Carl Edwards (No. 99 Ford Fusion) overcame pit-stop problems and a penalty to finish fourth in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Speedway Saturday night. His Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle (No. 16 Ford Fusion) finished ninth. Jimmie Johnson was one of the few drivers who did not have to pit for fuel in the closing laps and he held on for his first victory of the year.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (finished 4th) – HAVE YOU EVER PASSE
D AS MANY CARS AS YOU DID TONIGHT? “No, I don’t know that I’ve ever passed that many cars at a race track ever. The car was really good. That’s a great Ford Fusion there, but we just got some setbacks there, one penalty and one tire got loose. My hat’s off to Jimmie and those guys. They’ve been running really hard and getting better and better, and he earned it.” WHAT AN ADVENTURE FOR YOU TONIGHT, GOING FROM THE FRONT TO THE BACK AND BACK TO THE FRONT. “Yeah, an adventure, to say the least. We passed a lot of cars and then we just had a problem in the pits, got a penalty. We came back quickly, though. Everything fell into place, Robbie made some great calls, but then we had another bad pit stop, and that set us back. But to come out of here fourth with all the trouble we had tonight, that’s a blessing. I’m not going to complain too much about that.” WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT THE CAR WHEN YOU CLIMBED OUT OF IT? “That’s a race-winning car right there, that’s a good one. So, that’s cool. It’s good that we’ve done really, really well on the mile-and-a-halfs, and to be able to come here and have that fast of a race car, a car that I thought could win the race under some different circumstances, that’s really good. My hat’s off to Jimmie. Those guys have been working hard, getting better and better every week, they earned that one.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (finished 9th) – “Well, you’re never happy, I guess. When we get these fuel strategy, fuel mileage things, it’s really tough. I saved fuel that whole run and didn’t pass any cars, and then we got down with nine to go, and they said, ‘We’ve got to pit.’ I could’ve driven to the front.”
DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD’VE MADE IT WITH OUT STOPPING? “No.” IT SEEMED THAT YOURS WAS AMONG THE BEST CARS OUT THERE FOR MOST OF THE NIGHT. ARE YOU CONFIDENT YOU HAD A WINNING CAR TONIGHT? “Oh, yeah. I just needed track position. Once I got out front I was really good. But, I struggled for track position. That was a lot better car than where we finished, but reality is we got caught under the green, we were way too loose, there was a little miscue on whether to tighten it up. I was so loose that whole run I couldn’t go anywhere, so I didn’t get any track position back. So, we kind of missed opportunity a little bit. But, overall, you’ve got to be happy with a top-10. But, all the guys we were racing for points beat us tonight. So, we’ll probably end up losing positions in the points even finishing ninth.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Yates Racing Ford Fusion (finished 15th) – “That’s a good day for our Yates Racing Ford Fusion. We’re still not desperate to seek a sponsorship. We’ve been consistent. I thought we had a better car than that today, so I’m a little disappointed. We struggled on some pit stops. It’s still a building year for us. We’ve got a lot of new guys. We’re all building and learning together. So, overall a good day, a good, solid points day for us. We’re happy. We’re excited. We’re going to keep on digging and go on to the next one.”
DID YOU HAVE TO PIT AT THE END? “Yeah, we did. Our mileage, I thought we were better in the end – I figured everybody would have to pit, but I guess a couple of people didn’t have to so we lost a couple of spots there, but we’ll be all right.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion (finished 27th) – “It seemed like when the sun went down, we went downhill. We struggled on restarts and after about the 100-lap mark, just no forward bite, really loose all night. Just struggled. I felt like the first 100 laps or so, we had a top-10 car, but just failed to bring it home where we needed to be.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON LAP 201 THAT ENDED UP WITH YOU IN THE WALL? “I don’t know. It was just really, really loose and continued to get freer and freer and I just spun it out. You know, I hated to tear the right-front fender off the thing. We decided to pit and we lost a lap. We struggled back in traffic all night. The car was pretty free, and we made some gains on it, but just not enough. I’m pretty disappointed. We should’ve been up there in the top-10 or top-12 and ended up [27th].”
