Ambrose and Ford drivers discuss Martinsville qualifying

Pole winner Kasey Kahne, Hendricks Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “The clouds have rolled in so we’ll see what happens, but I’m just proud of my team. We’ve had a rough couple of weeks qualifying, but with DeWalt on the hood and Ford powerplants, we’re looking good for Sunday.”

WHAT WAS THE KEY TODAY? “I messed up last week in qualifying. I just tried too hard and wanted it too bad, so I just needed to back it up a little bit and put a solid lap in, which is what we did.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I just spun a little bit off of four and that cost me a few hundredths. It’s just so tight with qualifying that a few hundredths would have probably gotten me into the top five and helped me better. Hopefully, that will be in the top 15. We feel like we’re pretty decent in race trim. Qualifying was our biggest struggle. It’s not where we wanted to be, but we’ve got 500 laps tomorrow to get there.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion – “You would always like to go a little faster, but that was a solid lap. The car drove very similar to yesterday, so with a green track we made a few adjustments and the guys did a nice job. I don’t know where that will end up and how much the track will change, but it was a solid lap nevertheless and we’re happy about that.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation/Gary Sinise Foundation Ford Fusion – “I didn’t think it was very good, but it’s better than we did yesterday. Hopefully, that will be in the top 20.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “It was pretty good. I don’t think it will hold up, but for when we went out I think it was a quality lap. I’m proud of everybody on this Smithfield Ford. We didn’t have the lap we wanted in practice and we got it a lot better right there, so I’m proud of that. Now we’ll just see where that shakes out for the race.”

CASEY MEARS – No. 13 Geico Ford Fusion – “It was OK. We’ve had a little bit of a rough start to the weekend. In qualifying trim we haven’t been too bad the whole time we’ve been here. Obviously, we need to be a little better to really be in the hunt, but I was just a little bit loose before the center of the corner and a little bit loose on late exit. The last time we were here we were really tight and we tried to get on the other side of it and we definitely accomplished that, so if we keep chipping away at it with the Geico Ford, we’ll be better as we work on.”

IS THIS AN OPPORTUNITY TOMORROW TO GAIN SOME POINTS FOR YOU? “I think so. It can go either way. You can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but at the same time it seems we’ve typically run better at these shorter tracks the last couple of years. I’m looking forward to the race. We’ve got some work to do. The car was really tight in practice. If we can get it turning just a little bit better in race trim, I think we’ll be pretty good.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL – No. 98 Curb Records Ford Fusion – “I’m happy. The last two weeks we’ve definitely picked up some momentum. For us, it’s just a race to get into the race and anytime we can be the quickest go-or-go-homer that means a lot to us. Those are the guys that we’re racing every weekend, so it was good. Gene Nead and Kenny Evans, those guys have worked really hard to get this 98 Phil Parsons Racing Ford dialed in. We’re getting better every week. We just keep making steady progress. We’re a small team with six guys back at the shop going against teams with 300 or 400 people. It’s pretty cool.”

JOSH WISE – No. 26 Morristown Drivers Service Ford Fusion – “I’m real happy and just grateful. I feel really blessed with this deal and the group of guys around me are doing a good job and I’m just really thankful. Tomorrow, we just want to stay out of trouble. That’s the first thing here, so we’ll start with that and work from there.”

KEN SCHRADER – No. 32 Federated Auto Parts Ford Fusion – “The car has a real good feel, but we just haven’t been able to make the stopwatch right, but I’ll take the feel I’ve got right now. The key tomorrow is to try and keep all the body panels on it and keep the brakes on it and see what happens from there.”