Daytona24: Ford Racing post race quotes

TRACY KROHN -- driver/owner No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola

"This is a very, very fast, competitive race. We had a lot of yellows, but mark my words, those cars were driving hard all day and night. I think the team just did a fantastic job. The car was very well prepared. Anything we could control we did. We had a little bit of bad luck when Mr. Bouchut [GT car] ran into us. He ran into Nic [Jonsson] and it cost us about 15 laps and maybe a podium here. Would of, could of, should of. We'll eventually get there. We're creeping up on it. We feel pretty good but Ricardo [Zonta], Nic [Jonsson] and Colin [Braun] did a fantastic job all through the night. There were no mishaps, other than things we couldn't control. I'm very pleased with the whole effort. We had gone through all kinds of conditions just like everybody on the podium. It was just a lot of fun."

Tracy W. Krohn won the Trueman Award, which is part of the Grand-Am Pro-Am program. It is awarded based on a formula, which calculates the finishing position, laps completed and time spent in the car. "I won the award one time before and it was a lot of fun. I didn't even think about it this weekend. I was just trying to get the car across the finish line at the end. Nobody mentioned it to me and I didn't think about it, but it's a nice award."

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COLIN BRAUN -- No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola

"It was a great result for everybody on this Krohn Racing team. We had a really good, strong Ford motor all race. I think that was a big part of our success. We tried to minimize our time in the garage and the pits. I think we had to come to the garage twice for some repairs. These guys did a great job getting the car fixed and back on the race track. All the drivers did a really good job and stayed out of trouble and I think that's all we can ask for."

WAS THE WEATHER A MAJOR FACTOR FOR YOUR TEAM? "I think it was a factor for the first third of the race for Ricardo, but after that, I don't think it mattered that much. For our car, I think the cold helped us. The colder weather gained us some speed."

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NIC JONSSON - No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola

"I think fourth place is obviously a good start to the season. The goal this year was that we came here wanting to win, as it always is, of course. We had an extremely well prepared car this year. Last year we also had a very good car -- prepared well. Unfortunately, we had a failure very early in the race. This year we felt we were very prepared with a good driver line-up and the guys have been working hard back in the shop prepping everything. We ended up fourth after having had a few issues and we had to go to the garage and fix them. I lost the right front suspension after I got hit out there. We had to go back [to the garage] to change the gear cluster at one point in the last five hours. With those two issues and still finishing in the top five, I think, says a lot for the Krohn Racing team. We also have to keep working on it and maybe one day we'll get that Rolex [watch, trophy of the Rolex 24 at Daytona]."

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RICARDO ZONTA - No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola

"It is the second time we have finished fourth. The last time was here in 2008. We were a lot stronger this year. We had some small issues where we lost some time. I think the team did a great job. Everything went very perfect for the mechanics and for the strategy also. I want to say thanks to Tracy [Krohn, team owner/driver] for giving us this opportunity for all the team members to be here at Daytona."

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MICHAEL SHANK -- owner, Michael Shank Racing

"I think we deserved a little bit better today. We didn't get the results we wanted, that's for sure. I think the Pros had a pretty amazing performance. As early as 8 a.m. we were leading still so I'm a disappointed guy. We'll come back, that's what we do whenever problems like this arise. We'll just rebound and kind of hope for the better and figure out things before the next race in March."

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BURT FRISSELLE -- No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

"It is great to make it to the finish, and a top five is even better. It was an awesome way to start the season. I couldn't be happier with the job my teammates did. This was one of my favorite experiences, and a top five is always a great thing."

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OSWALDO NEGRI - No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

OVERALL THOUGHTS ON HOW THE NO. 60 FORD DID OUT THERE? "In a 24 hour race you win by keeping it on the road. We had a couple of incidents that were not on schedule. The engine was running beautiful. It's one of those years. We had a great car from the beginning. All of my stints, we were fighting with the No. 9 [Action Sports Racing] and they won the race."

ARE YOU HAPPY YOU HAVE QUITE A BIT OF TIME OFF BEFORE THE NEXT RACE? "Absolutely. It's always good to start with good points, and we've got good points. I'll take it, especially after all we've been through. My sympathies to our sister car (No. 6). They seemed to be getting so close every year, but that's racing."

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JOHN PEW - No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

"I haven't finished the Daytona 24 in a very long time, so that felt very good to drive across the finish line today. The team did an excellent job. How fast they changed the clutch and the splitter was just amazing. Those guys just have it together. No mistakes. I am looking forward to Homestead and hopefully, we can have another top-five finish or even better."

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MARK WILKINS - No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

"We finished fifth in 2007, but we were really slow. We never went to the garage once that year. Today, the Shank car was awesome, completely dialed in and just got better and better as the race went on. We were in contention the whole time but we had a couple of unfortunate little things that you just can't have here. The competition is so tough that if you slip back just a little bit, it is going to be hard to make it up. This is a solid points start for me and Burt, and I can't wait for Homestead."

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WAYNE TAYLOR -- owner/driver No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara

HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW THAT IT'S OVER? "I think this is such a great team. Everyone works for just one thing and that's why we're successful. They never give up. There's so much respect among this group and with our partners SunTrust, Ford Racing and Roush Yates Engines. It's what we do. It's all we do. I say this, and I mean this, I've never known my team to be more prepared than they were for this race. It's always those little things that take you out. We proved we had the best car. We have the best team."

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR SON'S [RICKY] PERFORMANCE? "That's difficult because he's my son and I don't want to say things that would be bias, but I guess what you should do is ask Max Angelelli, who I respect highly, the guys from Dallara and this team. Ask them because I know what I think."

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MAX ANGELELLI - No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR CO-DRIVER RICKY AFTER HIS RUN OUT THERE TODAY? "Fantastic. He really did so perfect, so incredibly perfect. We forget that this really is Ricky's first race. I'm so happy. I'm really looking forward to our championship win with Ricky. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun."

DESPITE ALL OF THE PROBLEMS YOU HAD, DO YOU FEEL YOU HAD A GOOD CAR OVERALL? "We never had a problem with the engine, and I can tell you I beat up this engine. I'm really happy with my Ford powered engine, and the guys at Roush Yates, as usual, did a fantastic job."

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RICKY TAYLOR - No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara

FOR A DRIVER WHO DIDN'T HAVE A LOT OF EXPERIENCE BEFORE THIS RACE, YOU SURE HAD A LOT OF SEAT TIME AND EVERYONE IS SAYING YOU DID A GREAT JOB. "This SunTrust Ford Dallara was really unbelievable. It's just a shame we had a little bit of bad luck there throughout the night. It's the 24, so we expected to have a little bumps, but I felt so strong during the race and hopefully we can have a solid season throughout the year.

DO YOU NOW FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE IN THIS CAR? "All of the worries and the uncomfortable feelings are gone. I can't wait to get to Homestead and get this season going."

WOULD YOU SAY THERE WAS A UNUSAL AMOUNT OF BIG PROBLEMS THAT YOU HAD? "I was in the motor home during all of our major problems so I didn't get to see everything. Those four gearboxes, that's unheard of. Hopefully I didn't do any of that. The car was so strong and it's just a shame we weren't up there at the end to fight for it."

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A.J. ALLMENDINGER -- No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

ANY INDICATION THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN? "Yes, about two or three laps before, I could feel it going sour and just losing RPMs, and Kenny [Wilden, spotter] kept saying there was steam and smoke coming out of the back. It was one of those things where you pray that it's going to last another hour and 20 minutes, because I could still run in the 44s and 45s even with it down on power. I thought for as big of a gap that we've got on third we might be able to hold it, but usually when they start smoking it's not a good thing. Just disappointed for everybody at Michael Shank and Ford. We're getting closer. We're going to win one of these things, I'll tell you that. Once again great car, great motor, just bad luck."

HOW DID YOU FEEL IT HANDLED BEFORE THAT? "The car, we needed to get it better. It wasn't as good as last year. The No. 01 and the No. 9, it seemed when they turned the wick up they could go, but I ran about as fast as them on the stands. It would have been a good race. It would have been close. I think they might have had a little on us, but I would have tried to hold them off."

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS YEAR'S PERFORMANCE COMPARED TO THAT IN THE PAST? "I felt like this was the best 24 that I've ever run. I had a triple stint starting around 3 a.m. and then was ready to run a lot of laps with a triple again to get it to the finish. This was no ones fault. Everyone worked really hard and we wanted to get back up on the podium for Mike Shank. It's disappointing, but we'll be back, no question."

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BRIAN FRISSELLE -- No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

"This race was really tough. We had our adversity with one of our key members [Michael Valiante] getting sick so that made things really tough. We were all dealing with fatigue and dehydration. The team gave us a fast car but something out of our control took us out. It's unfortunate, but we will come out of here with points and I expect to be strong at Homestead and all year long."

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MARK PATTERSON - No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

"Last year we had a very abbreviated run. It is easy to make the misinterpretation that you are going to win just because you are leading it 15-20% into the race. This time, we were where we were so late in the race that we were practically jumping on the back of the pick up truck to head to the podium. So this is a much bigger disappointment. That was a great outcome in 2006 but I was too inexperienced to understand really what we'd accomplished. This year we were in a very good car once again, and we pushed our drivers very hard. This field had a lot of very capable driver line-ups, and when the sun came up, we were in a great position. So it's a very disappointing way to end."

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MICHAEL VALIANTE - No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley

"I think this was one of the most treacherous 24s I've ever run because of the conditions. We just tried to stay out of trouble. Just like last year, we had a chance to win this year, but it just didn't fall into place. It's the 24 hours and that's just what can happen. I'm looking forward to getting the championship going at Homestead."

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KEVIN DORAN - No. 77 owner Doran Racing Ford Dallara

YOUR DRIVER DEREK JOHNSON IS REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THE TEAM'S FINISH. "Of course, it was Derek's first 24 hour. It's such an achievement to finish the race that it is exciting, it is fun to finish."

ON THE RACE. "We didn't qualify that well and then we led for probably an hour in the beginning when it was still wet, which was fun. It was good to see the McDonald's Ford out front again because it has been a while. As the track dried out, again just like in qualifying, we didn't quite have the pace to stay with the lead group. I think we had a top-five pace. The gearbox gave up on us really early, so that was disappointing. As it turned out, it took us a lot longer to change it than it should have. I think we lost nearly two hours and that really did the race in for us. We fixed it and got back going anyway to salvage what we could. Then Derek had a small crash and took us out of another hour and 30 minutes of the race doing the repairs on that. It wasn't really a big crash, just a little contact with a GT car, which happens 100 times here at the 24, but hopefully not to you. In the end we ended up 10th in DP and 24th overall. I'm pretty happy with it. I've won five times overall, so 10th is not bad."

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE RACE? "Leading. It's always fun to lead. It's not like we just got there on fuel strategy or pit stop sequencing. Memo [Gidley] passed all those guys and drove from 11th to first, so that was pretty cool. Memo knows what to do in the rain and our set-up suits in the rain and unique circumstances like rain and high grip. The medium grip circumstances we just haven't gotten sorted out for some strange reason. We're just going to work on our race package."

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MEMO GIDLEY -- No. 77 Doran Racing Ford Dallara

"It was a good run. It was like any Daytona. You hope to have no problems at all because you know if you do, then you're going to be right up there towards the front. That was the same with this year. It's the same because our Ford really came in. It was great in the wet in the beginning for sure and I was able to get into the lead. Then it really started coming in towards the end of the race as the track rubbered up a bit. It would have been nice to be fighting there, at least for a podium."

HOW DID THE WEATHER CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY? "I think we liked the cold. It's just a little harder to get the tires up to temperature. Other than that, the cold was good for us. It's a little treacherous when you go out on new tires it's unbelievable how slippery it is out there, but our car likes the cold."

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DEREK JOHNSON - No. 77 Doran Racing Ford Dallara

"My first drive in the 24 was at midnight. I was scheduled to drive at 9:30pm, but we had some gearbox problems which meant I hung around the garage for a bit. I was real nervous getting in the car but I almost ran a double stint there so my first ever lap in the Daytona 24 was in the dark at midnight, which I guess looking back now was pretty cool. That was good and we got through that. Then this morning, I went out at seven and we had some brake issues. We had to change them [brakes] and we went back out again. I was getting some real good times, which I was pleased with. We were running a really good pace and we got tangled with a GT car, which caused a bit of damage on the rear and that sort of delayed us again.Thanks to Kevin Doran and the team and the other drivers. They've been awesome letting me do the final stint. That was just unbelievable experience. We lost so much time with the gearbox that the plan was just to bring it home, run a reasonable pace, keep out of trouble and keep out of the dirt, because the track is real dirty with rubber and debris. We kept out of the way and kept going and just brought it home. It was really brilliant."

-source: ford racing