BUSCH: Charlotte II Ford Racing race notes

GREG BIFFLE --60-- Grainger Taurus -- VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW -- "It was a heck of a run. The 87 moved out of the way for the 17. These cars are pretty sensitive aerowise and then the 17 got a run out from me. I could only catch him a little bit in the middle of the corner. I thought the last attempt, the last lap, I'd try the high groove down there in three and four. That's the first time all day I got up top and then Matt got loose and got up in front of me. I took the air off of him and he got turned around. I feel bad because he's my teammate. I just thank God I didn't touch him. I want to say that our hearts are out to the Alexander family. We're thinking about him down here and we just hope everything is going well."

YOU BATTLED ALL DAY.

"Yeah, I was way too tight and Matt Kenseth looked like he was really loose. We could never get it just right. I was loose at the beginning and then tight the rest of the way. I didn't think I was gonna have a chance, but I tried that high groove down there and got the air on the front of the car. It went really good up there when we passed a lapped car the lap before, so I thought, 'What the heck. I've got no pressure from behind, it's gonna be a freebie,' and the car really stuck up there."

FOUR WINS THIS YEAR. IS THIS BEYOND YOUR EXPECTATIONS?

"Yeah, it is.  My goal at the beginning of the season was to get a couple
of wins and try to finish in the top 10 in points.  Here we are fourth in
points with four wins.  We can't be more grateful for the Grainger folks
and my guys.  They do a great job.  We had awesome pit stops today on pit
road.  It was a phenomenal job by those guys."

JEFF BURTON --9-- Gain Taurus -- "We ran real well early, but then we kept getting looser and looser and never could get it tightened up. Then we finally made a really big change and got it too tight, so we just didn't adjust the way we needed to adjust. The car was good, we just needed to make the right adjustments and we didn't do that."

YOU WERE UP FRONT ALL DAY. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END?

"I don't know what happened over there. I guess he didn't get into him. I hope he didn't get into him, but it was good, hard racing and fun to watch from where I was. I couldn't see Matt and I didn't want to hit him, so I drove real low and got in the grass. I lost a spot, but it was just the safe thing to do."

JASON KELLER --57-- Albertsons Taurus -- "That was a good run. I kind of snookered Jeff there at the end, but we had a real good car. It's been a long weekend here at Charlotte. We really struggled in qualifying and didn't have a good happy hour either, so all the guys just put their heads together last night and put a setup under it that I could live with. It was really good. It's nice to run up front in their hometown. They have a lot of family here."

WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND BURTON ON THE FINAL TURN?

"He went low when the 17 spun off four and I just went right through the middle and closed my eyes and hoped. It just worked out for me."

YOU GAINED SOME POINTS.

"We just need to keep ourselves in contention. Yesterday was really tough. I didn't want to run all year long and then give up something here at Charlotte, so it was nice to consistently run in the top five and to have a little luck on our side to get to second."

JEFF GREEN --10-- Nesquik Taurus -- "We had a lot better car than that in happy hour, but we had an equalized tire on the first run. We adjusted our car to make it better. We kept adjusting on it, but kept losing track position. We got up to about seventh or eighth on that last caution, but the guys lost me seven or eight spots on pit road. I can't complain about that, though, because they do a great job every week, but when you work as hard as I did today, it's disappointing that you can't at least come out the same. If we could have come out seventh or eighth on the last stop with 40 laps to go, we could have been in the top three or four, I think. We had a good enough car to do that. I don't know if we would have beat Biffle because I never got to run with him enough to see how fast he was, but we had a top five car. Passing all of those lapped cars is just tough to do. Instead of starting 14th or 15th on that 40-to-go restart, we really started 30th because of all the lapped cars. It's just tough to pass."

ELTON SAWYER --98-- Starter Taurus -- WHAT ABOUT THE RESTART MOVE? "Obviously, we took off and I don't know if the 46 and all of those guys in front of him checked up or not, but I had to go to the outside so I wouldn't run into the back of him. I guarantee you, if the green hadn't been out we would have gotten black-flagged. I don't know if they got checked up bad or who was leading at the time. Maybe he didn't get going or something, but we didn't do anything wrong. I've seen Harvick and Hornaday do it for years, so I thought maybe we'd do it."

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT. YOU SLID BACK.

"Those guys had four tires and we had two. We lost track position early because we took four and had a fast car, but we couldn't get back too them. At the end, it was kind of on the reverse side. But, I tell you, for the way we ran here in the spring, to come back and finish in the top 10 is a pretty good day."

JASON KELLER PRESS CONFERENCE -- ANY CLOSE CALLS TODAY? "We just had a really good day. We didn't qualify so great yesterday and really just struggled all day long yesterday. We kind of threw some things at the race car this morning and the car came to me. I was able to drive up close to the front and kind of got lucky there at the end, but that's what it takes sometime. We were actually as quick as those guys up front, but we had to battle the 98 and the 2 car there to get up to that position. It's just a great tribute to our race team. To be able to finish third here in the spring and to back that up with a second-place finish really shows how great this race team is. If we get a little more consistent, we'll be right there."

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE WITH THIS TEAM?

"Our race team is getting stronger and stronger and the Fords have tremendous balance at this race track. We searched for it yesterday and were able to find it this morning. I think the Ford balance has really helped me out and my driving style on the bigger race tracks like this. We're able to do things at race tracks this year that I've struggled at and that's really good. To come here -- all of the guys are from here and they had their girlfriends here and their wives here and their families here -- and to be able to reward a lot of the shop guys for their hard work is really important. It's a big deal. I really thought the 17 and the 60 were gonna take each other out and I was gonna sneak in there for a win, but we ran consistently all day long -- we were around the top five and snuck in there second."

HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR CHANCES WITH THE LAST FOUR TRACKS?

"I see them being pretty good. We tested in Memphis this past week, which I think is really gonna help there. We've got a test lined up for Rockingham on our off week and we're working on a test at Homestead the week between Phoenix and Rockingham. So, right now, I know we're gonna test at two and possible three. That's what it's gonna take to try to get consistent. I laughed. When I buy a lottery ticket, I always think I've got a chance and I think that's where we're at right now. I think I've got a chance and I'm just gonna stay with that. We've got to have some help on Harvick's part to get up there and to contend for the championship, but I think these four race tracks we're going to suit my style pretty good and I'm looking forward to it. We ran great at Memphis this past week and I'm extremely excited about going there. We're gonna take a different car than we tested, but I think we learned a lot and I'm pretty happy about going back there."

-Ford Racing-