· Carl Edwards’ victory at Michigan International Speedway was the fifth of his career, and first since he won four times in 2005.
· It is Edwards’ first Cup victory at Michigan International Speedway. His previous best finish was second in 2006.
· Today’s race was the 100th of Edwards’ career. He also made his Cup debut at Michigan in 2004.
· Ford has now won 578 all-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races.
· Ford has now won 30 times in 76 Nextel Cup races at Michigan International Speedway, more than any other manufacturer.
· Ford also won this weekend’s NASCAR races in the Craftsman Truck Series at Michigan (Travis Kvapil) and Busch Series at Kentucky (Stephen Leicht).
· The win is Fusion’s second of the season and eighth all-time since its debut in 2006. Fusion’s first-ever NNC victory was by Matt Kenseth last February at California Speedway.
CARL EDWARDS press conference
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (finished 1st) – “It feels unbelievable. Yesterday we had a great Office Depot Fusion in practice. I felt really good about coming into today. Last night the Sharp Aquos Fusion was real fast in the Busch race and had a little adversity and we didn’t win the thing and we should’ve. It was tough to sleep last night, and then I got up this morning and Bob and I talked a little bit, and he convinced me to put that behind me and to go out and do a job. And then we sped on pit road one time and got put in the back, and our car was good enough that it made it back up to the front. And then at the end there, Martin Truex was just, I mean, he was amazingly fast, and Martin’s been on a roll lately so it was great to be able to beat him in, really, a head-to-head race. That meant a lot – especially for Ford here.”
BOB OSBORNE – crew chief, No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – WHAT WERE THE KEYS TO THE RACE? “The biggest thing was we had an unfortunate incident on pit road and Carl did a phenomenal job coming back up through the field – not damaging the race car, not over-driving the race car. I believe that was the key to our race. We had to start at the tail-end and in the first lap from that re-start there was a big accident, and he easily could’ve been in that. He put it behind him, had a level head and kept the fenders on the race car and got us back up front. His driving ability, you can’t see enough.”
JACK ROUSH – owner, No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion – “It’s real exciting to be here with Carl. It’ll give Tom Giacchi a chance to shave his beard. When they made that silly wager I had no idea it would be this long. I mean, Carl and Bob won four races the first year, and of course I put my oar in and changed the things last year and it didn’t work out. I was even surprised it took this long to get it going this year. The car of today on mile-and-a-half race tracks had been our strength. We were good at Las Vegas, even though we didn’t win. Matt won at Fontana, and sowed the way. We’ve just got great cars. The Ford Fusion is really super. Ford has given us every technical support, they’ve given us all the money that we’ve asked for to help us put in equipment and be competitive with the other manufacturers are doing with their other teams. They deserve more; I’m just embarrassed that it took us this long to really celebrate with Carl and the guys. This Father’s Day it’s great to be here with my family – my son, Jack, is here, with two of my granddaughters, we’re enjoying them. I hope that all the fathers and all the families around the country that watched the race today are as happy about being with their families as I am with mine.”
CARL EDWARDS, continued – ON PATIENCE DURING THE STREAK. “I learned through trial and a lot of error that you can’t make things happen faster than they’re going to happen, you can only do the best job you can. Part of what helps me with that is the reason that we’re running so well in the Busch Series and the reason we’re running so well now is because I know Bob Osborne, I know P.K. and they can help me. Bob knows as soon as something happens he can tell when I say something exactly how mad I’m getting or how close to exploding I am. We know each other well enough. So he helped me a lot with that. Like he said, that’s the key, is keep moving forward, not falling behind and digging yourself in a deeper hole, and that’s been a great deal.”
MORE ON PATIENCE. “It was very difficult at the end to stay composed – especially when Martin was closing in. To me, second place would’ve felt the same as chopping off my arm today. I wanted to win. That’s it. It’s really hard to stay composed in light of feeling that way, and just keep doing what I was doing. That was very hard, but I’ve lost 52 races in a row and I’ve learned to be able to deal with that a little better now. I just did the best I could and it worked out. But that was the hardest part. For me, personally, I think that’s the hardest part about being a race-car driver and once I figured out how to deal with that better, that’s when my career took off there.”
ON WINNING IN CUP WHEN RACING IN BUCH IN ANOTHER CITY ON THE SAME WEEKEND. “I don’t think it affects me any more than racing at the same track. The second race I won was at Pocono, and that was after a long night of cheating death with Jack and his airplane, and the storms coming back from Nashville. I’ll tell you what, part of the reason I might of won that race is I was just glad to be alive. I was feeling pretty positive that day. But this was kind of the opposite. I had not a very fun night last night. We got home about 2:30 in the morning, or something like that. I don’t think it matters. I prepare the best I can. Once I get in the race car and it comes down to 10 or 15 laps to go, it doesn’t matter what physical pain – it just doesn’t matter. All you think about is winning. That’s really the fun part of the sport. I wouldn’t trade the Busch Series for anything. I love it.”
WHO IS MORE RELIEVED, YOU OR TOM? “I’ve got great friends. Tom grew up down the street from me and some of the older kids in the neighborhood would come by and beat up on you a little bit, wouldn’t play football when you wanted to and stuff, but Tom was a good guy to me. He’s been driving the motorhome for a couple of years now, and we’re best friends. It’s awesome. His brother has been one of my best friends forever. I just hated to see him like that for so long. I’d wake up in the morning, and Tom would walk in and just laugh at this guy. It’s unreal. It means a lot for him to do it. I think he’s got some memoirs from this whole experience. Bearded Like Me or something is going to be the title. It’s changed his life a little bit. People grab their children in Wal-Mart and pull them aside, lock their doors when he walks by on the street. Nobody will recognize him next week.”
IN OTHER SPORTS, TEAMS WILL GROW BEARDS FOR LUCK. NOW THAT YOU’VE WON, ARE YOU GOING TO LET HIM SHAVE IT OFF? “Oh, he’s shaving it. You couldn’t keep him from shaving it.”
HE’S GOT A CONTRACT, DOESN’T HE? “Yeah, he and Gillette are kind of partnered up, so he’s been staring at the Gillette Phantom razor with longing eyes. Only Gillette products touch that face. And, it is a nice face. You should see him. He’s a good-looking guy. He used to get dates. Women loved him. It’s going to be a new day for you, Tom.”
BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (finished 11th) – “I tried to figure out what I need here, and I think I’ve got a good idea now, if we can just get it. We need to do a little bit more work, and get the car turning better and keep it hooked up up off, there’s where we seem to be losing our time.”
BEING AT A TRACK THAT YOU’VE HAD TREMENDOUS SUCCESS, DID THAT HELP IN THIS INFORMATION GATHERING? “It took probably third of the way into the race, but at least by that last green run I kind of got an idea of kind of what I was looking for.”
WHAT DOES ONE SPOT OUT OF THE TOP 10 MEAN TO YOU AND THIS TEAM? “Anything we can get. The way our luck has been going the last three or four weeks, we needed something. At least we’re going in the right direction.”
MICHAEL (FATBACK) McSWAIN – crew chief, No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THIS TEAM? “It just means we’re picking up pieces a little bit. We were nowhere good as we wanted to be, but we had a top-15 car even without the fuel deal. We’re getting there. It takes baby steps. It was a good day. We needed it. The team was working hard and they really needed it.”
WHAT ABOUT WHAT THIS MEANS FOR POINTS? “I don’t know what it’s done for us yet, but I don’t know any way it couldn’t be a big help.”
EDDIE WOOD – co-owner, No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – “It means a lot. We finally put a race together with nothing really happening, you know, nothing going wrong, which we haven’t done that in a very long time. It’s good to finish one with no incidents.”
“It changes every week. It just worked out. We didn’t have anything happen to us today – the car was good, the pit crew was good, the calls they made were good and Bill drove a good race. Everything was good.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Carhartt/DeWalt Ford Fusion (finished 42nd) – THE CAR IS WRECKED EVERYWHERE BUT THE TOP. WHAT HAPPENED? “I’m surprised it’s not wrecked worse, really. It took some hard hits there. I guess a couple of cars got together up front from what I heard – I don’t know, I haven’t seen it, and I was just coming off the corner there and went two-wide and Martin slowed up a little bit. I just barely got in the back of him, and he got a little sideways and I had to get out of the gas. We were both going to be okay, and then I got hit from behind, and then everybody just came piling off in there. It’s just one of them things that you get caught up in. I try to stay out of all the wrecks, but you can never miss them all.”
UP UNTIL NOW, YOU WERE THE ONLY DRIVER IN THE SERIES TO HAVE COMPLETED EVERY LAP. SOMETHING LIKE THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER, RIGHT? “Yeah. I mean, we do the best we can. They build reliable equipment and we try to keep our nose clean the best we can, but, heck, you can’t stat out of all of them.”
