Ambrose Finishes 9th as Edwards Regains Points Lead in New Hampshire
GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 18th)
THAT WAS A HECK OF AN UP AND DOWN DAY FOR YOU TODAY. “It was. I think it was way better. We had a pretty good race. You know, at the end there we were too short on gas and couldn’t do what the 39 and those guys did. We did what the cards were dealt to us. That is the kind of car we had. I think we did as well as we could with what we had today.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 14th)
"I think we had a top-10 to top-15 UPS Ford here today. Track position and strategy meant so much and Drew did a nice job of playing that game all day. We were kind of hoping for less cautions there near the end, and we were saving fuel. Some of our counterparts were able to make it but we wouldn't have, so we saved a little gas at the end. To get a top 15 at one of our worst tracks is good for our team. I can't wait to get to Pocono and Michigan and Bristol, we've got a good season going and I can't wait to get to some of these tracks where we know we run well at."
AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 12th)
YOU LOOK ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED, MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY. “Yeah, it was that kind of day today. The hose fell off on lap three for the cooler. It was pretty warm in there. We got it back on for a little bit, but it fell back off again. The car was so fast in the beginning, it was ridiculous. It was a joke actually how fast the car was in the beginning but you have idiots that just panic and try to turn down and stop in the middle of pit road. It is like the seas parted and the 71 was sitting there. I tried to lock it up but I hit him in the exact wrong spot and it killed our fender. From there it was an uphill battle. You get in the back here and you are in trouble. If we would have had no damage and been back there we would have drove back up through the field but the thing was tight. We were gouging each other back there just trying to get anything, any kind of space. Overall it was a decent day finish wise. I am really proud of all these guys for the race car that they built there. It was ridiculous, it was fast. We just got hosed there. We got something decent out of it, not what we wanted but something decent to salvage and we go on to the next race.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 13th)
OTHER DRIVERS ARE SITTING DOWN ON THE WALL, YOU ARE BARELY SWEATING. “We don’t sit down, come on. I thought that was a 400 lap race. They called it short I guess. I think Jimmie was sitting down on the pit wall because he is intimidated by our points lead right now. No, we had fun. That was a very fun race. It is fitting we have Aflac for a sponsor because I feel like I was buying insurance at the end. I was letting those guys go by one point at a time thinking that if we had a green-white-checkered we could win this thing. I knew we could lose more than we could gain there. It is hard to back up like that but it worked out.”
YOU ENDED UP PRETTY GOOD COMPARED WITH HOW YOU STARTED. “Yeah. I was not sure, no clue, how we would be. I was really pretty concerned. To finish the day running as strong as we did, there were points I felt we could go up there and lead the thing. I think it was a good day.”
HOW CRUCIAL IS IT TO HAVE A SOLID RACE TO GET PREPPED FOR THE NEXT TIME YOU ARE BACK? “It is really big to have a solid day here. It is important for all the mechanics and engineers and stuff like that that you learn but also for your confidence to know that when we come back here we can play the strategy game and fuel mileage. We actually passed a couple cars so it was good.”
YOU REGAINED THE POINTS LEAD TODAY, HOW BIG IS THAT FOR YOU? “I think it is pretty big. There is a lot of pride in that. I can tell by looking at all these 48 guys they are scared, they are intimidated right now (laughter). It was a really good day, I am very proud of it right now.”
DAVID GILLILAND, No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Finished 25th)
“That was a long day. We were tight, since we have been here really and never could get it out. We made a lot of changes on the car but never could roll the center like we needed to. We salvaged a 25th place finish which is actually a lot better finish than the car should have been.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Affliction Clothing Ford Fusion (Finished 20th)
I don’t think 20th is good no matter what. There were a couple runs where we were okay in the long run and terrible in the short run. It seems like whenever I had track position we are always behind with the way we pitted. Most cars behind me had new tires and we didn’t and we just got ate up.”
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