right away and that was really nice of her to help me. She didn’t really say much. She expects nothing less out of me I’m sure.” 

 

HOW WAS THE WEATHER CHANNEL LAST NIGHT? “We had fun at the Weather Channel. That was cool. We used my crutch to point to tropical disturbances on the big wall. Jim Cantore and those guys are really fun. I had a good time.” 

 

NO CONCERN GETTING OUT OF THE CAR REALLY FAST? “I can get in and out of the car really fast, I’ll just be laying on the ground. I won’t be standing up, but I can get out of the car well. I wasn’t sure how that was gonna work, but getting in and out I realized I don’t use my right foot for anything, so that’s good.” 

 

ARE GUYS SETTING UP FOR SHORT RUNS MORE NOW WITH THESE DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS? “We talked about that and there are races where that looks like the smart thing to do, but my hope is these double-file restarts will get calmed down and somehow people will get better at it and we won’t have as many of them. But as it stands right now, it was just short runs and I really suffered because of that. We usually set up for the long run, but it just depends on the track.” 

 

SO YOU’RE CHANGING YOUR WAY OF THINKING? “We’re not really changing anything yet. I’m still holding onto the idea we’re gonna have longer runs.” WHY? “Because when you do, you don’t want to have a bad car. That’s not good. By definition, if you have a short run and have a car set up for a long run, you’re only gonna suffer for a short amount of time. If you have a short run car and you go a couple long runs, you’re gonna be in deep trouble.” 

 

IS THIS ABOUT MENTAL TOUGHNESS, TOO? “Mental toughness to me is a picture of Ricky Rudd with his eyelids taped open. This is nothing. I’m doing fine.” 

 

GLAD THERE’S NO ROAD COURSE? “I left-foot brake. I only use my right foot for the throttle, so it’s not bad.”