This Week in Ford Racing: NASCAR Edition

Loudon, N.H. — The last time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series raced at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a Ford ended up in victory lane as Greg Biffle started the 10-race Chase with his second win of the season.

Ford drivers Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Biffle talked about the flat one-mile oval and their hopes for Sunday’s race.

MATT KENSETH – NO. 17 DEWALT FORD FUSIONDO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM IS MAKING PROGRESS?“At times. It’s not like a steady uphill graph where we’ve been doing a little bit better every week and we keep getting better and we’re almost there. We have about a four-week run where we were running pretty good and then we had a couple weeks where things didn’t go right.

"The Pocono race, we performed really well and our fuel mileage wasn’t good enough and the way we pitted at the end, we didn’t get a good finish. Then at Michigan we just ran pathetically terrible. We left a wheel loose and lost a lap, got that back, and then couldn’t make it to the end on fuel without running half-throttle and ran around half-throttle to make sure we made it on fuel.”

THERE ARE ONLY 10 RACES LEFT UNTIL THE CHASE. ARE YOU EYEING THAT AS A POINT WHERE YOU WANT TO GET ALL OF THESE ISSUES WORKED OUT AND THEN RUN FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP?“You want to win every week. You never try to say, ‘Oh man, we need to be great when we get here.’ You want to be great every week and bring your best stuff and run the best you can. Honestly, I don’t even know where we are in points, but I know we’re not in a position where we can start thinking about the Chase. I mean, if we don’t get running better and finishing better, we’re not even gonna make the Chase, so we’ve got to worry more about getting the best finish we can get each and every week and get as many points as we can each and every week.”

THOUGHTS ON LOUDON.“I don’t know what to expect from week to week lately, so I don’t know. Greg won the last race there, so that’s good, but since we started running these style of cars at Loudon the last few races, we as the 17 have not run very well there. I honestly don’t know what to expect. We’re gonna try some different stuff there we haven’t done before, and, hopefully, we’ll get there and be okay.”

GREG BIFFLE – NO. 16 3M FORD FUSIONYOU’VE VOICED SOME CONCERNS ABOUT FLAT TRACKS THIS YEAR. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT LOUDON?“I think we’re going to be good. I’m optimistic. We’re going back with the same setup, the same everything, just like we were and I’m pretty confident. I’m not going back there with a chip on my shoulder saying we’re going to win this thing, I’m going back saying we’re going to run in the top 10 and continue our good run and make the Chase. I’m going to use it as a tool to do that and think about coming back later on when we’re in the Chase hopefully and try to win that one.”

To read the rest of this interview visit: http://www.fordracing.com/news/detail/?article=36541