FORD SWEEPS ALL FOUR SEGMENTS AS CARL EDWARDS WINS SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE

·         Tonight’s win by Carl Edwards was his first All-Star Race win and the ninth overall for Ford Racing.

·         Edwards becomes the seventh different Ford driver to win the All-Star Race.

·         Ford’s All-Star winners include: Bill Elliott (1986), Davey Allison (1991-92), Geoff Bodine (1994), Michael Waltrip (1996), Mark Martin (1998, 2005) and Matt Kenseth (2004).

·         Tonight marks the third time Ford Racing has swept the Showdown and All-Star Race. 

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  • 1996: Jimmy Spencer (Showdown) and Michael Waltrip (All-Star).
  • 1998: Jeremy Mayfield (Showdown) and Mark Martin (All-Star).
  • 2011: David Ragan (Showdown) and Carl Edwards (All-Star).

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “Anytime you have grass on the windshield after the race it’s not good.  I’ve got to thank Aflac.  They are now hiring.  If you didn’t notice, they’re hiring.  It’s a great place to work.  I thank Ford.  Our Fusion was great.  Kellogg’s, Scotts.  Fortunately, I can have Scotts send some seed and grow some grass back.  I had no clue that drain was there and I guess NASCAR is mad.  They think we’re hiding something with that car, but that was a pretty big accident.  Subway, the fans, and especially Sprint for putting this on.  That’s a million dollars.  We just won a million dollars.  It’s unbelievable.”  WHAT WAS THE KEY TO WINNING THIS RACE?  “The key to winning this race are the guys behind me.  One of them is Jody Fortson, who lost his father.  I want to say hi to Sheila Fortson watching, but Bob Osborne and my guys, especially the guys on pit road.  They could have dropped the ball.  That was all the pressure in the world on those guys.  They performed a flawless pit stop and we got out in front of Kyle.  He is a bear on those restarts, so if we would have started behind him, I think it would have been really tough.  It’s just unbelievable.  I feel so bad about tearing up the car, but Bob says he’s got a faster one for next week, so I’m pretty excited.”  WHAT DID JACK SAY TO YOU?  “He said I could come and work on that thing this week if I’d like to.  I told him I would be busy.  We’re running the Polaris Mustang up in Iowa.  I’m pretty excited to see the fans up there in Iowa.   It’s just unreal.  It still hasn’t sunk in.  This is the All-Star Race and we just won it.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I was really good in the beginning and then I was a little too loose and we tightened it up a little bit.  I guess the track tightened up.  I thought the track  was gonna free up the cooler it got and the faster it got, but it didn’t.  It tightened up, so on that last 10-lap deal I didn’t free it up enough.  We had a really, really fast car, but I just wish I would have made a few more adjustments.”  DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT NEXT WEEK?  “I feel great about next week, I really do.  We’ll run good for sure.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – “A top 10 and it was certainly a fun race.  I felt like we had a car that could have contended for the win, it’s just all about that track position but everybody is trying to get that track position throughout the race.  Our UPS We Love Logistics car did a nice job.  We can’t complain.  We got a top 10 and raced our way in, and I think you better watch out for the 6 car next week.”  WHAT DID YOU LEARN FOR NEXT WEEK?  “We had to impound our car from practice and qualifying, whereas the All-Star guys had to work on their car a little bit, so I think we were at a little bit of a disadvantage off the get-go.  We’ve got a few things that we want to look at next week, but all the Fords look very strong.  It’s good to be driving a Ford Fusion and congrats to Carl.  It doesn’t look like he’s gonna bring that car back next week.”

CARL EDWARDS WINNER’S PRESS CONFERENCE – “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.  I’m really excited to be able to get on the phone and call some of my close friends to talk to them about it, and I’m really excited about going to Iowa tomorrow.  It’ll be neat to go out there and show up as the All-Star winner.  It’s unreal.  It’s gonna be fun.  I can’t thank Jack enough, Ford, Aflac, Bob, the crew guys.  My pit crew stepped up tonight.   They did an unreal job on that last stop.  If we wouldn’t have come off pit road first, it would have been a very difficult race.  It took me about 10 laps to get by Kyle and those guys, so it would have been a very tough race, so those guys get a lot of credit for this win.”

BOB OSBORNE, Crew Chief – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “We really didn’t make a lot of changes during the race.  We made a couple changes for the last 10 laps and it seemed like it worked for us.  Carl got a fabulous restart and got out front there, and seemed to be able to do the business he needed to do.”

JACK ROUSH, Car Owner – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – “It’s a testament to the hard work everybody has been doing.  There’s a lot of discussion about hard work in this business, but the Roush Fenway guys have really suited up for it in the winter, and the manufacturer part is working well.  Carl went through a manhole cover there in the celebration and damaged the car.  Most people would look at the car and say that car had to go to the 600, but Bob assures me he’s got a better car waiting back at the shop to go.  The unsung hero is Doug Yates and the engine tonight.  I watched the way that engine handled down the straightaway and it was really, really good.  It’s a long time since we’ve seen our engines run as good as they did tonight.  I’m glad to have Ford here with us tonight.  We had a big contingent of Ford people.  Albert, the great great grandson of Henry was here and then the great grandson of Henry, Edsel, was here as well.  So we had a really good Ford showing and at the same time we had great performance from all the guys that work behind this thing.  I’m just amazed at the calls Bob makes.  I generally want to make a change that’s twice as big or half as big and he always has it right.”