This Week in Ford Racing: NASCAR Edition

Sunday November 15, 2009

Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, was a guest on this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series video conference and discussed a variety of topics as the circuit heads to Phoenix International Raceway for Sunday’s next-to-last race of the season. 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – WHERE DOES YOUR TEAM NEED TO IMPROVE FOR 2010?  “That’s a great question because we’ve been looking at that and digesting all of the information that we have and with the lack of testing, we’re putting a lot of importance on each race each weekend.  Looking forward to 2010, we know that the spots are to figure out these front bump stops, figure out the front geometry, figure out how to get our cars to turn around the center of the corner – rotate so that we can put the gas back down – and that’s what we’re facing every week.  Those are our issues.  We just got done going over for the last two hours what we’re gonna do at Phoenix this weekend, how we ran there in 2007, 2008 and in the spring race this year, so we’re constantly trying how to figure out how to level the competition.  It’s been a tough year for Roush Fenway and the 16 3M team competition-wise, but the highlight, obviously, of our season is making the chase and missing a couple of wins by just a little bit.  We hope that Phoenix or Homestead bring us a win this season.” 

IS IT SAFE TO SAY THESE NEXT TWO TRACKS GIVE YOU A SENSE OF COMFORT BECAUSE OF YOUR SUCCESS AT EACH?  “I really do.  I feel like I have as good an opportunity as all the other guys, absolutely.” 

WHEN YOU WRECKED AT VEGAS A YEAR OR SO AGO IN TESTING, HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO RECOVER AS FAR AS YOUR DRIVING?  “It was two years ago we had that accident at the Las Vegas tire test and it really took me about three weeks to really recover from that crash, and mostly because I dislocated my right shoulder.  That was probably my biggest hindrance in that crash.  Other than that, I was just sore and bumped and bruised all over, but, really, my right shoulder was sore for a few weeks after that crash because I did dislocate my right shoulder.  But you can come back from these things fairly quickly.  You might be sore in the car the next week, but, other than that, these cars are really safe and our safety equipment is really good.” 

BUT YOUR REFLEXES AND REACTIONS WEREN’T AFFECTED BY IT?  “No, I don’t think so.  It’s just like any other accident you get in, or any other athlete – a week or so and you’re back at it.” 

WHAT IF ANYTHING SURPRISED YOU FROM A MEDIA PERSPECTIVE ONCE YOU GOT TO CUP?  “There is so much that goes on behind the scenes and so much that goes into the production of each show or each interview – to make it informative and make it come off to look good.  The emphasis on it and how many people follow it, and how big of a deal it is – I came from the Camping World Truck Series to the Nationwide Series and then to the Sprint Cup Series and each step along the way it was a huge difference – from the Camping World Truck Series to Nationwide.  And then I thought, ‘I have an idea of what to expect going to the Sprint Cup Series because of making that transition,’ and it wasn’t even close.  It’s amazing the amount of coverage and what goes into letting all the fans know about our sport.” 

DO YOU FEEL MAKING THE CHASE IS A GOOD THING FOR YOUR TEAM GOING INTO NEXT YEAR?  “I really do.  I feel like making the chase this year was a lot of momentum for the team, and this sport is a lot about momentum.  Certainly, we’d like to win one of these last two races, but we’re looking forward to finishing off the season the best we can in the points and then being better next year, being higher up in the points to get locked in earlier in that chase and then compete for this title even better than we did this year.” 

WHAT WOULD YOUR OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THE SEASON?  “The season has been a little bit disappointing for the 16 team.  We just digested this whole year for the last couple hours in (Greg) Erwin’s office getting ready for these next couple races and we look back and we almost won California.  We were right there at Las Vegas.  We would have probably won Texas had we not dropped a lugnut.  We were so close.  Michigan.  We would have won Michigan if we wouldn’t have run out of gas 800 feet from the start-finish line.  So we look back and look at so many opportunities that we missed, where we were the fastest and most dominant car of that event.  That really is the highlight of our season and that gave us the momentum to get into the chase.  What is disappointing is that we haven’t been able to perform the second half of the season.  Leading up to the chase and the first eight chase races so far haven’t been where we wanted them to be and we’re working hard at it.  I don’t know how to explain anymore than we’re doing everything humanly possible to be more competitive and faster.  We’re just gonna continue to work as hard as we can, take advantage of a tire test it looks like we’re gonna get invited to in late January, and just try to get as best prepared as we can for next year and take these last two races and try to win and get our program turned around.” 

HAVE YOU FOUND SOME THINGS THE LAST FEW WEEKS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL YOU’LL CLOSE THE GAP NEXT YEAR?  “The biggest gain for us was Kansas the third race into the chase.  We really felt like we were onto something that had a lot of speed in it; that was a little bit different than what we’d normally been doing.  We were trying it back in Richmond and really couldn’t get it to work, so then when it came around to Kansas we were experimenting and got it going pretty good, but we haven’t been able to hit on anything since then.  So it’s been kind of pin the tail on the donkey.  We’ve been all over that map looking for things to get our car better.  We feel like we’re making gains, but we don’t feel like we’re gaining on our competition as quick as we’d like to.” 

WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE CHASE?  IS IT THE 48’S TITLE OR IS IT WIDE-OPEN?  “Obviously, up until last week – Talladega was really the turning point in the chase, I felt.  Both Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon got in that wreck and Jimmie Johnson slipped through and finished sixth, which that was disastrous for those guys.  Mark’s on his roof going down the frontstretch and Jimmie Johnson is finishing in the top 10, so that really hurt their opportunity.  If you look back at that one race, Mark might be leading the points today.  So is it over yet?  I don’t think so because anything can happen.  There’s a lot of pressure on the 48 team right now because of what happened last week.  He still has a fairly significant lead, but there’s a lot of pressure on him and Mark runs very well at these last few race tracks, and so do a few of those other guys up there, so I think anything can happen.  I still feel like anything can happen.” 

WHAT’S YOUR IMPRESSION OF THE NEW FORD ENGINE?  “I spoke with Doug Yates quite a bit about the engine and I’m really excited about it.  We know it’s gonna take a little while.  You can imagine how many engines and parts they need to build up in order to ramp up next season to get the engines full-time in all the cars.  We still have a big uphill battle in front of us, implementing that new engine once we’re satisfied with the performance and the reliability, but I’m very, very excited about it.  The engine looks promising.  It ran well in the restrictor-plate race in both cars at Talladega.  That was a huge statement for that engine, not to have any issues in either car, so I think it’s full speed ahead with the new engine. It’s going to take a little while for it to get implemented in all these cars.  I know I raised my hand and said, ‘Hey, the first third of the season,’ instead of us jumping all over the map because you really have to have these cars built differently for the engine bay to work, I said, ‘I’ll run the old engine for the first third,’ simply for the fact that our old engine has a lot of power, a lot of reliability and five or eight horsepower isn’t really gonna win or lose a race, I don’t think, in that first third of the season.  But after that I’m looking forward to having that thing in the car for the next five years to come.” 

WILL IT RUN AT AN UNRESTRICTED TRACK THIS YEAR?  “I believe it’s gonna run at either Phoenix or Homestead.  I haven’t heard yet what the schedule is, but I’m confident they’re going to run an open race with it this season.  I’m impressed they ran that restrictor-plate race with that engine and had absolutely no issues, so they’ve really done their homework.  My hat’s off to those guys, but I know they’re gonna run it at an open motor race track this year and then continue to develop over the winter and get as many engines built up as they can to start the season next year.” 

THERE’S A STORY THAT NORTH WILKESBORO IS GOING TO RE-OPEN IN 2010.  WILL WE SEE IT USED A LOT FOR TESTING?  “I think we’ll probably see some.  I think everybody will at least go test it out or try it to see what they can learn from it, and then bring the data back and compare it to what race track will that actually compare to, or does it have maybe one corner that works well that we can compare data and try different geometries and bump stops.  We’ll just have to wait and see once that opens and I’m sure it will be on our list to go try and just see what happens. 
 
WHAT ARE YOUR PROSPECTS FOR HOMESTEAD?  “I really look forward to Homestead.  I look forward to Phoenix, too.  I’ve got three wins there and a couple second-place finishes, so I look forward to that race track.  It’s a fun track, but I want to win a race this season and I’ve got two opportunities left.  We’re just gonna try as hard as we can and see what we can do.” 

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KEEP HAVING THE TRUCK SERIES AT THE MILWAUKEE MILE?  THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME ISSUES THERE WITH MANAGEMENT.  “I think it’s a really important market, obviously, up there.  I think the race track is great.  It’s a great place, a great facility.  It’s location is a little bit difficult being in the center of all that stuff, but I think it’s important to maintain races at some of those facilities, and that’s definitely a great part of the country to race in.  There are a lot of racers from up that way and I think the Milwaukee Mile is a fun race track to race at, I just wish it wasn’t so far from Sonoma.  I’d like to race there again.” 
 
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MEMPHIS SHUTTING DOWN?  “There again, it’s a little disappointing for me.  My first win in NASCAR, ever, came there in the Camping World Truck Series and I really like that race track.  I think it’s kind of a challenging geographic location and they probably had a hard time selling that venue out, but I think it’s a great facility, it’s a great place with huge potential.  It may be something where it’s shut down for a short period of time and then may come back even better.” 

AJ Allmendinger, driver of the No. 44 Ford. Drive one. Ford Fusion is coming off a 10^th-place finish last weekend at Texas in his Ford debut with Richard Petty Motorsports.  Allmendinger, who will be driving the final two races in a Ford as well, spoke about joining the manufacturer full-time in 2010. 

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 44 Ford. Drive one. Ford Fusion – A LOT OF PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW THAT THIS ISN’T YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE DRIVING WITH FORD RACING.  “I guess it’s a small world in racing and everything always seems to come full circle.  It was great because in Champ Car in 2004, I actually started in 2003, but the Champ Car Series just went to one engine manufacturer and it was a Ford Cosworth, so we have good memories of racing Fords.  Now if we could just get these Cup engines turbo-charged we’d be sweet.  It would be great, but there are a lot of fond memories and, obviously, in 2006 we got on that roll and won five out of nine and kind of left on a hot streak.  So it’s exciting for me to be able to come back and experience being a part of the Ford family again, and I think people don’t really notice it because we were just one engine manufacturer there and it wasn’t that main competition level, but the Ford Cosworth people were fantastic and I look forward to the same here.” 

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST GOAL FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM IN THE NO. 44 FORD THESE LAST TWO RACES?  “We want to learn.  It’s not as easy as just pulling the sticker off the car from a Dodge and putting it on as a Ford and just putting a new motor in the car.  You’ve got to change the front of the car and change the rear of the car a little bit to match what the Ford template is, and I think that’s really just want we’ve got to learn.  The team built a brand-new car for Texas and we’ve got a car ready for Phoenix as well, but there is a learning curve.  In a perfect world, you just want to go throw it on the race track and go, ‘There’s that Ford power.  Everything feels great.  The car is handling great.  We’re gonna go win.’  But it’s not that easy because the competition is so tough, so I think in these last couple of races we want to learn a lot.  Obviously, we want to run well, but we just want to build a notebook going into next year and that’s really what it’s all about.  We’ve got a great opportunity to learn and be ready for Daytona and really start the season when this 43 team next year will have had time to work together.  We’ll have had about 10 races and that will be important, but, no matter what, I’d still like to go out there and average in the top 15 these last three races and hopefully get a couple of top-10s and have something to be excited about in the off season.” 

HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR LEARNING CURVE HAS GONE ON THE CUP SIDE?  “I’ve experienced a lot of change in Cup in three years.  I’ve gone from a couple of different teams and three different manufacturers now, so I’m getting the full gauntlet of what it’s like to be in Cup, but this year I have to take it as good and bad.  Heck, I was only scheduled to run five or eight races this year and we’ve run the full season.  We had to be out of the top 35 in points at the start of the season and now we’re solidly in.  We’re 26^th, but, at the same time, I know we could have been better.  There’s just a lot of little stuff like getting caught up in wrecks and little things that have happened that have cost us maybe being in the top 20 in points.  I really feel like that’s where we should be for a full season and where we could have been, but, at the same time, we had to switch teams during the year when the 43 and the 44 teams switched.  I got to work with Mike Shiplett and the guys last year when I came over to the team, but we were split apart at the beginning of this year and now we’re back together, so it’s just a lot of stuff that we’ve learned.  All in all, I can’t complain.  I’ve run the full season and, like I said, I look at these last few races that whether we move up in points or move back in points, if we can just have strong races and learn a lot going into next year, I can look at these three races as successful and that’s really what I’m all about.” 

This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Beth Lunkenheimer.