FORD MEDIA CENTER

Carl Edwards Tops Ford Qualifiers at TalladegaSuperspeedway; Starts 10th for Sunday's Aaron's 499Ford Qualifying Results:

10th – Carl Edwards

13th – Brad Keselowski

14th – Michael McDowell

15th – Aric Almirola

16th – Joey Logano

23rd – Trevor Bayne

25th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

26th – Marcos Ambrose

35th – Greg Biffle

39th – David Ragan

40th – David Gilliland

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “It worked out OK. The final roll of the dice didn’tend up the way we wanted, but it was still fun. I had a good time. We didn’t have a very good plan andit still ended up OK for us, so I feel good about 10th.” YOU WERE THE LONE WOLF OUT THERE IN THELAST SESSION. “Yeah, that was tough but I figured I would stick with the Hendrick bunch and theStewart-Haas bunch because I basically mooched off of them the whole time so when it came downto it, I just pushed Kurt as hard as I could and hoped that it ended up well for us.” DID YOU CHERRY-PICK WHO YOU RAN WITH? “For sure. We didn’t have a plan and the Hendrick and Stewart-Haasguys had a pretty good group of cars and a good plan. In the end, the Childress bunch did a better jobthan all of us, but the function of time entered the equation there at the end and when we shouldpull off pit road. I was doing a lot of math in my head about how long it was gonna take to the lineand how many laps we were gonna get, but it was a good time.” WAS THE LAST ROUND EASIERBECAUSE EVERYBODY WAS ON THEIR GO LAP AS OPPOSED TO GUYS SHUTTING IT DOWN ANDPOSSIBLY RUINING YOUR LAP LIKE EARLIER ROUNDS? “The last one was easiest because I justwent as fast as I could. I tried to push Kurt as hard as I could and he was pushing Jeff, but we justweren’t in the right spot. In hindsight, we should have waited and got behind those guys no matterwhat, but then the pole would have been a 100-mile an hour lap because everybody would have

been just waiting and waiting. Congratulations to Brian Scott and those guys. They were fast andthey showed it. They very likely might have the fastest car out here, so they did a good job.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “It was good. I thought the action was aboutwhat we expected. It wasn’t too crazy, but it was crazy enough to be fun and fun to watch, so thatwas good. I obviously wish we would have got out to the very front, but it’s hard because everybodywants to lag and nobody wants to go because the speed is at the back, it’s not at the front. I wish itwas at the front. You need like a nitro button for whoever is leading to keep it going straight, but eitherway we had a good effort and just missed out on the top 12 in the next round, which is disappointingbut part of the game.” WHY MAKE THE EFFORT TO GET THE POLE? “Ego and pride.” THAT CAN BEPRETTY EXPENSIVE. “Yeah, it can, but that’s what we’re here to do. Racing is expensive, so wreckinggoes with it. That’s part of the risk versus reward proposition.” WAS THAT FUN? “It’s fun now becauseit’s fresh and new. I don’t imagine it will be fun many years down the road from now because it’s reallyirrelevant to the race most likely, and that’s what at the end of the weekend when we go home onMonday we get paid off of and recognized by not how we did in the qualifying session. There needsto be a bigger reward for this to really make it something where I think it will stay as exciting as itis now because right now the reward is so small that eventually you’re gonna get to a point in timewhen teams and drivers just aren’t gonna risk their equipment, but right now the novelty is so newthat that’s not the case.” WHAT WOULD BE A BIG ENOUGH REWARD? MONEY? POINTS? “I wouldsay at least a point. Maybe not points, but at least a point – something. Right now there’s nothingand that doesn’t really make it worth hanging your car out and wrecking it. You do get a pole, butthat’s only one person. Everybody’s got to be on the edge to make it really work, so the numbers justdon’t work.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “It didn’t quite work out for me. It’s a bit ofa crapshoot out there. You’ve got a better chance at Vegas than you do out there doing that stuff.It’s all pretty random at how it all lines up, so it wasn’t a great day.” YOU WERE IN A BIG GROUP ATTHE START, SO WAS THAT YOUR THINKING – TO GET A FAST LAP EARLY WITH A BIG GROUP OFCARS? “Once the cars thinned out it was pretty much impossible, but we’ll learn from this one andsee if we can make it better for Daytona.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – “We made it to the race and that’swhat our goal was, so we’ll see what happens. Things didn’t go as well in the second session. Wewere on a really good lap with the Gibbs car there and then they shut it down. I thought that wasgoing to be a good lap for us, but it’s just qualifying. It was fun.”

JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO ANEND? “Yeah.” OR DOES THIS NOT COUNT IN YOUR BOOK? “It shouldn’t. It’s not by a good car ornot, it’s just by strategy. We put a lot of work and effort into making it through the week to keep thatstreak alive today. It’s unfortunate. We worked the plan perfectly the first session and got up there.All three of us were really in the top five and felt pretty good about that, and then maybe we fell tothe back a little too late. We had a good flying lap going and then we caught a group that was three-wide and then somebody else put it four-wide in front of us. Once you’re four-wide there’s nowhereyou can go and that killed our run, and then at that point everyone shut down and then the cautioncomes out and it’s over. It’s kind of a bummer. I would have liked to keep that streak going, but I knewthis was gonna be the wild card event. It’s just like the race, anyone can win this race, anyone can putit on the pole today. It’s such a crazy day and I just wish we did a little better, that’s all.” WHAT DOYOU THINK THIS WILL BE LIKE AT DAYTONA IN JULY? “It’s gonna be a definitely different ballgamewhen you go to Daytona because you’re taking a lane away. There are three lane there and four laneshere, so you’re taking a lane away and those big runs you get are gonna be harder to do somethingwith because the track is gonna be blocked more.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “I guess it probably went like I thought it would. Probablythe biggest thing was not necessarily people blocking, but people after they get their lap they slow

down and then there’s nowhere to go. I had three great runs, probably at least top 5 or top 10 – goingreally fast – and just had to completely come out of the gas to slow down. Then I was too slow to geta lap on the next lap because I wasn’t at a high enough speed for that lap, so you had to wait anotherlap. Then you’re going decent speed and you’ve got a gap and then I had a good lap and then thegroup slowed down. I was just off-sequence and couldn’t get a full lap.” HELPLESS FEELING AT THEEND WHEN THERE WEREN’T MANY CARS OUT THERE? “Yeah, I knew once the big pack pulled init was over, so I was just off-sequence with the big pack.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Zest Ford Fusion – “I thought it was about like we expected, really.The Fords got together. The Chevrolets got together and kind of just went. Just one small move bysomebody can wreck your whole lap and we got a little bit separated there. I can’t remember whokind of slowed us up and we got separated from the 22’s bumper and it allowed a slower car to jumpin there and I had to hit the brakes, so it killed that run. And then you’re just trying to look for how youcan make another run. We got close, but we couldn’t quite get it.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “All of the Fords kind of teamed up and wentout there. We thought we needed to go out and lay a lap down early, and then kind of drop back andget behind another group that was trying to make a run, but by the time we got behind the groupsthat were making their run, they had already started checking up, so it just didn’t play out right. That’sOK. We start 15th. It’s no big deal. You really have to make sure that when you’re running your lap, thecars in front of you are also running their lap. If you get to where you’re running your lap and the carsin front of you shut down, there’s just nothing you can do. It just ends up slow.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 34 KFC Ford Fusion – “It was very frustrating. We have a great KFC Go CupFord, but just didn’t get in the right lane in qualifying. We wanted to follow a group, but what happensis as soon as a group completes their lap they slow down so they don’t help another group. So youhave to time it just right and you have to be really lucky. This session is all about being lucky. You canhave the best plan in the world and the best car and is just doesn’t work out. We had a good car, butwe just weren’t lucky.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusiont want to qualify where we did, either.s good. t make it, Eric McClure, which is a bummer because I was obviously hoping he would makethe race. It was crazy and wild out there. Everybody had different agendas. ”

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