FordMuscle.com http://www.fordmuscle.com Ford Mustang and Ford Muscle Car Blog Tue, 14 May 2013 20:14:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 2014 Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/2014-hennessey-velociraptor-suv/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/2014-hennessey-velociraptor-suv/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 20:14:27 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7303 Read More...]]>

Hennessey has recently released their version of the Raptor in which they call the VelociRaptor and they have made it into a SUV. What are your thoughts?

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This limited edition one of a kind vehicle is available to the select few to require the ultimate in transportation. For more information contact a Hennessey Sales Representative at 979-885-1300 or email us atSales@HennesseyPerformance.com.

 

 

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/2014-hennessey-velociraptor-suv/feed/ 0 Edwards Finishes Seventh at Darlington to Lead Ford Cup Teams http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/edwards-finishes-seventh-at-darlington-to-lead-ford-cup-teams/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/edwards-finishes-seventh-at-darlington-to-lead-ford-cup-teams/#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 19:17:22 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7298 Read More...]]>

DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Peanut Patch Boiled Peanuts Ford Fusion – “It looked like we got some trash on our grille, so we came down and we knew we were gonna lose a lap or two, but we were fortunate and we caught a caution so our penalty wasn’t gonna be that bad. We got some water put back in it and pulled some tape, and went back out and it skyrocketed temperature-wise again, so I don’t know if we’ve got something clogged up in our radiator duct work or the radiator itself, but we lost water a second time. I think it just lost a little bit too much water and got a little too hot. The engine ran great all night.   Our car was just way too tight to start the race and we didn’t get any cautions to work on it. Every single stop we were too afraid to pull rubbers and do big adjustments just because we didn’t want to spend a lot of time on pit road. It’s unfortunate not to finish the race here, but I’m proud of our guys. We worked hard and had a decent car. We’ll take some time to recuperate and get ready for the All-Star Race.” THAT’S THE NATURE OF THIS SPORT. YOU GO FROM WINNING LAST WEEK TO NOT FINISHING THIS WEEK. “Yeah, that’s how it goes sometimes. That’s a character-building weekend for sure. You’ve just got to work hard and stay focused and keep the right attitude. This is a very long season, so this isn’t it.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Geek Squad Ford Fusion – “We struggled a lot tonight and we ended up coming back to seventh, so I’m proud of our effort. But it’s like Jimmy and I talked about, we’re just missing something. We have been really good at this size of race track and I thought our Geek Squad Ford was gonna be really good. Qualifying was great, other than my mess up, but it was just a struggle all night. That’s a long race when you’re just hanging on to the lead lap and trying to make something happen.” HOW MENTALLY HARD IS IT WITH THAT MANY LONG GREEN FLAG RUNS? “I like the long green flag runs because you really have to dig down deep and focus really hard. It’s kind of fun because you take your mind off everything else and it’s one of the most enjoyable parts of the job are those long green flag runs. But it is tough when your car is not that great. Kyle and those guys are so fast and Jason Hedlesky and Jimmy, I could tell when their voice gets at a higher pitch and they’re telling me, ‘He’s a straightaway back. He’s three cars back.’ It’s pretty stressful, but at the end I had a lot of fun on the restarts.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Meguiar’s Ford Fusion – “It’s a little disappointing. I know it’s different being out front. The car will drive a lot different, but we still don’t have the grip that we need. We’re missing it ever since the season started with this car. We’ve got to figure it out.” IT’S DIFFICULT TO WORK ON IT WHEN YOU HAVE A RACE WITH SO FEW CAUTIONS AS WELL. “Yeah, but that wouldn’t have really helped. We’ve tested and practiced and are still struggling, so it’s something you can’t really fix on a pit stop. We’ll just have to keep working and try to figure it out.
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “We honestly weren’t that bad. We weren’t great, but I thought we were pretty good. Early on we had a tear-off on the front of the car that blocked the whole thing and we had to come in and get that off because it was overheating, so that put us a lap down. Then we left a right-rear tire loose and had to come in for that and were four laps down. And then there at the end we were just trying to get the wavearound and get a lap back and we got three-wide and I think the 27 got loose and got into us. It’s unfortunate, but the good thing about this weekend was that we had speed. I was pretty happy with the progress we made as a team. We just didn’t get a chance to show it.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “That’s not the result we wanted at all. That was a tough night. We fought hard, but just weren’t quite good enough. We were slipping and sliding all over the place, so we’ll regroup and go to Charlotte and have another go at it. It makes things really difficult when you don’t have very many opportunities to work on your car, but it is what it is.”
Ford Finishing Order:
7th – Carl Edwards
13th – Greg Biffle
18th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20th – Aric Almirola
22nd – Joey Logano
29th – David Gilliland
32nd – Brad Keselowski
34th – Marcos Ambrose
37th – Casey Mears
39th – David Ragan
]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/edwards-finishes-seventh-at-darlington-to-lead-ford-cup-teams/feed/ 0 Ragan Gives Front Row Motorsports First NASCAR Win As Ford Sweeps Top Three Spots At Talladega http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/ragan-gives-front-row-motorsports-first-nascar-win-as-ford-sweeps-top-three-spots-at-talladega/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/ragan-gives-front-row-motorsports-first-nascar-win-as-ford-sweeps-top-three-spots-at-talladega/#comments Tue, 07 May 2013 01:12:22 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7293 Read More...]]>
RAGAN WINS FIRST RACE FOR FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS
·         David Ragan registered the second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of his career and first at Talladega.
·         Tonight’s win is the first for Front Row Motorsports.
·         Ford now has 897 all-time NASCAR wins (NCWTS, NNS and NSCS combined).
·         Today’s win by Ragan is the first NSCS triumph for any active Ford driver at Talladega. It marks the 20th Ford victory at the 2.66-mile speedway and the second straight following Matt Kenseth’s victory last fall.
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Farm Rich Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “I’m kind of a low-key guy, but, man, I don’t know. First off, I’ve got to thank the Lord. Without him nothing is possible. I’ve got to thank my teammates David Gilliland and Josh Wise. If it wasn’t for that final push from David Gilliland, I don’t know what to say. This is a true David vs. Goliath moment here. Front Row Motorsports, Ford. I’ve got Farm Rich on our Ford this weekend, their first chance at a NASCAR race. They’re not all this easy, but this is special to get Front Row Motorsports their first win. It feels like I’ve never been here before.” WELCOME BACK TO VICTORY LANE. “You win these Sprint Cup races and you never want to be a guy that never wins one. You win one and you don’t want to be that guy that just wins one, you want to win two and win three. We love this place. Front Row Motorsports puts a little emphasis coming to Daytona and Talladega. The draft is a big equalizer and anything can happen. Our Farm Rich Ford was fast. We made the right pit calls all day. Our pit crew was flawless and we were just in the right place at the right time. I had a great teammate. David Gilliland gave us a great push. I owe him a lot. I’ll definitely buy him lunch this week or something. Josh Wise, everybody that works so hard. We’re a small team. We build our own chassis, our own bodies. I can’t thank Ford Racing, Doug Yates, Robert Yates and Jack Roush enough.   Man, it’s a special moment for all of our partners here. This is big.” HOW DID YOU WIN? “We were gonna be happy with 18th or 20th on the first big rain storm. We had three cars that didn’t have any scratches on them. We think about winning the race, certainly, but we also think about our race cars and getting ready for Daytona in July. Our car drove good. We put four tires on there the second-to-last stop because we were gonna do fuel only there at the end, and then on my restart I got a great start. I was pushing the 43 and I wanted to stay with that 43, but the 20 had been the class of the field all day. Matt Kenseth kind of pushed me to a win at Daytona a year or two ago, so I decided to stay with Matt and then coming off of turn two he was blocking everybody and I had a great run. The 38 pushed me like there was no tomorrow and, again, I can’t say enough about our Front Row Motorsports team. David Gilliland and Josh Wise, two great friends, and, again, thank the Lord for everything that he’s given us today.” WHAT IS THIS LIKE NOW TO WIN FOR THIS TEAM? “I can only imagine what it felt like back in 1988 when Mark Martin got that first win for Jack Roush or when Geoff Bodine won that first race for Hendrick Motorsports. I’m sure it was just as special. A lot of these guys have been to victory lane in the Sprint Cup Series and late model racing, short tracks, ARCA – all kinds of series – but to do it here at Talladega in 2013, like I said, it’s a true David vs. Goliath story. I couldn’t be more proud to play my own role.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “That was crazy. I blocked everybody I could. I was doing everything I could. I blocked Matt and I thought, ‘Oh, we’ve got it.’ And then I saw Jimmie coming and I blocked him and I thought, ‘Who is that back there?’ It was this Ford freight train coming and I just couldn’t stay in front of them. David did everything but wreck me. He did everything right and I still thought he was gonna wreck when he was looking in his mirror and he almost hit the apron and he wiggled coming to the line, so I thought we still might get this thing, but it’s awesome for David Ragan. We were gonna win the race if it rained, and then I thought we were still gonna win this thing and it just wasn’t meant to be. But it’s the most fun I’ve had at Talladega.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – “I’m just really proud of my team for keeping me going. We were involved in two big wrecks and managed to finish 14th with the car. It’s not the day we wanted, but it’s a day we’re proud of.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED? “We’re not sure. In looking at the ECU data it doesn’t make sense. You look at the water gauge and it was really high, but the oil temperature was fairly low, so it looked like a gauge was broke from my view. We communicated about it during the race and decided that it was a gauge that was broke, but eventually it blew up. I don’t know. We’re thinking maybe an air pocket somehow got in the water system, but it doesn’t make sense. We’ll look into it and we’ll come up with the answers, but it’s a bummer when you’re sitting third when it was raining and now you don’t finish the race. I wish it would have kept raining.”


DAVID GILLILAND-CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END? “My crew chief, Frank Kerr, said, ‘You’ve got to have the restart of your life,’ and we had a good one. It was dark out there, sprinking a little bit, dry sweep was on the windshield a bunch, but we got a good restart. Our Love’s Travel Stops Ford Fusion was really fast all day. I got hooked up with my teammate there. Michael Waltrip got behind me and was giving me a great shove and I had some good momentum and got hooked up with Ragan there and just stayed glued to his bumper and kind of worked our way up through there and came home 1-2 for Front Row Motorsports. It’s a huge day obviously for any team to get first and second, but for Front Row Motorsports and our little team, and what we do it with, we’re really proud of that. And Bob Jenkins, for sticking with us and doing this deal probably 80-90 percent out of his own pocket, it’s a special day.”
WAS DAVID THE REASON YOU WERE COMMITTED TO PUSHING HIM AND NOT BEATING HIM? “I was trying to beat him for sure, but we had to get there first. Once I pushed him out to the lead, the 99 was on my side and David had kind of got enough of a lead that I wasn’t gonna pass him, and at that point I was obviously trying to finish second. We got hooked up. He’s a great restrictor plate racer. I’ve had some great finishes in restrictor plate races in the past and I still obviously want to get that first win, but today wasn’t the day. We’ll take second for sure and a first with our teammate. It’s a big day. A lot of it had to do with this little note here wishing me good luck. This is from my 10-year-old daughter. She wrote that and put it in. It’s got a little horseshoe in it.   She wrote that and put it on my dash before the race, so she had some horseshoe good luck earrings in too, so we’ll take it. (Daughter’s name is Taylor). She’s been coming to the race track her whole life, but she watches it from the motorhome.”
WHERE DOES THIS RANK? “It’s big. Kentucky is probably still my favorite and then Sonoma was obviously good. I had Jeff Gordon behind me on a green-white-checker I think, so that was a great accomplishment, but this is right up there with them. I still want that first win, but the Sprint Cup Series is very tough. Everybody out there racing at this level is awesome and a great race car driver and it’s tough. We’re up against it every week. There are weeks we don’t have enough tires to put on our car, so we’ve got to put scuffs on and everything else, and then we’re racing against guys that have stickers, so we’re just continuing to build and for Front Row Motorsports, a one-two finish, and to be there to help make that possible is very special to me.”
DO TEAMS LIKE FRONT ROW CIRCLE RACES LIKE THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR? “Yeah, for sure. These and the road courses, we feel like, are our best shots to come and have a legitimate shot at winning. The rest of our program we’re still working on and trying to get there. Obviously, some day we want to be an organization that can go and compete for wins on a weekly basis, but we’re not there yet. So to be able to come to these type of tracks, we definitely put a lot of preparation and a lot of emphasis on our speedway program and today we had two very fast race cars and were able to come home one-two.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “The race in general went really well for us. Practice was great. We got that pole position. I’ve got that trophy and I thought we were gonna get another trophy, a really big one, and the rain went away and got the track dried, which I was pretty frustrated about that. I was kind of really hoping for rain, but then the last 60 laps ended up being 60 of the most educational laps I’ve had at a plate race. I learned a ton. I had a blast and on the white flag lap I thought we were gonna win it until I saw these guys coming. I thought, ‘Who is that?’ And they were coming. I blocked as much as I could. David did everything but spin me out down the back straightaway. He was all over the back bumper and I could feel from the way he was pushing and moving that if I turned to stay across his hood, he went one way and then he went the other, I knew I was gonna be on the highlight reel for the wrong reasons, so these guys got by and we had a 1-2-3 finish for Ford which is huge. I know it’s huge for these guys and for Front Row Motorsports, so as frustrated as I am about the loss, I’m really happy for these guys. It couldn’t happen to two better guys and a harder working team.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT MEANS FOR A TEAM LIKE FRONT ROW? “I’d like an invitation to the party wherever it’s gonna be because I have a feeling it’s gonna be a pretty big one. I worked for Mike Mittler for a long time and I saw how hard teams have to compete to be competitive at this level. I obviously wanted to win that race very, very badly for a number of reasons, but it truly couldn’t happen to two better guys, and from Ford’s perspective. Ford got us all together at that event you guys were a part of at the Hall of Fame and they told us, ‘This is One Ford. We want to work together. We want the rest of the field to know that Fords are gonna be strong because of their ability to work together and share information and help one another on the race track,’ and I think you saw a lot of that today. The reason we were in a position with our 99 team to win when the rain came out was because all the Fords lined up and I think we were 1-2-3-4 right then and at the finish of the race we’re 1-2-3 and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think there’s a lot of really neat things happening here.”
WHY WERE THE LAST 60 LAPS SO EDUCATIONAL? “I’ve had a lot of races where I don’t get to run the last bit of the race up there in the lead and it’s been for a number of reasons. Sometimes bad luck, sometimes bad strategy and mistakes, so for me to race up there with Matt and Jimmie and these guys and have all that pressure, and the restarts, the green-white-checkered and everything that was going on, I think it was pretty good. I not only learned stuff, but I’m gonna remember it. It’s burned in there because there was so much pressure right there, so I enjoyed that and I’m pretty grateful for it.  Even though it’s not a win, I guarantee you we’ll be pretty good at Daytona and pretty good when we come back here. There were some things that I picked up.”
IT’S LIKE YOU LOST TWICE TODAY. “What a great feeling (laughing). I noticed Atlanta got a lot of rain today. I was watching the radar. I guess I’ve been trying to have a little bit different perspective and I’m fortunate right now because we have the win at Phoenix, we’re running well, we’re up there in the points, so I’ve been trying approach racing lately as everything is a net positive. I’m getting to do what I love to do, working with people I’m very fortunate to work with and at the end of the day I had a pretty good time and we had a shot to win this thing a couple of times, which a lot of you have seen my terrible days at these places, so that’s saying a lot how we ran today, so that’s why I’m happy. I’m sure I’ll even be better tomorrow, but right now I’m still a little frustrated about not winning, but it’s nice to be frustrated about third at Talladega for me.”
DAVID GILLILAND CONTINUED – WHAT DOES THIS WIN MEAN FOR FRONT ROW? “It’s huge. It’s for Front Row Motorsports. We’re working with Ford and a lot of other great partners right now and we’re close on a lot of stuff. We have Love’s Travel Stops on the car this weekend, which has the potential to grow into a bigger partnership and we had a great day today obviously, and David Ragan had some new partners on board also, so it’s big. Anything like this for an organization like Front Row Motorsports or any organization is very big, so, like I said, we’re just building on it. We’re a little team building. I feel like we’re getting better each and every week. I feel like this new car has really helped us a lot this year to be more competitive at every style of race track that we go to, so it’s definitely big for us. I know Frank Kerr, my new crew chief, has a big wish list of parts and pieces he wants for our race car, trying to make them lighter and faster, and I’m sure he’ll get a couple of those. Hopefully, that will help.”
CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED – DID YOU THINK TALLADEGA OWED YOU ONE? “No race track every owes you anything. I feel like I owe all of these places in the whole sport a lot. I think I can speak for both of us, no one ever really expects to be at this level. Not that I thought it owed me one, but I wasn’t too sure about that last green-white-checkered. I knew that could go any way and I’ve seen it go real bad, so I felt pretty good about the finish. I’d really like this place a lot more if I could get a victory here ,but for right now I like it OK.”
DAVID GILLILAND CONTINUED – HOW DO YOU FIND DAVID RAGAN ON THE TRACK AFTER THE LAST RESTART AND HOW DARK WAS IT OUT THERE? “It felt good. We got restarted there and it was sprinkling and it was dark, there was dry sweep on the track that kind of got on the windshield where it was wet and it was hard to see, but I could see David up there and he came down. Michael Waltrip was behind me giving me a good run and we just carried a lot of momentum up through there and got hooked up with David and figured we’ve got the best chance of anybody sticking together with him out there, so we just worked our way up there. It got real tight getting into three and four with Carl, like he said. I know David was sideways and out of the gas and Carl was right up on his door there, and it could have gone a number of ways, but thankfully I just stayed on his bumper. I pushed him all the way through the corners. That’s the first time I’ve ever done that with this car because with these type of cars in practice I’ve pushed people down the back straight and it actually kind of gets underneath that little lip underneath the back bumper cover and I’ve always been kind of scared getting into the corner as the front car compresses the back car, the nose doesn’t have anywhere to go because he splitter is already on the race track, but I just pushed him all the way around there and Carl got stalled out a little bit and we were just able to carry some good momentum and come home 1-2.”
CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED – DO YOU FEEL DAVID RACED YOU CLEAN? YOU WERE FRUSTRATED ON THE RADIO. “If I sounded frustrated at David, I was definitely not. What I was trying to express was that David just got us. He just did it. Of course he raced me clean. It’s Talladega. As long as I’m not upside-down in the fence I think it was pretty clean. I don’t know how you define clean here, but he did his job. He raced me as hard as he could have raced me without wrecking me. I don’t think either one of us could have tried any harder without being wrecked and he got me, so he earned the win.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI SAID HE THOUGHT DAVID RAGEN CHANGED LANES ILLEGALLY ON THE FINAL RESTART. DID YOU SEE THAT? “I think David and David both did some illegal stuff (joking). I think the win should go to the third-place car (laughing). I’m gonna put that down right now. The third-place guy looked like he did everything right (laughing). No, the race is over. The trophy is being given away. It’s done.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE LAST 5-10 MINUTES RACING WITH THE DARKNESS? “I wish the pace car could have shut off those yellow lights because they were kind of blinding. I was trying to look other places so I wouldn’t get blinded by the lights, and then there was a little rain. Fortunately, NASCAR had a test run yesterday with the Nationwide cars, which didn’t turn out as clean as our finish, but I think we were right up about the same time and I was really grateful personally that NASCAR let us run that green-white-checkered. I think it had to be a tough call for NASCAR, but we could see well enough. One thing NASCAR did was give us time to change our visors. I put on a clear visor. I think a lot of people did, so we were all prepared for less light, but it was just insane. The whole thing, I wish we had heartrate monitors on all the drivers out there. As it gets closer to the end of the race it just gets crazy. It’s an insane event and I think everybody did a pretty good job.”
DAVID RAGAN PRESS CONFERENCE
DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Farm Rich Ford Fusion – TALK ABOUT THE END. “I sure wouldn’t want to have to line up and have to do it again. When we took the green we were running 10th and the outside lane today had been a little bit better all day long, so I got a good restart. I don’t know what happened on that first lap, but coming around, when we took the white, I was pushing the 43. He jumped to the outside of the 20 getting into turn one and I didn’t want to be on the top lane going down the back straightaway. The top lane hadn’t surged well enough down the back straightaway today, so the 20 car had been the class of the field all day long.   I saw him right in front of me, so I decided to stick with him. I thought that maybe we could get a good run and race for the win coming out of turn four, but I didn’t know it at the time, but the 38 of David Gilliland was hooked to my rear bumper, so that gave me a little extra confidence coming out of turn two. We were probably running fourth or fifth at the time that I could make the right moves and I knew that he was gonna stick with me, so the 99 was leading. I think he tried to block the 17, which allowed me a clean hole on the bottom, so I went low. Carl I guess didn’t see me coming quick enough or we had such a fast run I was able to get position on him and I don’t know still today how the 38 had such a good run, and he was just pushing me unbelievably through three and four. I knew once I came out of turn four we had enough steam that I could have made my car wide enough that we were gonna make it back around to the start-finish line, so it’s a huge, huge deal for us to be sitting here right now and it makes it even more special to get a 1-2 finish. Can you believe that? That was a great finish.”
JAY GUY, Crew Chief – “It’s a huge win for Front Row Motorsports and our owner, Bob Jenkins, and David and all of our guys on the team and everybody back at the shop. Today is a long day. It’s a long weekend. You’re here at the race track early in the morning and you’re out late at night and with the rain delay and everything like that everybody had to keep focused and keep to our game plan. We approached today with a game plan and we executed it and it worked out well for us today, obviously.   We didn’t end up wrecked or anything like that, so it’s just a proud day for everybody and it’s a great finish for Front Row with David Gilliland in second and us with the win.”
BOB JENKINS, Car Owner – “I tell you what makes it special is just the time and the effort that these guys put into these cars. There are a lot of owners out there that they get the best available driver they can get and they’re like a hired gun, but the thing that I think makes our team different than some of the rest is that we’re so close. More than anything we’re friends and I know I’ve got drivers that are capable of winning races. I’ve got guys at the shop that have the heart to win races. We just haven’t always had the resources, so the challenge for me is as we build cars is to make them better every week and to put ourselves in a position to win a race and that’s really what happened today. If it hadn’t been for David Ragan and David Gilliland working together there at the end, we wouldn’t have it, but, most of all, it’s just so satisfying to see that over the last nine years every year we’ve gotten a little bit better and I felt the progress and I knew it was just a matter of time before we’d win one of these things.”
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED – BRAD KESELOWSKI CLAIMS YOU LINED UP WRONG OR CHANGED LANES ILLEGALLY ON THE FINAL RESTART. ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THIS? “Yes. We were running eighth when I guess the one-to-go, around the caution time, and NASCAR, I guess it’s standard procedure they always go back through the running order and adjust any cars that need to be adjusted, I guess with film maybe when the caution came out on that back straightaway wreck. I knew that we were probably a little higher than what we should be because we were running 20th or so when that wreck happened and we made it through, so they adjusted the lineup. Who was the other car? The 95, the 2 and then the 34. So NASCAR says that on the radio. They tell the spotters, tell the crew chiefs, so the 95 pulls up. Well, obviously, Brad wanted to start on the outside because he knew the same thing that I knew, that the outside lane had an advantage on the restart. Well, he just didn’t want to listen to NASCAR. So NASCAR makes the call on where we line up at and I listened to what NASCAR has to say. My spotter told me that’s what they radioed over on the NASCAR channel, the crew chief said the same thing, and Brad was just trying to snooker us and trying to get the preferred lane. Eventually, he decided that he should do the right thing and he restarted ninth and I restarted 10th, so there’s no controversy. I’m glad you got that out because I had that already prepared. I was ready to talk about it because I was mad going down the back straightaway and I was screaming at my spotter and at Jay, I said, ‘Somebody please get NASCAR.’ Maybe the 2’s radios weren’t working well and Brad didn’t know. I’m serious. Sometimes you don’t get that message relayed. It’s been wet. Sometimes the radios have issues when it rains, so I thought the 2 really didn’t know, but I’m sure he knew and he was just trying to play it smooth.”
HE’S STILL SAYING IT’S AN ISSUE. “Well, NASCAR will set him straight eventually. They’ll let him know. He might not admit it, but he knows that he lined up in the right spot and I lined up in the right spot.”
BOB JENKINS CONTINUED – WHAT’S IT LIKE COMPETING WITH NICKLES AND DIMES AGAINST TEAMS THAT ARE DOING IT WITH BIGGER BUDGETS? “I wouldn’t say it’s nickels and dimes, but I will say this. I’ve always said in the racing graveyard my epitaph won’t be, ‘I won the most races or championships,’ but I want to be known as a team that did the most with the least. Every year we try to get better. We work within ourselves. The chassis we run, we build. We’re unable to go out and buy products from other teams and that’s a disadvantage, but on a day like today it really makes you feel good because you know the equipment that you won the race with was what you built in your own shop, so that’s what makes it so gratifying. These guys make less than what a top tier team would make, but they’re still at the shop doing the same thing every day and it paid off for them today, so, for me, I’d much rather do it this way than to go out and write a check for top tier equipment.”
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED – DOES THIS MEAN MORE BECAUSE OF YOUR FAITH? “Absolutely. It’s funny, we certainly have a lot to be thankful for and we owe what we’re doing here today to God and the Lord. Some of the drivers – myself, David, Trevor Bayne, Josh Wise, Michael McDowell, Sam Hornish Jr – we get together on a weekly basis and have a little Bible study and we try to incorporate the good work amongst the commotion that we often have on race weekends, but we’re just here going through the motions and trying to do the best we can with what we have to work with. Not only was someone watching over us on those last couple laps, but just the whole day today. The fans that stuck it out, the NASCAR officials, the corner workers, the Air Titan and jet dryer drivers – everybody that made this day possible. It probably wasn’t meant to be, but every one had their hearts set on completing 500 miles here at Talladega, so it was special to do that and we were in a position to give God the glory and I’m thankful for that. You can’t do this without friends and teammates and people on your team and I couldn’t have won today’s race without David. I know he wishes that he was sitting in my shoes right now, and I kind of wish that he would have had a chance to win the race, too, but it was a great finish. I’m glad that he’s thankful for finishing second and it makes it so much sweeter to get a 1-2 finish.”
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED – HOW MUCH DO YOU CHERISH THIS WIN? “You cherish them a lot. I won my first Nationwide race here four or five years ago and I was glad to get a NASCAR win. You don’t want to be that guy that runs NASCAR and competes in NASCAR for a number of years and you don’t win a race. I said, ‘Man, I don’t want to be that guy that runs a long time and never wins a Cup race.’ Well, you finally get that one win in Cup and then you think to yourself, ‘Well man, I don’t want to be that guy that just wins one Cup race. I want to win two.’ So you’re always thinking about that. These wins are few and far between.   I hear some of the older guys talk about it, like a Bobby Labonte who made his 700th career start, Michael Waltrip, they say that kind of stuff and right now I’ve already thought about Darlington and what we’re gonna do next Friday when we get to Darlington and unload and the challenge we’re gonna have there and the All-Star Race and stuff like that. So we’re gonna enjoy this. We’re gonna celebrate it, but I guarantee we’re gonna be at Front Row in the morning early. I know Jay is gonna be there at 6:30 in the morning when we have our meeting, but we’re gonna be worried about Darlington. When I’m an old man and just kind of hanging out and watching these races I’ll sit back and it will mean a lot more then than it does today.”
YOU QUALIFY FOR THE SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE AT CHARLOTTE. “That’s a big deal for our team and our sponsors. We try to sell Front Row Motorsports and it’s tough to sell a team that we run 15th or 20th or 25th. We’re not battling for a championship, so it’s tough to do that and that means a lot to be in our All-Star event in our sport, which I think is the best All-Star event in any of the major league sports. So I feel truly blessed to be there.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE GEN 6 CAR AND IF IT’S AN EQUALIZER AMONG THE TEAMS? “It has been a little equalizer, absolutely, because it forced teams like us that generally don’t go through our complete inventory over the off-season, it forces us to really go through and Bob and our team made an investment this off-season to go through our chassis, upgrade some of our suspension components – stuff that other teams do on a weekly basis, we got to do at the end of the year. And I look at some of our qualifying stats and some of our running positions at the non-restrictor plate tracks this season and we’re a few spots better and a little bit more competitive this year than we were last, so, absolutely, the Gen 6 car has not only provided for some outstanding racing, but it has helped the Front Row Motorsports, the Tommy Baldwin Racings, the smaller teams of Sprint Cup racing to be more competitive.”
JAY GUY CONTINUED – “I agree. The new Gen-6 car, everybody starting in the same playing field right now is a great equalizer. It’s a great car. It looks great and so far the results on the race track have been, to me, a little bit surprising, but NASCAR did a great job with the Gen-6 car and we’ve made our cars a little bit better. We’re certainly not contending for wins on a weekly basis or top-10s even, but it’s enabled us to be a little bit better than what we were in years past, and you look forward to going to Darlington.”
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED – HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT TO MAKE SURE FANS ARE CONGRATULATING THE RIGHT WINNER OF THE RACE? WILL THIS DO ANYTHING TO CHANGE YOUR PROFILE? “Regan and I joke about that a lot. We’re similar to the same age and we’re friends, but we couldn’t be farther apart. He’s from Upstate New York and I’m from South Georgia and there is nothing similar about those two parts of the United States, so we joke about that. I was happy for Regan yesterday winning the race. I haven’t had a chance to look at my Sprint phone yet. I’m not like these other guys that carry my phone around in my pocket and in the race car, so it’s back in the motorhome. The battery is probably dead and it’s probably got a lot of voice mails, so I’ll look at it here in a little bit, but, yeah, it might help a little bit. I’ll look forward to hopefully seeing it in a good way.”
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED — CHIPPER JONES WAS HERE. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN IN FRONT OF HIM? “The only year I loved baseball more than NASCAR was 1995 when Atlanta won the World Series. I talked to Chipper a little bit in the driver’s meeting and he obviously meets a lot of people and he probably kind of knows me, but probably doesn’t remember. I had to remind him I was a big fan and enjoyed his career. I watched him in AAA. He played for the Macon Braves, which aren’t even in existence anymore. We used to go up there when I was five, six, seven years old and watch a lot of those guys that were superstars for the Braves in the mid-nineties play in Macon, so that’s pretty cool. I haven’t seen him. I hope he watched the race. It was a long day, but I’ll definitely look him up soon. It was cool to see Chipper here. Sometimes I felt like this off-season I was gonna miss him playing third base for the Braves, but they’ve been doing pretty good without him. It’s good to see him here. He’s a big race fan. He’s a huge supporter of NASCAR, so it was good to see Chipper here today.”
DID YOU THINK THIS DAY WOULD EVER COME? “Absolutely we thought it would come one day and we actually talked about it on the grid before the race and even at the halfway point. We missed that first wreck and we all had decent speed, good handling cars, no damage, and we kind of talked about, ‘Hey, this is a perfect recipe for success. We’ve got to keep fighting and keep being smart.’ You always believe that it can happen, but I don’t know that I ever practice my victory lane speech in my head or anything. I didn’t think about it that much, but you absolutely believe in yourself and your team. We’re kind of leaders of our team and we need to set a good example for our teammates and for our shop employees, so we’ve had the right attitude that we thought we could win at one of these speedway races or a road course or something like that and I’m glad that we came through.”
JAY GUY CONTINUED – “We’ve worked really hard at Front Row on our speedway program because it’s a great equalizer racing at Daytona and Talladega. This is our chance to shine, so we always put a little extra effort into these races. Did I think when I woke up this morning that we were gonna be sitting here today? No. I thought we had a good shot at being in the top 10 solidly. Last year we finished seventh and fourth, but that’s last year. You can’t live off of what you did yesterday, but I thought our pit crew has taken a big step forward and our team has gotten stronger as a whole, so I thought we had a chance, but to be up here today, I’d be lying if I said, ‘Yeah, I expected to be here.’”
BOB JENKINS CONTINUED – HOW DOES THIS HELP YOU FINANCIALLY? “It always helps, but it’s not why we race.” DAVID INTERJECTS. “It’ll be gone in a week-and-a-half.” BOB CONTINUES – “Trust me, these guys know how to spend it, but it will help our program, there’s no doubt about that. The thing we’ve done, although it’s an expensive sport, we just reinvest what we make back into the sport. That’s the only way we’re gonna get better. My philosophy from the beginning is in this sport you have to make your own place at the table. Nobody is gonna give it to you, so I’ve always felt like if we can go out and perform and put out a good product, then sponsorship will come, respect will come and hopefully wins will come. So that’s kind of been our attitude all along.”
DAVID RAGAN CONTINUED — WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR ORGANIZATION? DOES THIS MATTER?  “It absolutely matters for our partners, our sponsors. I spoke a little bit about it. It’s tough to sell sponsorship for a team that’s gonna be 15th to 25th on average. We have higher goals and we expect to improve, but it doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen in one or two seasons. All of our sponsors – Peanut Patch, one of our bigger sponsors that’s gonna be on the car next week, CSX was on the car last week, Love’s Travel Stops was on David’s car this weekend. It goes so far and I’m sure Bob, our general manager Jerry Freeze can touch base on that a little more, but it gives them the confidence that we haven’t been telling them a story or lying to them – that we know we’re getting better and working hard. They’ve taken a chance on us and we’ve worked hard and we’ve done what we said we were gonna do, but it does help a lot and confidence. It goes a long way for our guys that work six days a week that don’t get to enjoy the race track perks of traveling every weekend. They have to stay at the shop and work 50-60 hours a week building these cars. It gives them some confidence and hope and it’s a big thing.”
BOB JENKINS CONTINUED – “One thing I’d like to say too is so much credit goes to David. He was driving for a top tier team and had UPS as a sponsor and when he left he bought in to what we were trying to do at Front Row. The thing that I think makes him so different from a lot of other drivers is his expectations of himself and his team never changed. He brought that to Front Row. He didn’t look at it as if, ‘Hey, I’m taking a step down here. I realize I’m gonna be a backmarker or whatever.’ He continued to expect a lot out of himself and a lot out of his team and I think what happened is people bought into that and they followed behind him and we’ve seen results from it. I don’t know of too many drivers that would do that, but that’s what makes it so special is because he believes in what we’re doing. It’s more than just he works for me, we work together and it’s the same way with David Gilliland and Josh Wise. The chemistry in this group is so strong that I didn’t know when it would come, but I just knew something special was gonna come from this group of drivers.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING THAT SOMETHING WAS ABOUT TO GO? “There was no warning at all. I got to turn one and it let go. I’m surprised the whole field didn’t crash with as much oil that’s pouring out of this thing in the garage, but we were lucky to hold onto it and keep this car in one piece because it’s gonna be fast at Daytona in July. I hate this for our team, but that’s kind of been our luck this weekend. It’s OK though because we’ve got good race cars. It’s unfortunate because we were running in the top 10 the whole time. I dropped back to 30th and came right back to fifth, so I think it’s gonna be a fun race for everybody. It seems a little bit different than Daytona, where everybody was in one lane. At least a couple of lanes seem to be working where you can pass, but it looks like I’ll have to watch the rest of this thing in the motorhome. That kind of stinks because I’d rather be driving this No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I just saw them wrecking above me. I thought about going to the left, I had plenty of room and probably should have, but I didn’t.   I just stayed straight and moved down all I could and it wasn’t enough. They got me in the right-rear and turned me the wrong way up into the wall, a pretty hard hit, but that’s all you can do is hang on when stuff like that happens.” KIND OF EARLY FOR SUCH A BIG WRECK? “It can happen at any time. You just never know. We were trying to be cautious, but that didn’t work.”
Ford Racing Results:
1st – David Ragan
2nd – David Gilliland
3rd – Carl Edwards
9th – Scott Speed
10th – Aric Almirola
13th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14th – Marcos Ambrose
15th – Brad Keselowski
19th – Josh Wise
21st – Michael McDowell
24th – Casey Mears
35th – Joey Logano
36th – Greg Biffle
43rd – Trevor Bayne

 

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/05/ragan-gives-front-row-motorsports-first-nascar-win-as-ford-sweeps-top-three-spots-at-talladega/feed/ 0 Logano, Edwards and Almirola Pace Fords at Richmond http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/logano-edwards-and-almirola-pace-fords-at-richmond/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/logano-edwards-and-almirola-pace-fords-at-richmond/#comments Sun, 28 Apr 2013 14:06:15 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7287 Read More...]]>

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Incident Quote)  - “This is so disappointing for us. It appears we’ve blown an engine.  We’ve had fantastic power from Ford Racing and Roush Yates Engines so we can’t complain. It’s just the racing gods aren’t on our side this year. We were fast tonight and ran top 10. We are proud of that and will have to regroup and go to Talladega.”

 

ARIC ALRIMOLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “That was incredible and a lot of hard work. Great day by our guys who never gave up. That is what it takes in this series. You can not give up. At one point we were almost a lap down. We were in big trouble and Todd Parrott made so many adjustments and kept making it better and better and better. There at the end we were a solid top seven car and I was really proud of that. That was a great run for us in the hometown of Smithfield and I am really proud of that.”

 

DAVID RAGAN, No. 34 CSX Play It Safe Ford - “We had just a solid day.  We started 20th and finished 20th.  You would look at that and think it was a slow day.  Actually at times we had a top-12, top-14 car, but when we were off-sequence on the leaders we were around 25th and 30th.  But we did a good job on pit road and we never gave up.  We worked hard all night, and maybe left a few spots on the table, but all in all it was a good night for us.”

 

CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Geek Squad Ford Fusion – “At a track like this track position is so important and we saw that at the end there. All in all it was a great night and we had a fast race car and some really hard racing. I had a blast and the middle 50-percent of the race or so was about as much fun as I’ve ever had at Richmond.”  THERE AT THE END WITH THREE TO GO IT GOT A LITTLE GOOFY THERE. “Yeah, that is what this race and sport is supposed to be about. It is supposed to be a battle of crew chiefs and strategy and Jeff Burton stayed out and held on with no tires and we had two tires and I was three wide in turn one and Harvick goes by on four tires. That is exciting and I am really happy with the tire and race track and I think it bodes well for the rest of the season with this Gen 6 car.”

 

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Redd’s Apple Ale Ford Fusion – “Something broke in the engine. It was a long day but I felt we were going to get something out of it. We had a bad pit stop and then blew a tire and drove back up to the front. I thought I had a tire going down again and didn’t and got the Lucky Dog and got back out there thinking we would still have a top-10 or top-five day. Then whatever happened with the engine. It was just one of those deals and a long day but we kept finding a way to get back through all the adversity but there was nothing we could do about the last one.”  YOU HIT THE WALL EARLY, ANY SIGN IT WAS COMING? “No it was a freak deal where something in the wheel broke and let all the air out of the tires. We got hit by a lot of freak deals tonight. I felt like we would have a top-10 day at the worst and who knows. We were on the same strategy as Kevin and he won the race. It would have been a great battle.”

 

JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – PIT ROAD INTERVIEW – “It wasn’t pretty for a while, that’s for sure.  It looked like at the beginning of the race we were gonna finish 20th.  We were going backwards, but Todd Gordon made some good adjustments and got some speed back in the car.  Then we had to work to get our track position back and before that last caution I think we were sixth or so, and, really, that was gonna be a good finish for where we ran most of the day.  We put four tires on it and got in the right lane on that restart and I think that’s what meant a lot was trying to get to the bottom and watching all these guys on old tires and new tires – everybody was rooting and gauging each other out of the way and I was able to just go to the bottom and pass cars and follow Bowyer pretty much right through the whole pack.  I’m super-proud of these guys.  These guys are awesome.  This never-quit-attitude that got us through this whole weekend from the time we unloaded all the way to the time we leave.  To take a race that was going like that and be able to change it over and come home third, I couldn’t be more proud of these Shell/Pennzoil guys.”

 

JOEY LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE— HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT? “I’m just super-proud of my guys.  They never quit from the beginning of the weekend.  I felt like our car was decent in race trim in practice, but in qualifying trim it was terrible.  They threw the kitchen sink at it and we got a decent qualifying spot out of it.  I’m just proud of my guys.   They took a 20th-place car at one point and got it back up into the top 10.  I think we were sixth or seventh before the last caution and, like Clint said, we got lucky starting on the inside lane there with four tires.  We just pretty much followed Kevin through.  That whole inside lane was going.  If we would have started on the outside, it could have been a whole different story, but I’m just proud of what we got out of that.”

THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL RESTART. “Every day or every race, especially in situations like that, it amazes me how good all these drivers are.  That’s a recipe for disaster because you’ve got guys out there on old tires and guys with stickers.  No one actually wrecked, so that’s pretty impressive, to me after all of that.”

 

WERE YOU NERVOUS AT ALL ABOUT YOUR ENGINE AFTER BRAD HAD ISSUES? “I didn’t even ask what happened.  I know early in the race he had some damage and then he was coming back up there and then I saw him on pit road and I didn’t even ask.  I was kind of just focusing on my race there.  That’s the first I’ve heard of it, to be honest with you, so we’ll have to look into it and see what happened, but I know these Ford motors have been strong throughout the year and Doug Yates has been giving us some solid power that’s been staying together, so knock on wood, and hopefully we’ll go to Talladega with the same thing.”

WHERE DID YOU START ON THE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKER? “Eleventh.  We passed a lot of cars in a couple of laps.  We were boogying.”  ON BOWYER’S COMMENT ABOUT THE FINAL LAPS WHERE STEWART AND KURT BUSCH GOT TOGETHER. “I did not piss anybody off tonight.  Holy crap (laughing).”

WHY IS THE RACING SO GOOD AT RICHMOND? “The tires wear out and brings a lot of strategy in the race.  I think the big sweeping front straightaway is inviting for people to dive-bomb into the corner.”

DO YOU THINK THE NEW CAR IS A REASON FOR SUCH COMPELLING RACES? “It’s obviously changed it.  Like Clint said, about every single race has been entertaining and crazy, especially the finishes of them and I think even if the caution didn’t come out at the end, to watch Harvick with the tires and go through the field, I think that was still a good race.  But the caution obviously added so much to the race with strategy and then obviously all the bumping and banging that comes with short track racing, so I think the car has done a great job.  And like Clint said, they look awesome.  I think all of them look great, and they have put on a good race, so we don’t really have anything to complain about.  Honestly, I think a lot comes with the cambered rear-end housings and the lighter cars and that all makes them a little bit easier to drive and lets us push a little bit harder, and I think that brings on the better race.”

 

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/logano-edwards-and-almirola-pace-fords-at-richmond/feed/ 0 Car Show Season is Upon Us! http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/car-show-season-is-upon-us/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/car-show-season-is-upon-us/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:02:44 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7272 Read More...]]> As spring is in full swing around the country (well for most of us) now is the time when car shows and cruise-ins begin. Some major shows have been going on recently such as the rod run in Pigeon Forge and GoodGuys car show and Knott’s Berry Farm All Ford Round Up.  These shows are great for the car enthusiast and gives you a chance to show off you latest project that you have worked on over the winter. With this in mind I jumped in the Maverick and cruised up to the first cruise-in of the year at YearOne (pictures below). The Weather happened to be perfect that day and provided a great afternoon of swapping stories and looking at the latest restorations.  What is your favorite part of the spring? Car Shows, Cruise-ins, Racing , or just driving and working on your latest project?

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/car-show-season-is-upon-us/feed/ 0 Keselowski Rebounds to Lead Ford Teams at Kansas With Sixth-Place Finish http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/keselowski-rebounds-to-lead-ford-teams-at-kansas-with-sixth-place-finish/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/keselowski-rebounds-to-lead-ford-teams-at-kansas-with-sixth-place-finish/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:13:14 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7267 Read More...]]>
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 AAA Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED? “I watched the 18. He was spinning out and I saw it the whole time. I saw he got loose and thought, ‘OK, he’s gonna come back across,’ and he didn’t. It looked like he was gonna stay up there because he kind of slapped the wall with the right side after he hit it the first time, so I’m like, ‘All right, I’m gonna gun it and get by him here,’ and as soon as I committed to that I saw him start coming back down. At that point you’re just lined up to him and hit him a ton. I’m fine. It’s just unfortunate for the AAA guys. They deserve better than that. We were working hard on getting our car better. We weren’t gonna gain many points this weekend, but we were gonna try to rally for the best possible finish we could get out of it, but it’s not good for us.” HOW ARE THE CONDITIONS OUT THERE? “This track is just so narrow right now. You can’t move around. We were tight for the most part, trying to free it up, and then we put left sides on there and got really loose. I was trying to hold on for what we had and I think there were a lot of guys around us that did the same thing and were really loose. We weren’t having a good day as it was, but you don’t want to end up in the garage like this.”
SAM HORNISH JR. – No. 12 SKF Ford Fusion – “I couldn’t see anything. I saw the back of the 34 or 38, I’m not sure which one it was, and then I saw the 9 sitting sideways right at the exit of the corner. I lifted and turned down, which made my hit to the inside wall harder because as soon as you lift and put all that weight up there it gives me enough turn to try to get away from the 9, but then I can’t get it back in the other direction. It’s too bad for the guys who work on this SKF Penske Ford. I just wish we could have done a little bit better. We got off on our strategy early and this is so much about track position here and how you’re running through your tires – whether you’re taking two or four. We just got ourselves out of sequence and could never make it back up again.” A LOT OF CARS SPINNING TODAY. WHY? “I don’t know. It’s really, really free out there. There was a point in time where we were really good on the restart and could go for 10 laps, and then the car would get really free in and off the corners, and then after about 20 laps it would be fine for about the next 15, and then it would start doing it again. It’s just a weird way that the car and the tires and everything were reacting together. I think it has to do with putting rubber down and also the sun coming out and heating the track up, but the exit of turn two is pretty tough for a lot of people just sliding and getting off the corner because if you run high, you’re already a little bit loose and if you try to run low, you just can’t keep the rear underneath you to put the power down.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “That’s very disappointing for our whole team because we had such a fast car and then the sun came out and we were not in good shape. The handling went away big-time. I’ve got to thank Ricky Stenhouse. I was holding him off and I slid up in front of him and he could have wrecked me, but he didn’t. I was in denial about my car at that point.   I thought we were fast and then we had our strategy set up to rely on the caution not coming out, but the caution came out and I think that pretty much ruined it for all the Roush Fenway cars. The cool thing is we had fast race cars and there were points in the race where I think we had the fastest cars.  We’ll just move on, but I’m glad we get to come back here in the fall.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 ACE Ford Fusion – “That caution came out at a bad time, but we weren’t very good all day either. We’re just missing it a little bit. That’s two races in a row now that our car hasn’t been anything like our practices. It’s kind of like racing a whole different car and race track. It’s like we loaded it up and went to a different place and they said, ‘Here we go,’ and they threw the green. I don’t know what we’re gonna have to do, but we’re gonna have to figure it out. We’re just not as good as we need to be and not as good as our competition, but we’ll keep working on it.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 STP Ford Fusion – “It was a good day for us. We thought we had a great car at the beginning of the race, but then the track changed on us and we lost our track position. And then the handling drastically changed on our car, so we had to battle back from that and made a lot of adjustments. Todd Parrott did a great job rallying our guys making good adjustments, making great pit calls to get some track position and right there at the end our guys gave us a great pit stop when it counted and we got another top-10. That’s two top-10s two weeks in a row and I’m proud of that.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED AT THE START OF THE RACE? “Something happened where there was a check-up in front. I think somebody was wrecking and I slowed down and the guy behind me didn’t. He just drove through the quarterpanel and tore it all up and eventually the dirty air of cars being around me just sucked it apart. It’s kind of weird. I think that’s probably a really good aero lesson for everybody how dirty the air is that when another car gets beside us it literally blew the quarterpanel off of it, so it’s just part of the deal.” DESPITE THAT YOU WERE PICKING OFF CARS THE FINAL 10 LAPS? “The car was really strong at the end. It wasn’t quite perfect, but definitely really strong and showed the strength that we can have.” DID YOU FEEL THE REAR QUARTERPANEL LOOSE AND DID YOU KNOW IT WAS A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE IT CAME OFF? “I could feel something was wrong, but I couldn’t see it so you don’t know what the magnitude of it is. Obviously, it must have been pretty severe.” DID YOU THINK IT WAS GOING TO BE A LONG DAY WHEN YOU WERE ON PIT ROAD WITH THE FIELD COMING TO THE GREEN? “That’s never a good start (laughing), but just add that to the list of things we fought through today and still came away with a top-10 finish.” DOES IT FEEL LIKE A WIN WHEN YOU GO THROUGH THAT AND COME HOME WITH A SIXTH-PLACE FINISH? “Yeah. Usually, you’re not happy unless you win, but a day where you can fight through adversity like we did today and get a solid finish, that kind of is a win, yes.” ESPECIALLY WITH WHAT YOUR TEAM IS GOING THROUGH, RIGHT? “Yeah, it’s been a long week, but we’re not giving up.” ARE YOU GLAD THIS WEEK IS BEHIND YOU? “No. If I could re-do it over and over again I’d make it better every time. I’m ready for next week, but this week is what it is and I don’t have any regrets.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion – “It was fun. We started up front, ran up front, lost our track position and then got it back and was able to lead some laps. We pitted under green and it really got us when the caution came out, but, all in all, I think we can take a lot of positives from this weekend. We were fast in practice, fast in qualifying and made the car better through the race and that’s what it’s all about is making your car better throughout the race and I think we did that today. The Zest Ford Fusion was the one to beat there at the end, but we didn’t have the track position to finish it off.” WAS IT ANY EASIER RACING CARL FOR THE LEAD THERE AS OPPOSED TO SOMEONE ELSE? “I don’t know. He came down there and slid up in front of us a couple times and I had to check up, but it was cool getting to lead some laps for Roush Fenway and for everyone in Boston. At least we’ll be able to donate a little something. I just wish we were able to lead the last few.” WAS CARL HOLDING YOU UP? “Yeah, he was holding us up, but, like I said, one of our cars was leading so we were giving money to Boston, so that was good. It was fun to get up there and lead some laps in a Cup car. We haven’t done that and that was the first time we had been up there leading laps and felt like we had a car in contention to beat some of those guys. Matt ended up winning and we ran off and started fuel saving after that, but, all in all, it was a good weekend. I just wish the cautions would have fell a little bit different.” DID YOUR CAR CHANGE AS THE DAY WENT ON? “When the sun came out we were a lot better. We made a lot of adjustments and everybody seemed really loose, especially around guys people were loose, but once the sun came out I felt like it really, really helped our car and the adjustments Scott and the guys made were stellar as well, so everything played together and we had a fast race car.”
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “I was pretty happy with the car. Right before the accident on the run before that we were at our worst because we got a little too loose, but the guys did a good job and we were back on the lead lap and could run lap times within the top 15. I was rolling the top there and the 9 got loose. He was loose for a long time and I slowly, slowly checked up and the 38 never did and tagged the back of me. We probably would have just spun off into the infield, but we collected whoever spun with us and tore the car up really bad. It’s just a bad day.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – “I’m just disappointed. We had a good car and were running around the top-10 all day and when the sun came out it changed. I didn’t expect it and spun out off of two and got some damage. We were able to stay on the lead laps, but that’s not the day we wanted.”
FORD FINISHING ORDER:
6th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Aric Almirola
11th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – Carl Edwards
19th – Greg Biffle
20th – Marcos Ambrose
23rd – David Gilliland
30th – David Ragan
34th – Casey Mears
37th – Sam Hornish Jr.
39th – Joey Logano
]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/keselowski-rebounds-to-lead-ford-teams-at-kansas-with-sixth-place-finish/feed/ 0 Flat Rock Assembly Plant Celebrates Producing One-Millionth Ford Mustang As Year 50 Begins http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/flat-rock-assembly-plant-celebrates-producing-one-millionth-ford-mustang-as-year-50-begins/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/flat-rock-assembly-plant-celebrates-producing-one-millionth-ford-mustang-as-year-50-begins/#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 01:44:29 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7262 Read More...]]>
Happy Birthday Mustang! Forty-nine years to the day after its 1964 debut in New York, the iconic sports car celebrates another milestone: One million Mustangs have rolled off the line at Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant since production moved there in 2004. Ford is celebrating this milestone as year 50 of continuous Mustang production gets under way at Flat Rock Assembly.
Raj Nair, group vice president for global product development, today rode off the line at Flat Rock Assembly Plant in a Ruby Red 2014 Mustang convertible. Nair was riding shotgun with Ed Salna, material planning and logistics manager at the plant. Salna is a 27-year veteran of Flat Rock Assembly, starting work there more than a year before the plant produced its first car.
“Mustang is one of the most beloved nameplates in the industry, with fans around the world and throughout Ford Motor Company,” said Nair. “The team here at Flat Rock Assembly has built an outstanding reputation for quality while producing one million Mustangs over the last nine years, and we expect that to continue for many years to come.”
Ford has built Mustangs near its home base in Dearborn, Mich. for 49 years. The car was built at Ford’s famous Rouge factory, just a few minutes from company headquarters, for four decades before moving a few miles south to Flat Rock in 2004.
Introduced in April 1964, Mustang proved to be far more popular than anyone expected, prompting Ford to add production capacity outside Michigan. By early 1965 plants in Metuchen, N.J. and San Jose, Calif. were also building Mustang. Less than two years later, on Wednesday, March 2, 1966, the one-millionth Mustang rolled off the line in Dearborn. To date, Ford has produced and sold more than 8.5 million Mustangs.
The launch of Mustang production at Flat Rock coincided with introduction of the then all-new fifth-generation model – first in the series to get a dedicated platform. In addition to the standard V6 and the V8-powered GT model, Mustangs coming out of Flat Rock Assembly Plant have included several special editions and race cars:
  • In 2006 Flat Rock built a limited run of black and gold Shelby GT-H coupes for Hertz rental fleets to commemorate the 1966 Shelby GT350H rental car
  • 2007 brought the debut of the Shelby GT500 Mustang developed by SVT with a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 producing 500 horsepower, the most ever for a Mustang then
  • For the 2008 and 2009 model years, the Mustang lineup included the Bullitt, inspired by the car driven by the title character in the 1968 film of the same name
  • For the 2012 and 2013 model years, Flat Rock built the track-optimized Boss 302
  • The Flat Rock line has produced numerous competition versions of Mustang including the FR500, Boss 302R and the extremely successful Cobra Jet drag racer
The Flat Rock factory has been producing vehicles since 1987, when it opened as Mazda Motor Manufacturing USA and built the Mazda MX-6. In 1992 Ford purchased a 50 percent share in the plant and it was renamed AutoAlliance International. Over the years Flat Rock Assembly has produced the Mazda 626, Mazda6, Mercury Cougar and Ford Probe. In addition to Mustang, Flat Rock will add production of the Fusion sedan later this year.
“Flat Rock has gone through an amazing transformation over the past year,” said Tim Young, plant manager, Flat Rock Assembly Plant. “We’ve invested $555 million including a state-of-the-art, fully flexible body shop and an upgraded paint shop to make sure we’re continuing to build the best of the best for the next one million Mustangs.”
“The one-millionth Mustang is a true testament to the hard work and dedication of the Flat Rock Local 3000 membership,” said Tony Bondy, UAW Local 3000 chairman. “It’s been great building an iconic American car since 2004, and with the introduction of Fusion along with our new plant upgrades, we will keep building world-class quality in Flat Rock for years to come.”
Ford is adding 1,400 jobs and a second shift at Flat Rock Assembly Plant to support new Fusion production as part of its plan to add 12,000 hourly jobs in the United States through 2015.

 

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/flat-rock-assembly-plant-celebrates-producing-one-millionth-ford-mustang-as-year-50-begins/feed/ 0 Ford and GM to Jointly Develop Advanced Nine- and 10-Speed Automatic Transmissions http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/ford-and-gm-to-jointly-develop-advanced-nine-and-10-speed-automatic-transmissions/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/ford-and-gm-to-jointly-develop-advanced-nine-and-10-speed-automatic-transmissions/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 01:32:09 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7257 Read More...]]>
Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation have signed an agreement under which both companies will jointly develop an all-new generation of advanced-technology nine- and 10-speed automatic transmissions for cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks.
The new transmissions, to be built in both front- and rear-wheel-drive variants, will improve vehicle performance and increase fuel economy.
The collaboration enables both automakers to design, develop, engineer, test, validate and deliver these new transmissions for their vehicles faster and at lower cost than if each company worked independently.
“Engineering teams from GM and Ford have already started initial design work on these new transmissions,” said Jim Lanzon, GM vice president of global transmission engineering. “We expect these new transmissions to raise the standard of technology, performance and quality for our customers while helping drive fuel economy improvements into both companies’ future product portfolios.”
A track record of success
This new agreement marks the third time in the past decade that GM and Ford have collaborated on transmissions. These collaborative efforts have enabled both companies together to deliver more than 8 million durable, high-quality six-speed front-wheel-drive transmissions to customers around the globe.
Ford installs these six-speed transmissions in some of America’s favorite vehicles, such as the Ford Fusion family sedan, the Ford Edge crossover and Ford Escape and Explorer SUVs, while GM installs them into a variety of high-volume, award-winning products such as the Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Traverse, Chevrolet Equinox and Chevrolet Cruze.
That original collaboration served as a template for the new one. As before, each company will manufacture its own transmissions in its own plants with many common components.
“The goal is to keep hardware identical in the Ford and GM transmissions. This will maximize parts commonality and give both companies economy of scale,” said Craig Renneker, Ford’s chief engineer for transmission and driveline component and pre-program engineering. “However, we will each use our own control softwareto ensure that each transmission is carefully matched to the individual brand-specific vehicle DNA for each company.”
“With the jointly developed six-speed automatics we have in production today, we’ve already proven that Ford and GM transmission engineers work extremely well together,” said Joe Bakaj, Ford vice president of powertrain engineering. “Our front-wheel-drive transmissions have exceeded expectations and there is every reason to believe we will have the same success with these all-new transmissions.”
“This agreement provides tremendous benefits for both companies, and it will pay big dividends for our customers and shareholders,” added Lanzon. “By jointly sharing the development of these two new families of transmissions, both GM and Ford will be able to more efficiently use our respective manpower resources to develop additional future advanced transmissions and bring them to market faster than if we worked alone.”

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/ford-and-gm-to-jointly-develop-advanced-nine-and-10-speed-automatic-transmissions/feed/ 0 Five Fords Finish Top-10 in Texas NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/five-fords-finish-top-10-in-texas-nascar-sprint-cup-series-race/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/five-fords-finish-top-10-in-texas-nascar-sprint-cup-series-race/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:47:04 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7252 Read More...]]>
Ford Finishing Order:
3rd – Carl Edwards
4th – Greg Biffle
5th – Joey Logano
7th – Aric Almirola
9th – Brad Keselowski
18th – Trevor Bayne
19th – Marcos Ambrose
26th – David Ragan
31st – Casey Mears
32nd – David Gilliland
40th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “It was a tough night. Our car definitely wasn’t as good as it was last year here in the spring, but we battled back. I got a pit road speeding penalty. I don’t know what happened there. I guess I must have looked up for a split-second or must have been so close to the number that I guess I just didn’t realize it.” DESCRIBE THIS RACE FOR YOU? “I thought starting at the back was gonna be tough after qualifying 35th, but then I got a pit road penalty with 100 to go and had to start at the tail-end of the longest line behind the wavearounds, so that made it a tough night to get back to fourth, but my guys did a great job. They got me back up there. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be standing here. We had a really tough car to drive. It was very hard to drive. We’ve just got to keep working on it. We’re not quite as good as a few of those guys, but we definitely had a top-five car. Maybe if we would have qualified up there and been up there all night we could have worked on it and got it a little better, but it was still a tough night.”
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – HOW HARD WAS IT TO GET READY WHEN YOU WERE GETTING PUSHED DOWN PIT ROAD AS ENGINES WERE FIRED? “It was one of the toughest races I think we’ve ever dealt with and to come home with a top-five out of something like that, we couldn’t be more excited about that. It was almost a third-place finish there if the last caution had come out, but these guys worked really hard on this Shell/Pennzoil Ford on getting us out at least to race. We dug our way up there a little bit and had a bad stop and went down a lap. We got our lucky dog and slowly and methodically worked our way up. We just had no short run speed. We had long run speed, but it took us 30 laps to get going and then we were as fast as the leaders, but it took us 30 laps to get where we needed to be.” DO YOU FEEL THIS TOP FIVE IS SUCCESSFUL FOR YOU THEN? “Yeah. I thought after practice that we might have an eighth to 10th-place car and that’s pretty much what we had, but it’s always better to finish better than what you think you had, so I’m very happy with the way the guys kept digging today.” WHAT ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL SWING OF HAVING TO START THE RACE LIKE THAT?  “I go minute by minute, so, for me, it’s not a big deal. I just strap in and go. Having to go to the rear was a little bit of a bummer, especially not knowing what your car is going to be like, but Todd Gordon and all these guys, they knew exactly what to do and to get us out there – barely in time – but to get us out there, make some laps, get a feel for it, good adjustments – we kept up with the race track when the sun went down – and then we started to shine there late.” HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THIS DAY? “These guys dug really, really hard all day to get this Shell/Pennzoil Ford on the race track. It was a little too close for my comfort, to be honest with you, and having to start from the back we worked our way up. Todd Gordon did a great job keeping everyone under control and not getting overwhelmed by everything. He focused in and made his adjustments and got our car a lot better than what it was. We just weren’t fast on the short run. We started fourth with 40-something to go and the top three guys were gone and then after 15-20 laps I could hang, and then eventually I started catching them a little bit. We never had any short run speed in our car all weekend, even from practice we were slow on the short run but good on the long run. We’ll have to figure out where that speed is, but if you would have told me I’d finish fifth today, I’d have given you a hug. I’m pumped up about our finish and the way we got that.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – PRESS CONFERENCE – “It was pretty eventful. We had a very, very long night. Early in the race the car was really good when the sun was still out and then it got really bad. I almost pulled in because I was so wrecking loose that I thought it might be better to just pull in and lose a lap or two to get it fixed, but, fortunately, we stayed out and we stayed on the lead lap. Then the tailpipes – something broke or cracked in the tailpipes. I thought the engine was blowing up for the whole race. That got worse, and then on one of the restarts I tightened my belts and I unhooked my whole seatbelt system coming to the green, so I haven’t had that happen since I was running my dirt car. I told them out there, ‘I don’t know what the state laws are or whatever,’ but I went ahead and hooked them back up. That was pretty crazy, and then we stayed on the lead lap and then Jimmy did a great job. We adjusted more things tonight. We pulled shims and put more rounds everywhere than I think I’ve ever done in a race and had a good pit strategy and, fortunately, we came home third. That’s a gift for us. I know Martin is not happy with second, but I’m real happy with third.” WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE SEATBELT? “I don’t know. I think when I tightened the belts either one of the shoulder belts hooked the release or my finger hit it. It surprised me. I will not be adjusting my belts coming to the green again. I haven’t had that happen. In all the races I’ve run in NASCAR that has never happened, so that was just icing on the cake tonight. I couldn’t believe it.” IS IT SOMETHING NASCAR SHOULD LOOK AT? “No, I don’t know how many races I’ve run – 600 or something like that – I mean for it to only happen once I don’t think it’s an issue. Each driver is different. Each driver’s belts are a little bit different. It’s my fault, so it’s something I just need to watch out for.” DO YOU FEEL YOU’VE MADE MAJOR GAINS WITH THIS CAR THIS WEEKEND ON THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS OR DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE STILL THROWING DARTS AT IT? “We’re definitely in the dart throwing phase. I think we might even have a blindfold on while we’re doing it. We’re in a little bit of trouble, honestly. We have to be better. I think Greg was decent and we got it dialed in at the end, but that was a mad panic all night. I think we just have some work to do. I think the tire kind of threw us for a little bit of a loop tonight. I think a lot of people struggled, but we definitely struggled as much as anyone. But, no, I don’t feel ultra-confident if we had to come race here next week that we could pull off a third again. We did test at Kansas and I felt pretty good about our test there, but this track here, this was a struggle.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Eckrich Ford Fusion – “I totally blew it on that first stop. I slid through my box and made a stupid mistake that cost ourselves a lot of track position. We had to battle back from that all night and we got back up in the top 10. We had a great car. Todd Parrott and these guys gave me a great Eckrich Ford Fusion and I felt really good about it. We kept making adjustments on the car all night, getting it better and better, and then right there at the end when that caution came out that really hurt us. I think we were running sixth and we had to take the wavearound and I think we restarted back in 14th or 15th, so it was good for us to drive back up through there. I felt really good about our car. I wish we could have kept our track position. I think our night would have turned out a lot differently. I felt like we were a solid top-five car at the end of the race, but we just didn’t make that happen. Still, it was a great day, a great points day for us, and I feel really good about it.”
PAUL WOLFE, Crew Chief – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “Things didn’t obviously start off the way we wanted it to and we had some issues on pit road where we lost some spots. Then we had a loose wheel and nothing was going our way, but nobody gave up and Brad kept driving his butt off and we slowly kept chipping away at it. Before we knew it, we were in contention to get the free pass. It was like we needed just one more run to really get up and contend for a nice top-five, but, overall, I’m real proud of the effort. We continue to come out here each and every week and put ourselves toward the front, if not contend for wins. Obviously, we feel like without some of the issues tonight we probably would have had a shot at that again, so we just have to keep working and doing what we’ve been doing and we’ll get our share of wins.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Best Buy Ford Fusion – “I just cut a left-rear tire down and spun. It’s kind of tough to go straight when you lose a left-rear tire. I really would have liked to have seen how our car was gonna drive when the sun went all the way down. I felt like it was pretty good where the sun was already down and the track was shaded. I felt like our car was pretty good, but it’s just a tough break and we’ll get back out there and try to gain as many points as we can.” DID YOU RUN OVER SOMETHING? “I’m guessing we had to right there on the restart. They were brand new tires, so I guess we ran over something, but I don’t know yet.”

 

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/five-fords-finish-top-10-in-texas-nascar-sprint-cup-series-race/feed/ 0 Keselowski, Ambrose and Biffle Post Top-10 Finishes at Martinsville Speedway http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/keselowski-ambrose-and-biffle-post-top-10-finishes-at-martinsville-speedway/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/keselowski-ambrose-and-biffle-post-top-10-finishes-at-martinsville-speedway/#comments Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:33:01 +0000 zach71maverick http://www.fordmuscle.com/?p=7247 Read More...]]>
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – THAT APPEARED TO BE A HARD-FOUGHT SIXTH-PLACE FINISH. “They’ve all been hard-fought. We seem to run sixth here every time. Sixth is good, but it’s just not great. We want to be able to win here and just haven’t been strong enough to do that. We’ve been strong enough to be proud of what we’ve done, and I’m proud of where we are right here today, but the 48 car is on another level. His car is so much better than everybody else that he just plays with everybody the whole race just to make it look good. That’s pretty obvious, but I feel like if we can get our car where he’s at, I can beat him.” A GOOD BATTLE WITH KYLE FOR FIFTH. “Yeah, it was just a matter of how hard I wanted to work him over. There’s a proper amount to work somebody over for a win and a proper amount to work somebody over for a fifth or a sixth. I worked him enough to feel proud about it.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “Our car was way too tight and I had to keep working on it. I made an adjustment with the track bar to try and turn better, but it didn’t work out for me. It was a pretty hard-fought day. I’m pretty happy about a top-10.” YOUR ORGANIZATION HAS STRUGGLED AT THIS TRACK, SO WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GET A TOP-10 FINISH HERE? “We were gonna be better than that, but we’re just not living right. If you look at all of the restarts today, we started on the bottom only twice. That’s where all of our track position went. We drove to 10th and would start on the outside and then get back in line 16thor 17th. We did that a lot, where we had to restart on the outside and that just killed us. There was no outside groove whatsoever and that really hurt on the restarts. Everybody really wanted the bottom, but we still finished in the top-10, so I’m pretty happy about that.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion – “It was a hard day, but we’ve got to be pleased with the weekend. We qualified on the front row and finished in the top 10, so for us that’s a win. It’s something to build on and we’ll go to next week with a bit more confidence and get our team really rolling.” YOU HAD TO BATTLE FOR THE INSIDE ALL DAY. “You had to fight like a dog to try to get to the inside. I made a couple people mad out there, but that’s just Martinsville and that’s the way it goes. If you get hung out there, there’s just nothing you can do – you’re just along for the ride. The tire here today didn’t really wear into the track much and that second groove never came in.” WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THIS TEAM TO HAVE A FINISH LIKE THIS AFTER A BIT OF A STRUGGLE TO START THE YEAR? “It’s just something to build on. For us a top 10 is like a win. We just needed to get the monkey off our back and this will hopefully get us rolling and get some mojo back for our team. We learned a lot this weekend. We tested last week, which helped a lot as well, so it should all work out.”
CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “It was a struggle of a day. We had a really good car and I felt like we could have been somewhere between 10th and 12th. It was just some of the decisions and how it turned out that put us back where we were, but we had a little bit of trouble on pit road with losing spots. A majority of the time we did well, but a couple of key ones we lost some spots. There at the end we came in and got tires versus staying out. Both of us were trying to decide what to do. We came in and got tires and we probably should have just stayed out and we would have finished a lot better, but a solid day for us. We had a terrible Friday again, but the guys rebounded well and had a pretty good car on Saturday and it showed up today.”
Ford Finishing Order:
6th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Marcos Ambrose
9th – Greg Biffle
15th – Carl Edwards
16th – Casey Mears
20th – Aric Almirola
23rd – Joey Logano
25th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
28th – David Gilliland
30th – David Ragan

 

]]> http://www.fordmuscle.com/2013/04/keselowski-ambrose-and-biffle-post-top-10-finishes-at-martinsville-speedway/feed/ 0