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This Week in Ford Racing - NASCAR Edition

Tuesday September 30, 2008

 

Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, has a pair of wins and a third-place finish in the first three races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. As the series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for this weekend’s Amp Energy 500, Biffle talks about how this race could change everything.

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion — HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS UPCOMING RACE AT TALLADEGA? “I think everybody in the chase, I think all 12 drivers and the media, say that Talladega is definitely the wild-card race and anything can happen there. I think you put all the numbers in a coffee can and dump them out because our cars today are so close in speed. It doesn’t matter where you’re running on the race track. I was running third in a Nationwide race and watched the 10 car fly upside-down across my hood, so being at the front, at the back or in the middle it doesn’t matter because you can be involved in something anywhere. And a lot of times it’s not about speed or talent, it’s did you miss the accident? Pit stops are important. There are a lot of green-flag pit stops in those races. Fuel mileage is definitely a factor. Hopefully, what we’d like to see are long green-flag runs to stretch the field out just a little bit. That makes it a little more racy, a little more strategy and not as much hold-your-breath for the last 10 laps. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

HOW DO YOU APPROACH THIS RACE? “My mentality is gonna be to just drive as good as I can drive, keep the fenders on my car and stay out of the treacherous lane. Whoever is beating and banging the hardest, I’ll try and pick a different spot to be in on the race track. At the beginning of the race I might be at the back or I might try to get to the front. If we qualify well, maybe try to stay up front with track position, but it’s kind of the luck of the draw. You just pick where you think is the best place to run and try to get your car there.”

David Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Ford. Drive one Ford Fusion, is another in a long line of Yates Racing drivers who have enjoyed qualifying success at Talladega Superspeedway, site of this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race. In four career starts at the 2.66-mile restrictor-plate track, Gilliland has a pole (his first at the Cup level), outside pole and three top-15 finishes, including a fourth-place showing in 2007. Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler are the other Yates drivers to have won a pole at Talladega.

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Ford. Drive one Ford Fusion – YOU WON YOUR FIRST-EVER POLE AT THE CUP LEVEL AT TALLADEGA. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU THINK ABOUT WHEN THINKING ABOUT THAT TRACK? “Yeah, absolutely. That was our first pole. It’s an awesome place to race. I grew up watching a lot of races there on TV, and I remember going there for the first time and have our pole there. Going there with Yates power and Yates cars always gives you an extra boost of confidence, and we’re really looking forward to going there.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT YATES RACING AND ITS SUCCESS AT RESTRICTOR-PLATE TRACKS? “I think that the restrictor-plate tracks at Daytona and Talladega always had a special place in Doug and Robert’s heart, and they they’ve worked very, very hard and dedicated a lot of time and effort into their restrictor-plate program, and I think it shows when they go and run well at those tracks. It’s something that Yates is very proud of, and, like I say, we’re looking forward to going back there. I’m really excited about this year, too, that we’ve been able to perform well at all of the other different tracks, too – road courses, short tracks and intermediate tracks. So, I feel like our program is much more well-rounded than it has been in the past. But, I’m really excited about going back to Talladega.”

IS THE RACING AT TALLADEGA DIFFERENT FROM THE SPRING TO THE FALL BECAUSE OF THE INTRODUCTION OF THE CHASE DRIVERS? OR, IS IT STILL JUST TALLADEGA? “I think Talladega is just one of those places where, obviously, you have to have patience. It’s a long race and there’s just so much stuff that can happen before it really matters, before you can get to the end, so patience is always a key, which it is each and every week. But, definitely, with the Chase drivers, it changes things a little bit, but each of us still need to go out and try to win races and perform our best each week.”

YOU HEAR ABOUT DRIVERS TALKING ABOUT BEING TOLD TO NEVER LIFT OFF THE THROTTLE AT RESTRICTOR-PLATE TRACKS LIKE TALLADEGA. OVER THE COURSE OF A LONG RACE, CAN THAT BE FATIGUING, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY? “A little bit. Really, you have to lift quite a bit. If you’re out there running by yourself, you wouldn’t have to, but once you get into the draft the cars pick up quite a bit of speed, and you can’t run the guy over in front of you, either. So, there’s a lot of just dragging the brake or lifting off the throttle just a little bit. But you definitely face a lot of different issues there, being that you’re full-throttle a lot more, the gas pedal seems to transfer a lot more heat into the pedal which transfers into your foot. So, we do a lot of things like insulate the gas pedal really well; we’ve made a special bootie guard for the bottom of my shoe for the restrictor-plate tracks. So, there’s some of little things that we have to do a little bit differently.”

Rick Crawford, driver of the No. 14 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford F-150, finished second in last year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race at Talladega, just .014 seconds behind race winner Todd Bodine. Crawford, who is from Mobile, Ala., talks about improving his finishing position by one this weekend at his home track. Crawford sits sixth in overall points standings with six races remaining this season.

RICK CRAWFORD – No. 14 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford F-150 – LAST YEAR WE SAW A THREE-WAY PHOTO FINISH AT TALLADEGA. YOU WERE JUST A WHEEL BEHIND TODD BODINE AT THE CHECKERED FLAG. “Last year’s race was a lot of fun. I depend on my Ford F-150 and it came out second to Todd Bodine. I’ve lived that moment over and over and over throughout the year and thought about what you would do different and how you would plan yourself a little better to do what you need to do. For a long time, I thought I did everything I could do. Then this year, I think if the same scenario comes out, I hope I win because I’m going to change it up just a little bit. The same thing could happen and, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a four-wide finish this year or if you had enough room for five. It could be even closer. I’m just looking forward to going to Talladega. It’s a home race track and my home state. We’re still in the points picture. A smart race is needed, so a good finish is needed.”

WILL THE ADDED SPACER CHANGE THE RACING? “I don’t know if you could get it any closer than it already is. I don’t know if you could get a finish at Talladega any closer than we had last year. I think a lot of patience is going to be served on Saturday in order to have a good finish or even to finish. So having a lot of patience and being aggressively smart toward the end.”

WITH THE HIGH BANKS AND HIGH SPEEDS OF TALLADEGA, DO YOU FOCUS MORE ON RACING THE TRACK OR RACING THE COMPETITION? “The race track is a given with the new pavement that they put on Talladega. You’ve got a lot of grip. The thing to do is a 200-mile-an-hour chess match. You just have to put yourself in the right position and hope the Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International can put itself in the top five and make a move there toward the end and pull out a victory.”

IN THE TWO TRUCK RACES AT TALLADEGA, BOTH HAVE BEEN WON FROM THE POLE. HOW DOES THAT PLAY INTO THE 200-MILE-AN-HOUR CHESS MATCH? “Having a pole truck adds to the confidence. Todd Bodine put himself in a position to win the race at the right time with track position and so forth. The pole-winning truck has to be a strong race truck. That added a lot of confidence to that, so that means it was hard to pass at the end – even with the draft selection happening behind him. I think last year we started in the mid-20s and didn’t stay there very long. My Ford F-Series pick up was running from the green flag because we thought we had a fast truck also, especially in race trim, and I think that will hold true for this year. Having a pole-winning truck surely is an advantage to speed, especially when you’re out front.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU, AN ALABAMA NATIVE, TO WIN AT TALLADEGA? “That would mean quite a bit. It’s a special place for me. It was my first superspeedway race that I’ve ever watched. I watched the opening race there with my grandfather, father and uncle, and that was a special day for me. I never dreamed to ever race there, but the dreams kept getting closer and closer. Finally, NASCAR decided to put the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Talladega and I think it’s something the fans have been wanting and Talladega race track has been wanting and I think most of the drivers wanted to go there. I think it will be an exciting day Saturday afternoon, especially if I was in victory lane.”

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

 

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