3M PERFORMANCE 400 Qualifying quotes

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 citifinancial Ford Fusion (Qualified 40th) – "It was a little bit slick and definitely slicker than it was earlier in practice. We were just a little on the free side. We were on the too loose side on throttle up off the corner, so we’ll probably tighten it up just a little bit, but we’ll be alright. The car drives good overall. I like the balance. It’s consistent and even though we’re probably not gonna be as good at the start as we’d like with our citifinancial Ford Fusion, I feel really good about Sunday."

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Qualified 27th) – "I thought it was real good. The only thing is I wiggled a little bit off of four and got a little bit free, but the guys did a really good job. We just did everything we could and that’s as fast as it would go. We worked really hard on race trim and at this place you can pass real well. I feel like this will be a good race car and this is what we’ve got now, so we’ll just go race it." NO SURPRISE? "No, Michigan is good for us. I don’t know where we’ll start. Hopefully, that will be in the top 15, but the great thing about Michigan is you can pass here and you can run different lines. I feel like we’ve got a good race car."

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 9th) – "The car was terrible. I don’t know what’s wrong with it. The car has a tremendous amount of speed, we just can’t get it to do what it needs to do. I was all the way out of the gas and almost got in the fence. I came about an inch from the fence and lost probably half-a-second."

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 14th) – "Our speed is pretty good as far as qualifying. The car doesn’t drive very good yet. We’ve been off since we got here and tried a lot of different stuff today, which is good because we knew the weather was going to be nice, so we’ll just try and get a little bit closer tomorrow."

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 16th) – "I wish we could have picked up another tenth or so. We’re on the wrong side of the sevens and the eights. If we could have run a .70, we could have been up in the top five. I feel like our AAA Ford has got good speed. It drives good and you’re talking about a tenth of a second there. That’s a split second lifting off the throttle or getting back to the throttle. It was a very good lap, comfortable, but I just wish we could have got a little bit more out of it. That’s basically what we ran in practice and it’s always good to pick up a little bit come qualifying time."

DO YOU FEEL SOME PRESSURE ABOUT THE CHASE? "Yeah, there’s always been a lot of pressure associated with the Roush Fenway team and this No. 6 car, but you like pressure as a competitor and as a racer. We like to have pressure. It wouldn’t be any fun if we came out here and no one was counting on us to do anything. It’s not that you necessarily would like to have more pressure, but it’s just time to get things done. It’s time to stop messing around and it’s time to make things happen. We feel like we’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing because top fives and top 10s are what’s gonna get us into this chase. If you finish 25th and 30th and DNFS, those will keep you from getting into it so we’ve just got to be smart and be smooth and be good."

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LOOK AT THE STANDINGS? "We certainly look at it after the races to see who we’re racing, but during the race we don’t play that game of who is running where. We just go out and as long as we do what we need to do, usually everything works out pretty good."

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 28 Carfax Ford Fusion (Qualified 26th) – "That’s a little discouraging. We ran a couple of tenths better than that earlier today, but the car was just a little too loose right there. We made a few adjustments to make it turn a little better and probably just went a little bit too far, I guess. You always try to go harder in qualifying, so that just magnifies the problem. I think we’re a little discouraged, but we had a great car here our last race and I know we have some good things for tomorrow and Sunday, so we should be in good shape."

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Qualified 39th) –

THE FOLLOWING QUOTE WAS RECORDED IMMEDIATELY AFTER GETTING OUT OF THE CAR FROM QUALIFYING.

"It’s just laps. This is the first time I’ve driven this car for the Wood Brothers on a big track and it’s just hard. Just trying to get laps is very difficult."

NOW YOU JUST HAVE TO HOLD YOUR BREATH. "Yeah, hold on and hope it’s enough."

THE FOLLOWING QUOTE WAS RECORDED AFTER FINDING OUT HE HAD CLINCHED A SPOT IN THE FIELD. AMBROSE EMERGED FROM THE 21 HAULER WITH A WIDE SMILE AND SHOOK HANDS WITH CO-OWNER EDDIE WOOD.

A SIGH OF RELIEF? "Oh yeah. We just wanted to get in. It’s just getting laps in these cars at these speeds at these kind of tracks. You just have to gain confidence." SO NOW YOU CAN RELAX AND GAIN THAT EXPERIENCE THE REST OF THIS WEEKEND. "I’m like Hawaii Five-O, man, I’m on a permanent holiday."

- FORD -