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This Week in Ford Racing - NASCAR Edition

Tuesday September 2, 2008

 

Heading into Richmond, David Ragan, driver of the No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford, is in 13th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, just 17 points out of the final transfer spot with just one race remaining before the start of the Chase. Ragan was a guest on NASCAR’s national teleconference today, and he talked about this Saturday night’s race at Richmond. Here are excerpts from that teleconference.

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion – WHAT’S YOUR MINDSET HEADING INTO SATURDAY NIGHT’S RACE? “We definitely are excited to have an opportunity to get into the Chase. The bottom line is we’ve got to go out and beat these guys. There’s no other way around it. We can’t count the other teams have problems or issues throughout the race. We’ve got to make sure that we’re on our toes, that we don’t have any mechanical failures, we don’t have any screw-ups in the pits and also on the race track, and also Richmond’s been a good race track for us in the past, we’ve had some success there. I wish we could’ve run a little better in California, but we were pretty much able to maintain the same differential getting into the final 12. So, the bottom line is we’ve just got to go to Richmond, run as hard as we can, and when the checkered flag falls, hopefully, we’re in front of the 07 and 9 car.”

ASSUMING THAT YOU MAKE THE CHASE, HOW COMPETITIVE DO YOU THINK YOU CAN BE OVER THE LAST 10 RACES, BASED ON HOW WELL YOU’VE RUN DURING THE LATTER PART OF THE SEASON? “Well, I think we definitely have to continue to step our program up a little bit. One good thing about the Chase, the final 10 races, there’s not one track on there where we haven’t run well in the past, so I feel like the 10 races in the Chase are all good chances to race and to run well. But, in the past, in order to be the champion, you have to win a lot of races and be very consistent. Certainly, we’ll think about that once we make it in, but I feel like we’ll have to lean on some of our teammates who have experience in the Chase in the past few years, and we’ll have to continue to step our program up. I think we’re a Chase a team, but we’re not quite a championship team, yet.”

CAN YOU EXPECT TO CONTEND WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF THE BONUS POINTS THAT THE LEADERS WILL HAVE? “No, you can’t contend for the overall championship without winning some races. I think winning a race is a must. Certainly with Carl [Edwards] and Kyle [Busch] and now Jimmie [Johnson], you’re going to have to win some races and get those bonus points. You can contend for a good points finish. There’s some great guys in the Chase now, they’re locked in, that haven’t won a race yet this year, and I still think that they’ll be able to contend for a good finish. Certainly, Carl and Kyle are definitely in the driver’s seat.”

TONY STEWART RECENTLY SAID AT AN APPEARANCE AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY THAT ONE DAY YOU JUST GOT IT AND TURNED IT ON. DO YOU FEEL THAT WAY? WHEN DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU “GOT IT” AND COULD REALLY START COMPETING? “Certainly the start of this season has been a lot easier than the start of last year. Like I tell everyone, everything the second time around is easier. I can’t point out a particular weekend where things just clicked. But, the start of this year, the Daytona 500, going through that same process as we went through our rookie season, everything is easier the second time around, you know what’s around the next corner, you can make better decisions, your crew chief and yourself and your engineers have worked together to make better calls on and off the race track. So, I’ve just felt like we’ve learned from our mistakes, we’ve improved the things that were good last year, and we’ve been working extremely hard on our pit crew and building better race cars, and I’ve been doing equally as much work inside the race car, trying to be a smarter race car driver for my team and my sponsor. And I think it started to show off sometime throughout the year.”

HOW MUCH HAS JIMMY FENNIG BEEN ABLE TO HELP YOU? IS HE AS MUCH A COACH FOR YOU AS A CREW CHIEF? “Oh, definitely, 100 percent. Jimmy is a guy that can sit on top of the pit box and see a lot more than just lap times on a computer. He understands the way the race flows; he understands the long races to the shorter races, going from the afternoon to the night. He’s just got a lot of racing knowledge. He doesn’t overlook the small details. So, he’s a guy that you can go to and talk to about anything, and certainly we have come to have a great understanding in what I want in a race car, what he thinks we need. Pretty good team together.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE AHEAD OF SCHEDULE, OR DID YOU SEE YOURSELF HERE IN THIS POSITION? “We’re where we need to be. Certainly, we’re not where we want to be by any means. We want to be up there with Carl and Kyle, leading laps and winning races. But, we’re on schedule. We’ve shown a lot of improvement, we’ve worked on a lot of things. I still feel like we’ve got some more improving to do before we’re at a championship-caliber team week-in and week-out. But, going into the year, we knew that if we had a solid year and didn’t have many mechanical failures or didn’t have any unfortunate things happen on the race track, we would have a shot at the Chase. We knew it would be tough to be competitively locked into the Chase going into this last race; it could’ve happened. All in all, we knew that we just wanted to have a shot at making the Chase, and that is in the top 15, and we find ourselves in 13th, just a few points out, and we just wanted to say we had a shot at the Chase, and certainly this season is not going to be dependent on just this one race at Richmond and whether we’re in the Chase or not. We’ve still got loads of racing to do, a lot of opportunities to lead laps and win some races, and certainly improve. We’re already looking at next year.”

HOW VALUABLE HAS IT BEEN TO HAVE CARL EDWARDS AS A TEAMMATE? “He’s certainly kept us working extremely hard trying to keep up with the fast pace of that team’s been on this year. Carl’s got a lot of good experience. He’s an excellent race-car driver, and him and Bob Osborne obviously have clicked and have worked extremely well together. But having Carl has a teammate, I’m glad he’s on our team.”

WITH THIS BEING YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE LIKE THIS, THE CHASE, IS THERE ANYTHING IN YOUR CAREER THAT RELATES TO THIS? HAVE YOU EVER GONE THROUGH ANYTHING LIKE THIS IN ANY WAY? “Not really. I’ve been in some one-race, take-all, like a big-money race or race that was maybe a last-chance race or something and you had to finish in a certain spot in order to advance to the big race. But as far as the amount of people watching and the expectations and the race to the chase for the championship at Richmond, nothing quite that big. Not being in the points championship or running the Truck series or the ARCA-Re/MAX series leading up to last year to the Sprint Cup series, I really didn’t have that good of a feel for what a good, tight points race is like. This is the first opportunity I’ve gotten to really points race all year and think about the points. I’ve really learned a lot from being in this situation. I’m sure we’ll be better, like I talked about earlier, the second time around in another situation like this. But, to answer your question, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a position to be in such a highly watched, one-race, kind of your make-or-break to get into the next level.”

OBVIOUSLY, YOU KNOW HOW BIG OF A DEAL THIS IS. BUT, NOT HAVING YET GONE THROUGH SOMETHING LIKE THIS, DO HAVE A SENSE OF THE PRESSURE SINCE THIS IS THE FIRST GO-AROUND FOR YOU? “I probably don’t realize how big this race is, but after the year is over we’ll have time to sit back and think about it, but I’m trying not to go about it like that. If I put this much effort and concentration into one race, a make-or-break race, I think that would be a little too much. Certainly, we’re all excited about the race, to where we’re thinking about it, but we’ve just got to go out and run our race, and whether we make the Chase or not is not going to depend on just the one race at Richmond. I can go back all the way to the Daytona 500 and talk about things that I would’ve done different and would’ve gotten us different results. So, I’m taking it very seriously, and looking forward to a good weekend, and we’re going to make sure our AAA Ford drives as good and is as fast as we can make it. And I’ll go out and drive as fast as I can and whatever happens is going to happen.”

AT SOME POINT, WILL YOU ANTICIPATE TALKING WITH YOUR ROUSH FENWAY RACING TEAMMATES ABOUT WHAT THEY CAN DO SATURDAY NIGHT TO HELP YOUR POINTS SITUATION? “I think that’s going to be up to my crew chief and Jack Roush during the race. We can all have a game plan for the race – ‘If we get here, try to let me by,’ or, if you’re running second, ‘I’d like to lead a lap.’ We can have a great plan of attack, but once they drop the green flag, usually everybody’s plan goes out the window. We’re just going to go out and race hard. We can’t count on them to help us out, and I don’t know that they will be in a position. They’re trying to battle for points and get bonus points at the same time, but certainly I think they’re going to race extremely hard and we might be in an opportunity to have somebody cut us some slack, or possibly if one of the guys has trouble, help us out a little bit. So, time will tell, but I feel like Jimmy Fennig will have a good eye on top of the pit box and be in constant communication with the other crew chiefs, and we’ll have to play the 400 laps kind of by ear. A lot can change between the drop of the green and the last 50 laps or something. So, I think when the time comes, we’ll have to plan together.”

WHAT TYPE OF ADJUSTMENTS DO YOU THINK YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE TO IMPROVE ON THE LAST TIME YOU RACED AT RICHMOND? “We were going over some notes earlier from the spring race, and I think we’ve just got to have a better car for the long runs. We were pretty good on the short runs there in the spring. And, you know, we finished third in this race last year, so I think we’ll go off some good notes. We’ve got to make sure we unload good because of the time between practice and qualifying being an impound race, so we’ve got to make sure we’re good right off the truck, make some good adjustments, and hopefully we can take care of it for 350 laps and go racing at the end.”

With just one race remaining before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase for the Championship, four Ford Racing drivers – Carl Edwards (second), Greg Biffle (sixth), Matt Kenseth (ninth) and David Ragan (13th) – are in the top 13 in the points standings. Doug Hervey, Manager of Ford Racing’s North American Operations, talks about the season those four have had so far, and their chances in the upcoming Chase.

DOUG HERVEY – Manager of North American Racing Operations – THERE IS ONE RACE BEFORE THE START OF THE CHASE. FORD RACING WILL PROBABLY HAVE THREE IN AND HEADING INTO SATURDAY NIGHT’S RACE AT RICHMOND, ONE DRIVER THAT IS 17 POINTS OUT. CAN YOU SPEAK TO WHAT IT WOULD MEAN FOR THE PROGRAM TO HAVE FOUR DRIVERS, HALF OF YOUR CUP TEAMS, POTENTIALLY BE IN THE CHASE? “It would be a great thing. To put half of our teams in the Chase would mean that we have got a pretty successful program as shown in the results of the teams. The results speak for themselves. If David [Ragan] is unsuccessful, it’s not the end of the world, but it would certainly be nice to see him in the Chase.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE GROWTH OF DAVID RAGAN? “I’m a huge supporter of David Ragan. Last year when things weren’t always going well for him on track, we stood by him. I really have to commend not only Jimmy Fennig, but his whole team in making that program successful. On track, David has done an extremely good job. Last year, as you know, he was in his freshman year, if you will, and showed some signs of brilliance but also showed that he was still a rookie and made some mistakes. This year is proving that he’s learned from some of those mistakes. In talking with Jimmy earlier in the year, he indicated that last year he held back a few things for his rookie driver to make sure things were good and this year he said he was going let him go a little more. And David has responded very well. He’s an extremely talented driver and we look forward to hopefully seeing him in the Chase.”

YOU ALSO HAVE ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DRIVERS IN THE SERIES, CARL EDWARDS. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RUN HE HAS HAD? “There’s no doubt his team is clicking on all cylinders. Bob Osborne has done a fantastic job. The crew and the pit changes have been second to none. A lot of times, those are the intangibles that help you get the win. Carl, as a driver, he’s up on the wheel. Right now, between him and Kyle Busch, you’d say those two guys are the ones to look at as we wind down the season. Carl is an extremely fierce competitor. He loves to compete, loves to drive and does very well at it.”

OF THE OTHER TWO DRIVERS, MATT KENSETH AND GREG BIFFLE, ONE HAS A CHAMPIONSHIP ALREADY AND ONE HAS JUST MISSED. YOU’VE GOT SOME DRIVERS WHERE THIS ISN’T NEW TO THEM. “Both Greg [Biffle] and Matt [Kenseth] have done an extremely good job. Matt’s year, with the change of the crew chief and Chip [Bolin] has done a real good job with his team. But there’s a learning curve there when you change up. Robbie [Reiser] had been with Matt for a number of years. You make a crew chief change like that, there’s going to be an adjustment period. And Chip, as the car engineer moving into the crew chief role, he has had a learning curve himself and he’s doing well. You’re looking at the results in the latter half of the year and Matt had a top-five finish this past weekend in California. There’s no way you can count out Matt Kenseth. With regard to Greg Biffle, Greg has had a real good year. All of our Ford drivers in the Chase have a chance at the championship. There’s not one that got lucky to get in. Greg is an extremely good driver; he’s won a championship in the Truck series and the Nationwide series. You can tell he’s hungry for one in the Cup series and he had a really good race last weekend, too. He had a second-place finish in California, which hopefully is just the tip of what’s more to come as we go into the Chase.”

Kelly Bires, driver of the No. 47 Clorox Ford Fusion, makes his 47th career NASCAR Nationwide Series start this weekend at Richmond International Raceway. Bires talks about the unique racing at Richmond and what it takes to win at the three-quarter-mile track.

KELLY BIRES – No. 47 Clorox Ford Fusion – RICHMOND HAS BOTH SHORT TRACK AND SPEEDWAY CHARACTERISTICS. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING AT RICHMOND? “It drives kind of like a short track but the speed that you carry on the place incorporates having a good body on the car. There is some aero grip that’s involved there where some of the other short tracks most of it’s mechanical grip with a little bit of aero grip but it seems like it’s 50-50 at Richmond. You have to have a really good piece there to run good. It is a three-quarter-mile short track. It’s similar to what we’re going to run at Iowa next year. So, this is an important race for us to at least make a strive forward with our short-track program.”

HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE RACE SET-UP? “You’ve just got to get it comfortable. Richmond has a tendency to be loose in. The characteristic of the track is once you get the thing turning good enough in the center of the corner you’re always too loose in. It’s a point where you can get it to where you can stand it getting in the corner and yet still be able to cut and have grip off. It’s different with this motor package the way it is than it was even running there last year. It’s changed. Last year, you kind of had to roll into the gas, this year you kind of get to it pretty hard. You’re carrying so much speed through the center of the corner there this that it makes it tougher to get the thing to turn. When you get it to turn, you just get momentum loose instead of getting rear tire spin loose. There’s a difference there. It is a pretty fast short track. That’s what I would compare it to.”

DOES THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT FROM THE MAY RACE? “It’s hard to say. It’s all temperature sensitive. It was pretty hot there when we were there in May. It changed a ton from when we tested there to when we actually went back and raced. It seems like the temperature does make a pretty significant difference in grip and the way your car is balanced. I’m sure it will be different; it always gets different as the weekend goes too with the rubber that’s laid down. Each and every track has got it’s own characteristics and it’s just a matter of who can actually guess right or hit it right from the difference between practice and the race and put it all together and usually that’s the person that wins the race.”

DO YOU LIKE RACING AT RICHMOND? “I do. We haven’t run as good as we wanted there. It’s a place that I should excel at, but I feel like I can make up some going there. We haven’t run as good as we want to, but it’s not for lack of trying. We’ve tried quite a few different packages and we’re just going to keep working hard at it until we hit on something that I’m comfortable with and it’s got the speed to be able to run like we need to there. I’d like to get a top-10 run this weekend. That’s our goal right now, to keep getting top-10 finishes.”

Keven Wood, driver of the No. 21 Air Force Ford F-150, makes his seventh career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series appearance this weekend at Gateway International Raceway. Wood talks about racing on the flat, egg-shaped track and how he prepares for racing at tracks on which he hasn’t previously competed.

KEVEN WOOD – No. 21 Air Force Ford F-150 – IT’S BEEN A FEW WEEKS SINCE YOU RACED IN THE TRUCK SERIES. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING AWAY FROM THE TRACK? “For the most part, I’ve been waiting around. I’ve raced a little bit with some Late Models here and there but nothing serious. I’ve been spending time in the shop and helping my dad [Len Wood] on the chassis dyno when they have cars ready to run. Other than that, it’s just been a waiting game for me.”

WHEN YOU’RE NOT RACING, WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT THE TRACK? “I spot for Jon [Wood] during practice and it’s pretty much an observation thing for me. I’m watching and learning as much as I can and listen to the communications that he has with John Monsam [crew chief] and the rest of the team trying to relay what the truck is doing. Danny O’Quinn spots for both of us during the races. I’m listening and learning to everything they are doing to be a better race-car driver.”

ON RACING AT GATEWAY. “This will be another first-time race for me. I’m ready to go. It’s been a few weeks and I’m ready to get back in the seat.”

HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A TRACK WHERE YOU’VE NEVER BEEN? “I think John Monsam has all the races on DVDs, so I’ll get with him probably this afternoon or tomorrow. I’ll take the DVDs home with me and I’ll watch it. I’ve been trying to watch races that have been run there and I talk to Jon and Danny O’Quinn. Between the two of them, they’ve run just about everything that I’ll be running. Both Jon and Danny are great sources of information. I’ll talk to them and see what their opinions are, what they recommend, how to adjust to a track like that. Other than that, I’ll just go out there, get on the track and we’ll see what happens.”

DO NEW TRACKS INTIMIDATE DRIVERS? “I think it’s another thing that’s just going to be fun to learn. The only track that I didn’t have fun racing at was ORP. Granted that was one in itself, but there are just a lot of variables there that hurt us. But I’m going to Gateway after running Nashville and we had a super run going there until things happened and took us out. That gave me a lot of confidence running that well up there. I’m just looking forward to going to Gateway and seeing what can happen.”

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT YOU’VE LEARNED THIS SEASON? “You have to be aggressive but you still have to be patient, too. These guys, they are the best at what they do and they’re not going to give you anything. You have to get out there and take it.”

DID YOU SET GOALS FOR YOURSELF AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS SEASON? “No, not so much as in ‘I have to do this, I have to do that,’ but just to run the best that I can and learn as much as I can. That was the biggest thing that I’ve set is just going out and learning absolutely everything I could.”

MORE ON LEARNING IN THE TRUCK SERIES. “I’ve learned a lot but I know there is more to learn. I don’t think you could say [Ron] Hornaday and [Mike] Skinner and the veterans are through learning. Everything changes each year and if they don’t go back there with the same truck and stuff, NASCAR would do something different to make racing different. I don’t think you’ll ever stop learning.”

FRONTSTRETCH LIVE AT THE TRACK THIS WEEKEND AT LOUDON!
Popular writer Amy Henderson will be tracking all the action at New Hampshire from inside the garage, giving you the stories you’re looking for with a special edition of our Newsletter planned over the weekend. It all culminates on Sunday with her special participation in our LIVE blog during the Lenox Industrial Tools 301, paired with our usual panel of expert analysts! It’s three days of going the extra mile for you … so we hope you enjoy it!

This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Kim DeHaven.

 

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