DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion
“We had a good run getting into turn three. Kyle was pretty fast coming up through the field and I just passed some cars on the bottom, so I went down there and I think two or three other cars had the same idea and I just got pinched down. I had to keep it down and just ran out of race track and got loose and spun it out. I was probably a little too aggressive this early in the race, but if you’re not aggressive on the restarts and pass a few cars, once you get strung out after 10 laps you just can’t hardly pass. Our car was driving better than it did when they dropped the green flag and I was just trying to be as aggressive as I could and ran out of race track and didn’t have enough room to chase it.”
NOT THE MOST OPPORTUNE TIME TO HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN. “Trying to make this Chase we need as many points as we can. I’ve said all along we need to be in that top 12 or 13, or get a second win, so there’s still a lot of racing left. There is gonna be some bad luck for some of these other guys we’re racing for it. You don’t want to give up anything and we’re gonna give up some points today, so that means we’ve got to go and be extra aggressive these next few races.”
ARE YOU MAD AT YOURSELF? “That’s just a racing deal. You’ve got to hustle on these restarts. If you can’t pass within the first seven to 10 laps, you’re really just getting single-file and run. Our car was driving pretty good and I just thought I was the only going low, and Reutimann got underneath someone else. Typically, you’d have a little bit of wiggle room and I wiggled a little bit trying to stay off of him and spun out. If I had to do it all over again, I would have probably made the same decision, but I just didn’t have enough room to do what I needed to do.”
***
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scotts Ortho Ford Fusion
RED FLAG COMMENTS: “Our Ortho Fusion was a lot better earlier and then it seemed like the track changed a little bit. On that last restart everybody knew the rain was coming and we were racing hard and I lost some spots.”
HOW DID YOU CAR CHANGE AS THE TRACK COOLED DOWN? “I got very, very loose. I was worried about the car being too tight early and then it swung really loose, so I don’t know if it was a set of tires or just the track changing. Bob said a lot of drivers were complaining about being loose, but this place is so much fun. You’re shifting and downshifting. You’re trying to work the air and get your nose out there. In turns three and four now it’s spread out and you can run the very bottom, so it’s fun.”
***
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion
POST-RACE COMMENTS: A GOOD BOUNCE BACK CONSIDERING HOW THE RACE STARTED? “Yeah, it was. Our car was off just a little bit, but clean air meant a lot. My car drove pretty good when I got up towards the front. We were still off just a little bit. I don’t know. We’ve just got to go back and keep working on our cars a little bit.”
IS THIS JUST A CASE OF CONTINUING TO DIG BECAUSE IT’S SUCH A LONG RACE? “Yeah, but really what probably hurt us was the penalty. We lost all of our track position there and that hurt, but we stayed out and had the right pit strategy. We stayed out and that’s what got us the finish.”
RED FLAG COMMENTS: WHAT HAPPENED WITH MATT EARLY IN THE RACE? “I felt bad. Maybe Matt didn’t know I was out there or didn’t know I was up as far as I was. I got on the brakes as hard as I could to get my nose out of there because I saw he was coming all the way over and just clipped his bumper a little bit. I was up a lot further than that, but I hate that happened.”
YOU BOUNCED BACK FROM A PASS THROUGH PENALTY FOR CHANGING LANES BEFORE THE START-FINISH LINE. “I know you can’t change lanes until you cross the start-finish line, but I wasn’t even in the race at that point. I was like 20 car lengths back trying to catch the field. I don’t know if you have to be in the two lanes next to the wall or can I pick any lane because it’s definitely five or six lanes wide back there. Can I just choose one or are there specific lanes I need to be in? I don’t know. I was just coming to try and get caught back up again, and I guess it still matters when you’re back there. Even when nobody is around you, you still can’t change or move side to side.”
***
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion
POST-RACE COMMENTS: WERE YOU BETTER AFTER THE RED FLAG? “The car got a little better, but we didn’t have any brakes after the break and that’s what really hurt us. I had to pump them all the way around and that pretty much limited what I could do.”
RED FLAG COMMENTS: “We weren’t very good. It’s been an uphill battle all day. We just can’t really get our Crown Royal Ford to ever turn very good, so it’s been a struggle.”
IS YOUR CAR ANY BETTER THAN FRIDAY? “It’s probably worse than Friday. We were junk Friday and I think we’re worse today. We can swing the back end of the balance around, but can’t get the front to work at all. We’ve got it too loose now, but it still doesn’t turn at all. You need the front tires to actually work, so it’s been a handful. This isn’t my best place either, so I’m probably not helping matters any but it’s been a struggle.”
***
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion
POST-RACE COMMENTS: “It was just a long day today, but we just fought and gouged all day. I’m really proud of my guys. I feel like I got the most out of myself and the guys really tried hard. It’s not the day we wanted, but we’re still proud of ourselves.”
DID THE BREAK HELP YOU GET THE CAR BETTER? “No. We just fought and gouged all day and then we got track position, but we’ll get ‘em next week.”
***
AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion
RED FLAG COMMENTS: “The Best Buy Ford has been a little bit tight all day. I feel like we’ve been making gains on it. In the long run, we’re actually pretty good. If you just pick our car up and place it inside the top 10, top five, on older tires we could run there, but we’re just struggling on restarts being too tight. A lot of people have that problem with being aero-tight.”
***
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion
POST-RACE COMMENTS: “We were much more competitive than we’ve been the last few weeks, so I’m happy with the progress we’ve made and excited about bringing the changes that we figured out on the car today to step up our competition level as a team. I think we can take this to Michigan, which is the next intermediate track we’re going to, so I feel like it was a good day for Front Row Motorsports.”
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
David Ragan to attempt 2022 Daytona 500 with RWR
Ragan, Preece lock themselves into Daytona 500 field
Ragan gambles but loses out: “Five laps was just too much”
Todd Gilliland: Sunday's Atlanta race "a huge, missed opportunity"
Layne Riggs to run NASCAR Trucks full-time with FRM
McDowell hopes to avoid "desperation" in NASCAR Cup playoffs
F1 live: Follow Chinese GP practice as it happens
How real-time scrutineering ensures fair and consistent competition in motorsport
The day Button scored his 'best F1 win'... until next time!
New compound to thwart Porsche’s inspired Long Beach ‘no tires’ call
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments