ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – “I actually had just gotten in the draft two laps before that. We came in and made some adjustments and it was a lot better. I am not sure what happened. I saw Marcos get hooked but couldn’t tell who it was. It is just part of this kind of racing. We are in a big pack and if something goes wrong at the front we are all in it. Maybe the bad luck is out of the way before we come back here for Speedweeks. You never want to tear up race cars, that is no fun. The bright side is that the change we made is better and hopefully when we come back down here for Speedweeks we won’t be in that big one.”
WHAT IS YOUR SITUATION WITH A BACKUP CAR? “I don’t know. We get a ride from Roush and I know the 99 was in the wreck as well and our two cars were in it. I don’t know if we will go home or wait for the other Roush teams to finish testing. We will have to wait and see.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “I didn’t see anything. I saw cars smoking and wrecking in front of me. I think I ran into the back of the 43 and someone ran into me. That is just the way this deal is. It is unfortunate but sometimes you have to wreck ‘em to learn.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN THE DRAFT WITH THIS NEW CAR? “The sport is rewinding. That is the important thing to say. The sport advanced to the two-car tandem three or four years ago and there were certain things you could do then that you couldn’t do in the past without wrecking. Now the rules package is back to where we were in the early 2000’s when the fans enjoyed the racing better. I think we as drivers have to rewind to how we used to drive those cars. This is how you do it. You make mistakes and learn and that is part of it. I might be the guy that makes the mistake next time so I can’t be mad about it. It is unfortunate that there are torn up cars but lets be honest, it is January and we have another month-and-a-half to build them right. Nobody if the field was going to race these cars anyway. We will build another one and have the Miller Lite Ford ready for the Daytona 500.”
IT LOOKS LIKE YOU CAN’T GET PULLED UP TO EACH OTHER TIGHT ON THE BACK BUMPER. CAN YOU NOT DO IT OR IS IT NOT THE FASTER WAY? “I think you can see from Dale that you can do it but we are all learning the consequences and nobody wants to be that guy. Unfortunately somebody has to be that guy. That is the way it is.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “It is unfortunate that we tore up the Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion. We weren’t taking this one back anyway so the chances are we were going to cut the body off it and do something different anyway. It isn’t the end of the world for us but I would have liked to get another day of testing. That would have been more valuable than the car for us even. It is a bummer for the guys that work on these things. I don’t even know how that started. I just saw smoke and we all ran into each other. It all happened too quick.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE PACK? HOW WAS THE CAR HANDLING? “It was good for me. The car didn’t have a ton of speed but it handled really good. We were making pretty good gains. Hopefully we will bring back a car that handles good with some more speed and we can go out there and get some trophies when we come back here for Speedweeks.”
CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Fastenal Ford Fusion – “This is okay. The car is barely tore up. It isn’t like we flipped or anything. It is really too bad but I don’t know how hard you are supposed to test. You want to learn everything you can. We made it almost 90 minutes. That is pretty good for us as a group of guys (laughter).”
BIFFLE SAID THE BACK END FELT LIKE IT WAS LIFTING. DID YOU FEEL THAT? “Yeah. The cars are stuck less and they are looser. That is good for racing. It is good for the fans. It will make it more exciting and make pit strategy come into play. If you put tires on you will be able to go faster. I think all of that is good. This is going to be a heck of a race. I like that the cars were sliding around and hard to drive. It will make it a fun race.”
DID YOU GET ENOUGH OUT OF THIS WEEKEND TO BUILD ON? “We got enough to build on what we will do for Speedweeks. I don’t know how much more drafting practice we will do but we have a place to start now for those races so that is good.”
MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion — HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO SEE WHAT TOOK PLACE BESIDES WHAT YOU WITNESSED FIRSTHAND BEHIND THE WHEEL? “No, I haven’t seen it yet. But it doesn’t really matter. I just feel bad for my Stanley and Richard Petty Motorsports team. You know, I had junior pushing me. He’s just a great drafter, really can feel it well. I guess I just got caught on the edge of the bumper there and with the shaped noses and the tires, just spun me out. It was hardly even a bump. It was just enough at the wrong angle, wrong time and just went for a spin. I feel bad for everybody because quite a few cars were torn up there. But we’ll repair this one and probably build a couple new ones and get ready for Speedweeks.”
WAS IT MORE OF AN INCIDENT OF A TYPICAL DRAFTING TYPE DEAL WITH THIS OR WAS THIS MORE RELATED TO THE NEW CARS? “Well, certainly we used to get greedy with the old cars. It was very easy to bump draft. You really had a good square surface to push from. You could get across on an angle and still get away with it. So I guess we are used to that. I didn’t think anything of it. I got a couple shots from him down the backstretch and we carried some steam. Just the third shot just spun me out. So I definitely think it’s a consequence of the new shape, and like a downforce, the car’s very light and it doesn’t take much.”
Ford Racing PR
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M's Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What happened to cause the accident on the race track?
"I have no idea. I didn't see anything happening in front of me. Just saw the smoke and then a car sideways and I started
trying to check up. I feel like I did a pretty good job checking up. The guy behind me got into me a little bit so I knew I
couldn't slow down more so I just had to try to find a lane to get through and I saw the 43 (Aric Almirola) come across the
race track so I turned left to miss it and I shot the gap and when I did somebody was on my inside and just hit me in the left
rear a little bit. That's just the major damage right there on the left rear. Everything else is fine. It's all cosmetic so I don't
think it's that bad."
How was the drafting on the race track with a larger pack?
"It's okay. The first time we went out we had a pretty good pack side-by-side and everything. There was some mixing
around and some moving and passing. And then the next time we went out it seemed like there was a strong lane on the top
and just four or five cars on the bottom and the bottom wasn't moving anywhere. It was actually going backwards and so
everybody was working their way high and I think some guys just got checked up and that's what caused the wreck."
What are your impressions of the new car?
"It's just like anything else, there's going to be an adapting period and having to get used to what the cars feel like and how
they drive and what not. I'm good with it. I think our car's pretty good. The M&M's car was fast and felt stable and better
than some other guys."
What has it been like having Matt Kenseth as a teammate?
"Matt's (Kenseth) been good. He's got a lot of experience and a lot of leadership and been around for a while and won a
championship. So, it's good to lean on a guy like that and talk to a guy like that and have somebody in your corner like that.
We had it with (Tony) Stewart when he was at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and he was really, really good and then he moved on
to his own deal. Now that Matt is there I think that kind of replaces Stewart a little bit. Matt's a little bit more low key about
his business than Stewart may be."
MARK MARTIN, No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
What happened to cause the accident on the race track?
"I was very close to being in it. I was the first car back from (Dale Earnhardt) Junior when it all started out in the front of
Junior's car. It's a Daytona thing. That's Daytona. That doesn't have nothing to do with the new cars or anything else.
That's just normal Daytona stuff."
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
What happened to cause the accident on the race track?
"Carnage. I don't know. The 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and the 9 (Marcos Ambrose) kind of got together a little bit and the 9
got turned into the wall on the back stretch. I missed the 9 by about an eighth of an inch so I was pretty happy."
Were you afraid to go back out on the race track after the big wreck?
"Well, no, but our car is kind of bent up a little bit so they want to take it back up to the shop and fix it. It's not bad (on the
rear quarter panel), but we kind of got done with everything we wanted to and the car is in good shape. I was happy with it.
It has great speed and it's going to be our Shootout car, so they figured they would go home to fix it and I think everybody
has pretty much had enough anyway."
Did you expect to have an accident while drafting?
"You never really expect it to happen, but you always know in the back of your mind that there's potential for it. At Daytona
and Talladega that's just kind of the way that it is. But, I will tell you that I was really happy with the way the drafting was
out there. I really enjoyed it. It took me back to when I was running Nationwide and the way those cars drafted and early in
my Cup career when we had the older cars. I thought it was really good. It didn't really help me to push a guy, but you
could get right up to them, give them some momentum and you get runs on the leader. I passed the leader a few times, which
has been difficult to do the past few years. I thought the drafting was great. Getting the bumpers lined up and figuring out
how hard you can hit someone when you kind of get jammed up in the middle of the pack there, that's all stuff that's going to
be learned and figured out as we go. But, I was really happy with the way the drafting went -- the speeds and the way the
cars drove. My car drove phenomenal. I had good speed, so I'm happy and ready to come back and do some racing."
What was the biggest thing you learned from drafting in the big pack?
"The biggest thing was just how the draft was working kind of more like it used to be. There were no two-car tandems. It
was somewhat difficult to get on a guy's bumper and push him, but again you get that little air bubble between you and you
could get a guy rolling and get a guy moving in front of you and give him some good momentum and make some passes. It
was cool being able to back up off the leader and get runs and take the lead and do things like you used to do. It was a little
bit more strategy involved than just holding it wide open and hitting the guy in front of you as hard as you could, so I thought
it was cool. It was a lot of fun and I think it's going to put on a great show when we come back down here."
Toyota Racing PR
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS:
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I don’t know what started it. I know we were in a pack drafting, just trying to learn the cars and what this aero package is doing. Some guys started forming a line on the inside and things started getting a little more aggressive at that point. Somebody must have turned or got turned or something and then they just all started stacking up.”
WE HEARD JIMMIE (JOHNSON) TALKING ABOUT THE LACK OF CARS YOU GUYS HAVE. HOW DETRIMENTAL IS THIS WHEN TWO HENDRICK CARS GET TIED UP LIKE THIS?
“Obviously, they look like the really smart guys in the garage by not drafting. Everybody has different theories on it. We feel like we have to go get in those conditions and find out now what we have to deal with to be prepared when we come back here in February, even putting yourself in jeopardy. We will get this car fixed up no problem. It is definitely going to cause some extra work.”
HOW SURPRISED ARE YOU THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN?
“I’m not surprised at all. We see it every year, maybe not quite this big, but you get down here in packs. It’s important to be in those packs and learn what you can learn, especially with a new car. I think you can kind of weigh into both sides of it. You know when the cars are starting to push and move around a lot more that the chances are getting higher that something is going to happen. There are some rookies out there as well. I saw some things happen a couple of laps before that. You just ride it out and hope you can make it through it. Unfortunately, we didn’t in this case.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
“The cars drive pretty well. You can’t push. Which I think is a good thing. The bad thing is, you can still get to the guys bumper, but the cars just don’t line up very well. You really just shouldn’t even be doing it. Unfortunately, that is kind of that last little bit of momentum that you need to sometimes make the pass or make your lane move. So, it’s something that is going to have to be dealt with very carefully. You are going to have to be cautious when you do it and do it with the right guys, but most of the time you’re going to need to stay away from it. That is certainly something we learned. The cars really get good momentum and shifts by themselves but they run side-by-side for a long time so it’s not easy to complete the pass.”
CAN YOU NOT PUSH BECAUSE YOU ARE LIFTING THE GUY IN FRONT OF YOU UP?
“There is a lack of downforce and then the bumpers just don’t line up like they used to. Certainly, the Chevy’s they have a little bit more of a point so they really don’t line up very good. I was pushed by a Ford and it almost spun me. I don’t know if any of them are really lining up that good. Especially, with this kind of downforce that is in the cars. I think it is a great package. I love it. We have to kind of start over again, we have gotten so comfortable with running on one another’s bumpers, pushing and being able to do that. You have to kind of reset a little bit and go back to the way we used to do it where you get close and you still gain momentum and push guys but with the air not necessarily the bumpers.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS:
WHAT HAPPENED?
“We were just out there running around. I felt like Marcus (Ambrose) was backing up to me in (turns) one and two to get a run down the back. I was just going to give him a push down the back straightaway and see if he could get the lead. I was trying to eventually get the lead myself. We got off the back straightaway and were just kind of pushing him along there and our cars sort of just didn’t match up very well. I got him hooked into the fence. I pushed Martin (Truex) a little bit in his Toyota and they matched up good. The bumpers were good, didn’t have any problem with any of the cars. That is the first time I pushed a Ford. The roll bar of the front of my car is just at the right place where his car sets right up on top of that. I sort of had him going down the back straightaway like a forklift. It was a big mess and tore up a lot of cars down here trying to work on their stuff. Definitely the drafting is not like it used to be. You can’t really tandem certain cars; certain cars don’t match up well. Our bumpers on the Chevy’s have a little bit of a point. It makes it a little bit of a challenge to get into guys and kind of help them. We definitely weren’t doing that in the corner at all because it was pretty hairy trying to do it on the straightaways.”
DOES THIS REALLY CHANGE THE MENTALITY HERE NOW?
“Pretty much, yeah. It’s going to take a lot more care and concentration and just knowing kind of what is at stake. Certain cars you line up okay with and can push fine and for whatever reason mine and Marcus’ (Ambrose) car didn’t line up good. We got our bumpers together and it hooked him. For whatever reason you’ve got to be careful who you are working with.”
DO YOU THINK THE RACING IS GOING TO BE BETTER?
“Yeah, I think the racing will be better because it doesn’t look like we will be able to tandem. The cars are down 50 percent on downforce in the back. They are real tail happy. A lot of guys are really having a lot of snaps and moments out there on the race track where they are getting loose. With that in mind you are definitely not going to be pushing anybody through the corner.”
BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS WHEN YOU WERE DOMINATING PLATE RACES?
“Well I’m not setting it up to say I’m going to run better because of this package, but the racing will be different. It’s definitely a movement back toward the way the cars used to be.”
DID IT SURPRISE YOU THAT ALL OF THIS UNFOLDED AN HOUR INTO IT AND THAT THE CARS DIDN’T MATCH UP?
“Yeah, I was real surprised. Marcus’ (Ambrose) car was a bit of a handful. He was really loose into the corner and off of the corner, but I thought we were just going to get on going down the back straightaway. He was going to drive to the inside of the leader and take the lead. For whatever reason it just didn’t work.”
IS THIS A FORD REAR TO A CHEVY NOSE THING? OR IS THIS A MARCOS AMBROSE AND DALE (EARNHARDT) JR. THING?
“No, it’s not really between me and him. He didn’t do anything wrong. I think it was my responsibility not to wreck him. He doesn’t have much control at that point. That was the first Ford I had pushed. I don’t know. You don’t want to push too many Ford’s if you can help it.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS:
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“I really don’t know. I was two or three rows back. I just saw the No. 9 get turned and then obviously it was just a wreck. I was along for the ride after that.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED OUT THERE TODAY?
“The first drafting session we were really loose. The cars drove okay not really around people. When I got someone in front of me, beside me and behind me, the car was really unstable. We worked on tightening the car up for the second draft. I never really got to put myself in the same situation again. I felt like we learned some stuff.”
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