Sears Point: Ford teams qualifying quotes

CARL EDWARDS -- No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 34th)

"I needed one more run in practice. We changed some stuff there for that lap and I think the car would have been better, but it took me the first couple corners to drive it correctly, so I feel like the second half of my lap was a little better than the first half. It was pretty ugly up there. I was axle-hopping and sliding sideways and I thought I was gonna loop it off of turn four, or whatever that was to the right, but I don't know. It's an 18-flat. That's what we ran in practice. I feel if I had it to do over again I could run about a 17.60 or something and that would have been much better, but we'll race now. We've been great in the race here. This is one of my favorite race tracks, so I'm looking forward to it."

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GREG BIFFLE -- No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 15th)

"That's about what we ran in practice, a little faster. I was nervous. I played the lap in my head while I was sitting there waiting to go and I knew not to hit the curb, and I've been having trouble turning early into turn four, and I got over that and cost me a bunch of time because I had to wait for it to land and get back in the gas. And then turn 11 here is just not my corner either. Other than those, I ran a pretty good lap. The car had good grip, I just needed to get more and need to do better. I need to not make mistakes."

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BOBBY LABONTE -- No. 96 Ask.com Ford Fusion (Qualified 25th)

"I felt like I was OK and then I got to that right-hander in the esses and I hit the curb too hard and it just drifted out on me. I felt like if I hadn't done that, I could have stood in the gas a little better. I can't pinpoint one big thing, but that was enough to probably cost me a tenth or so, and then a little bit in three might have cost me a tenth. I guess that's better than in practice. I thought I was going as fast as I could go and didn't screw up and was actually slower, so maybe I'm feeling it better now after a few more laps."

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PAUL MENARD -- No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 30th)

"The first half of my lap I was really happy with it. I didn't feel like I overdrove it or anything. It felt nice and smooth and then coming down the hill on the esses on the backside I lost a lot of time. My inside tire kept picking up and just screwed up my rhythm through the esses, so I lost a lot of time right there. I think we know what it is and for the race it'll be OK. I was pretty happy with the way my car drove on older tires in practice relative to the field, so we'll see."

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DAVID RAGAN -- No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 43rd)

"We got loose, and I guess the good side of things is that I didn't spin it out. I thought we had a top 15 or so run going on through the first seven or eight corners, and then we just got loose being aggressive. I just got on the throttle a little early and got loose in turn eight. If you lose even a little bit of speed here, it takes a lot to get that back. I'm looking forward to Saturday's practice; I think we've got a fast car. We'll just have to do our job and pass a lot of cars on Sunday."

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MATT KENSETH -- No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 10th)

"It was really good. We picked up three-tenths from our mock-up run, which is good because getting to do it the same twice is always easier said than done. I felt good about it. We didn't make any changes and we picked up a little speed, so, overall, it was good. I would have liked to have run just a little quicker, but I thought I hit it pretty good."

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BORIS SAID -- No. 08 No Fear Ford Fusion (Qualified 9th) -- "John Carter gave me a really fast Ford Fusion. I wish everyone could get to drive this car because it's a lot of fun. We were really fast in practice and if we would have had a provisional to fall back on, I think we maybe could have had something for the pole. But we're in a different gameplan when you're a go or go-homer. We just want to make the race. I want to be here on Sunday. It's one of my favorite tracks, favorite crowds, great food and pretty girls doesn't hurt. I think we're in good shape. Performance Friction gave us great brakes and U.S. Chrome and if anybody wants to help me out, go to No Fear.com and buy a t-shirt."

DOES THIS GET ANY EASIER AS SOMEONE WHO HAS TO QUALIFY ON TIME EACH TIME YOU SHOW UP? "No. This weekend was harder because when our car was so fast in practice and you're like five-one hundredths off the top of the board, part of you really wants to go for the pole -- just your ego. But, man, if you make a mistake and you spin off the track, you let everyone down and then you'd feel like a horses behind, so you've really got to temper yourself and put the restrictor on myself for a change and just run an easy lap. That was like 75 percent and designed to just get in. At the end I started to speed up because I thought, 'Man, I'm going way too slow.' So I started getting after it a little bit at the end of the lap, but I'm just happy to be in the show Sunday."

-credit: ford racing