Braun, Edwards, Stenhouse Jr. - Ford interview

This Week in Ford Racing
August 10, 2010

The NASCAR Nationwide Mustang will run its second race of the season when it hits the track at Michigan International Speedway Saturday. Ford Racing drivers Colin Braun, Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., took time to discuss what they expect from Mustang this time around and what it will be like at MIS.

COLIN BRAUN - No. 16 Con-way Freight Ford Mustang

THIS WEEKEND'S RACE AT MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY IS THE SECOND TIME THE MUSTANG WILL RACE IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES THIS SEASON. IT'S A BIG WEEKEND FOR YOU. "It is going to be a big weekend. I'm really excited to get my first chance to race the Mustang. I've tested it a couple of times but I'm really excited to have the chance to race it this weekend. I'm really excited to get the chance to race the Mustang. I think it looks really fast and it certainly ran well down there in Daytona for the first time. It's going to be interesting to take one of these cars out to these downforce tracks and try to make them work. It's pretty cool that NASCAR gives us a day to run these cars out there on Thursday and hopefully get them running well."

HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT TEST DAY ON THURSDAY? BECAUSE IT'S A TEST DAY YOU CAN PUT ALL OF THE SENSORS ON BOARD WHICH GIVES YOU A LOT OF INFORMATION. "It does, it gives you a whole lot of information. It gives you a lot more information than I can digest. Luckily, we have all of our people at Roush that know all of that and what we can do with it to help us. It's pretty cool though because you can ask them a question and they can click a few buttons and come up with a pretty fast answer. It's neat to be able to see that stuff and it certainly helps when you're trying to develop a car and figure out exactly how the suspension travels and what point the springs will coil bind and that helps."

SATURDAY IS THE FIRST TIME YOU'VE COME BACK TO MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY SINCE YOUR WIN IN THE TRUCK SERIES IN 2009. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS COMING BACK? "I think for the first couple minutes I think I'll probably remember winning the truck race, but I think after that it's going to be about getting down to business and trying to make our car fast enough so we can go back to Victory Lane again. There's no better place to win for our sponsors -- Con-way Freight, Ford Motor Company and also for Jack Roush. The way I look at it, everyone wants to win Daytona but second on my list is trying to win Michigan because it's the perfect place to go win a race."

CARL EDWARDS - No. 60 Fastenal Ford Mustang

HOW WILL RUNNING MUSTANG AT MIS BE DIFFERENT THAN ITS DEBUT AT DAYTONA AND WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE CAR? "It will show us how much downforce this car makes and how the balance is. I think MIS will really show us what we have to work with for the next few years so it will be good. I think we will get a truer feel for the car at MIS as opposed to Daytona because the tracks are just different. We should be able to come away from MIS with a good idea of what Mustang can do."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE EMOTIONS THAT WILL SURROUND GOING TO MIS AND POSSIBLY NOT HAVING JACK THERE WITH YOU GUYS? "Well you never know if Jack will be there. That track is real special to me and real special to Jack. We will have to see how it goes, but it would be a real special win for everybody if we can find our way to Victory Lane there for Jack."

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. - No. 6 CitiFinancial Ford Mustang

WHAT WAS IT LIKE DRIVING THE MUSTANG AT DAYTONA AND HOW DO YOU THINK THAT WILL TRANSLATE OVER AT MIS? "It was awesome being out there in the Mustang. I could tell a lot of the fans were really excited about having it out there on the race track. You hear a lot of talk around the garage and you hear a lot of people agree that it was the best-looking car out there. For a lot of the Mustang club guys, it was cool having them down there for a NASCAR event with the Mustang running. I was honored to drive the Mustang and we really wanted to get the win. We ended up third, but we will take that for the Mustang debut. We have a couple more races with it this year, so maybe we can find Victory Lane at one of those."

IS IT A VERY BIG RACE OUT THERE FOR YOU AT MIS WITH THE SECOND TIME THE MUSTANG WILL BE RUNNING AND IN FORD'S BACKYARD? DOES THAT PUT A LOT OF PRESSURE ON? "Yes it does, in Jack Roush's backyard and Ford's backyard. They've both combined to win a lot of races there. It's a lot of pressure, but it gives you that confidence that they've had success there, so hopefully we can continue that success."

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RUNNING THE MUSTANG COMPARED TO THE OLD NATIONWIDE CAR? "There's a huge difference. The first thing is that it has a lot more front downforce than our Ford Fusion. That's one of the things that I feel that Ford did a great job with, so this car will stay turning throughout the race. That's a big thing we fight with the Fusion is to keep the front end working all the way through a fuel run, and I feel like with the downforce that they have in the front of the Mustang that that will definitely be able to help. Overall, the car is just a looser car. The rear end is not in the ground as much and it makes for a fun race, but you definitely have to be on top of it at all times."

WHAT ABOUT GETTING THAT EXTRA TEST DAY AT MIS LIKE YOU DID IN DAYTONA? "It's definitely going to be good. Daytona and MIS are different race tracks, but I feel like they're going to drive similar. To have the data from the test day, testing with Carl Edwards, Paul Menard and Colin Braun we can all share data, we can all look at the notes and see what each other is doing around the corner and I think it will help our whole program."

-source: ford racing