SCC: Ford teams Daytona race quotes

SCOTT MAXWELL - No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang BOSS 302R (qualified 2nd, finished 2nd)

"Overall, we're pretty happy with the start to our season. We had a strong car all month. You never know until race time who's showing. In the race, our car was strong. It was an all BMW dominated the race. I think we had six BMWs in the front at the end and the one Ford. We were there and getting stronger as the race went on and they started to lose their tires. Ironically, BMWs are known for their handling and braking and that's where our strength was today. It was easy on the tires and the race got farther into it, our car got stronger and they started to drop off. I was able to move up to second and just ran out of time with the leader. They have a lot of power and got up beside them a few times but not enough to get ahead. Overall, it was a good start to the year."

HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU NEED TO CATCH AND PASS THE LEADER? "If we had another long green run, that's really what I needed because their tires were going away. With all the cautions in the end, you can cool your tires and they were strong on the restarts. I needed to have a non-caution run at the end where I could have a couple of go's at him. That's the way it is; it's still a strong start."

HOW WAS THE NEW DAYTONA SURFACE? "It's good. It doesn't affect us nearly as much as it does the NASCAR guys because the oval is just flat out for us anyways, we're accelerating onto it and through it. It makes it a little easier to transition on and off of it. But it's the same for everybody."

WHAT CAN YOU TAKE FROM THIS RACE AND APPLY TO THE REST OF THE SEASON? "This is a huge positive for the Ford Mustang, the BOSS 302 guys because last year reliability was our big issue, so we had to dumb down the car a little bit in terms of performance to make it last. Today, I abused it the whole time and pushed it as hard as it would go and rev'd it as high as I could rev it because we were fighting for a win and they told me, to leave nothing behind and we didn't and the car never missed a beat. That's a real, real big positive for us; that fact we finished a really hard race and pushed the car hard and it didn't miss a beat. We can see where our strengths and weaknesses were because we were running with all the top BMWs for the last hour. I took a lot of information out of that to pass on to the Ford guys and engineers on where we are weak and where we are strong. Collectively as a group, Multimatic and the Ford Racing guys did such a great job all winter; they worked really hard. I think today was a bit of a payoff for that. Everyone is going away happy. We would have liked the win, but it's a great way to start the season being that close and being a threat is a good feeling."

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JOE FOSTER - No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang BOSS 302R - (qualified 2nd, finished 2nd)

HOW WAS THE RACE OVERALL? "It was a fantastic race, obviously in the beginning a lot of restarts. We kind of had to wait until the race found a rhythm. We were able to stay in the top two for a while. The Ford BOSS 302R Mustang was fantastic in traffic so we were able to put a gap on the field. Once we started lapping the other cars without problem. We worked on preserving the brakes and the transmission and Scott got in the car and was able to get it back in the front. We finished second, a very close fought second. It was a great event for us in a still in-development program. This is our best result so far. We were able to get it on the podium, our first podium for the BOSS 302R program. We're very excited about it."

YOU DIDN'T GET THAT MUCH TIME IN THE CAR FOR PRACTICE. WHAT WAS IT LIKE GETTING IN THE CAR? "I was kind of figuring out the car during the race. I got a few laps in practice and the program came together a bit last minute for me, but I've been a Mustang driver and a fan for many years so it didn't take too long to figure it out."

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ROB FINLAY - No. 50 Finlay Motorsports Ford Mustang BOSS 302R - (qualified 8th, finished 12th)

HOW DID YOU FEEL YOU DID OUT THERE? "For our first race it was pretty good. The car was really good but of course Ford always puts out a really good product and it was no different today. Of course we would have liked a better result but it was the first race of the season and we have a lot more to go. HOW DID THE TRACK FEEL OUT THERE? "It was super smooth, it was very fast. It's a great track, actually one of my favorite tracks. It's good to be done here and if you're from the North it's really warm weather. It's great to be down here in sunny Florida and racing at Daytona. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE BOSS 302R? "It's fantastic. I've driven the other Mustangs and this BOSS 302 is fantastic. It's great power, great handling let's just say it's a great overall car."

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TONY BUFFOMANTE - No. 68 Capaldi Racing Ford Mustang GT (qualified 18th, finished 17th)

"It was a good day. We had a lot of cautions there at the start. Kyle did a nice job starting the car for us; got us up there in the top 15 or so. The car was running really good. The guys did an awesome pit stop. We got out of that really good when we changed drivers and all four tires. When I jumped in the car, I had a bad vibration with the front tires and so when we came back in and got the fuel, we ended up going back to the other set of front tires and the car was way better. So, I was a lot faster at the very end of the race than I was when I jumped in about midway. We had a bit of a shootout there at the end. I think we passed about four cars on the last lap and I don't know how many were for position. Everybody was dicing and slicing going through there. It was a good job for the Capaldi Racing 68; for us, first time out, finished with all the fenders on and got a top 20."

SINCE THIS IS YOUR FIRST SEASON , TALK ABOUT WHAT IT IS LIKE TO RACE A MUSTANG. "The car is just awesome. You've got a lot of different makes out there. Each car has its strengths and weaknesses. I think we got the car handling really, really well. We're learning a lot with it; the car is handling great and I think you'll see us keep moving up the running order next time out, for sure."

IF THE RACE WAS GREEN UNTIL THE END, WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENT? "I think I had one or two more cars left in me, in terms of getting around them. It's hard to tell. The crew was in my ears telling me which cars for position and which ones weren't. The last few laps there, I was absolutely going for it in the dirt, sideways, inside, outside. I never rubbed anybody which is amazing, but that way the Capaldi guys can work on tuning the car, not fixing the car next month."

THE MUSTANG LOOKS CLEAN AND DOESN'T APPEAR TO HAVE ANY DAMAGE. "It sure does. I'll take a few donuts next time if it gets us up in the top-10. But for now, we're happy with it."

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KYLE GIMPLE - No. 68 Capaldi Racing Ford Mustang GT (qualified 18th, finished 17th)

"We started the races in 19th position, there was a car that was disqualified, so we were bumped up. The start of the race came and it was pretty hectic. It looked like everyone was playing it safe going through turn one and all the way to turn five. After that, it started to spread out a little bit and that's when it started getting dicey. Cars were going off in the bus stop, turn one and wrecking. We moved up to 11th before the driver change. Then we had some pit strategy that we were trying to get going and it didn't quite work out the way we thought it would and dropped us down to 18th. We finished 17th in the race. According to lapping and scoring, we were the third highest finishing Mustang, but the highest finishing 500C Mustang. All in all, it was a pretty good day. We're definitely looking forward to getting the car back to the shop and getting ready for Homestead."

YOU RACED IN THE MUSTANG CHALLENGE LAST YEAR. CAN YOU COMPARE THE MUSTANGS? "This Mustang has more power. It doesn't have the front grip that we had because it doesn't have a front splitter on the car. The suspension is a little bit better. The tires are full slicks on these where we had the BFG that were D.O.T tires. All in all, it's a faster car. It has bigger brakes, so we can brake deeper than we could in the Challenge cars. The wing on this Mustang is smaller, but it gives us good downforce in the rear. The car is about 300 pounds lighter than the Mustang Challenge car."

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ROLY FLAGUERAS - No. 51 Roush Performance Ford Mustang GT - (qualified 24th, finished 18th)

IF YOU HAD AN EXTRA LAP OUT THERE ON THE GREEN DO YOU FEEL THAT WOULD HAVE HELPED YOU OUT THERE TODAY? "It would have helped, definitely moved us up one or two more positions. We didn't want to stress the race car but we did good out there. We brought the car home."

HOW DID THE CAR HANDLE OUT THERE? "Very good; we have a great car. The car ran great all day. We're pretty happy. We finished in the top 20 our first race in Daytona."

HOW WAS IT WORKING WITH YOUR ROOKIE CO-DRIVER SHELBY BLACKSTONE? "He did a heck of a job really. He put the car up there, all the way to first."

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SHELBY BLACKSTONE - No. 51 Roush Performance Ford Mustang GT - (qualified 22nd, finished 18th)

IT WAS YOUR FIRST GRAND-AM RACE. HOW DO FEEL YOU DID OUT THERE? "For the first GRAND-AM race, I thought, personally this is bigger than I could have ever imagined. We started 24th and I just wanted to get the car home in one piece. As the race progressed on we moved up to 10th, moved up to fourth, moved to third and then sooner or later we got up to first. Driving for five months and getting to first place and leading laps in Daytona 200, I was ecstatic. They told me that and I was just screaming in the car. You can't get any better than this."

WHAT DID YOUR MOM [Reba McEntire] THINK? WAS SHE NERVOUS FOR YOU? "Yes, at first. I told her before, at the start, it's going to be crazy. We're going to be four-wide going into one. She loved it. She had the best time I think she's ever had. It was a lot of fun.

HOW WAS THE TRACK OUT THERE? "The track is very good. The banking was smooth. They did a really good job to get the track ready for race day. I had a blast out there."

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DEAN MARTIN - No. 52 Rehagen Racing Ford Mustang BOSS 302R - (qualified 6th, finished 23rd)

We actually had a disappointing weekend this weekend. We were running strong. We were running up to third or fourth place. We had a fuel issue. We didn't get as much fuel in the tank as we thought and we ran out a lap before we thought we were going to and that put us three or four laps down. We were competitive; we had a top five car, I think. Something just happened with the fuel cell, we missed the fuel calculation but we were close."

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE BOSS HANDLED OUT THERE COMPARED TO THE FR500C YOU HAD FOR LAST YEAR'S RACE? "It's fantastic. It's definitely the next generation car. The fact that the new car, the new engine gets up to 7800 RPM, it's a very strong motor. It's night and day the difference out there."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NEWLY PAVED DAYTONA TRACK? "The best improvements have been in the brake zone. Coming down into turn one you can go a lot deeper than you used to, same thing with the bus stop. The bus stop is a lot smoother, making the transition smoother. We were able to pick up a lot more speed out there. I think we picked up four to five mph more than we did last year, that's why the lap times we're a lot faster out there."

HOW WAS IT DRIVING WITH CO-DRIVER BRET SEAFUSE? "Bret did a fantastic job. He ran into some bad luck early. He went bum-to-bum with the BMW guy. The BMW guy hit the brakes coming down into turn one, he got turned around and he actually slipped backwards into Bret and knocked him off track a little bit. We dropped back to 10th and he made it back up to fourth. We just ran half a lap short on fuel which hurt us."

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SCOTT PANZER - No. 21 Frederick Motorsports Ford Mustang GT - (qualified 17th, finished 30th)

"We had a good start to the race. We started in 17th and moved up a little bit at the start. There were a couple of bobbles in front of us, so we stayed clean, that was the most important thing. We came around the first 30 minutes and we were holding our position for the most part because those BMWs, they're fast. I turned the car over to my co-driver Todd and I'll let him tell you about that. The Mustang was running pretty well; handling just fine."

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TODD SNYDER - No. 21 Frederick Motorsports Ford Mustang GT - (qualified 17th, finished 30th)

"Scott did a great job keeping out of the trouble; there was a lot of melee going on in those first couple of laps. We did a strategy change, which I think was going to work out pretty good; it would have gotten us in the top-10, but unfortunately we had the alternator go bad. The Mustang was running fine until then."

YOU STOPPED ON PIT ROAD A FEW TIMES AND OPENED THE HOOD. WHAT WAS THE TEAM LOOKING FOR? "They were trying to check the alternator. The voltage dropped, so the car was misfiring, so they were trying to see if it was spark plugs, coil packs, that type of stuff. Then we figured out it was the alternator."

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JACK ROUSH JR., No. 61 Roush Performance Ford Mustang BOSS 302R - (qualified 5th; finished 32nd)

"We had no brakes going into [turn] one. I tried to avoid hitting the 15, I braked a little earlier than he did and just couldn't stop. I avoided hitting him but I couldn't stop from hitting the wall. I don't know what happened."

YOU WERE ON A GOOD RUN, FROM FIFTH TO THIRD. WE'RE YOU WORKING ON SECOND? "I might have been. I was working my way up to him. I wasn't trying to get up to him that quick." THAT WAS A PRETTY HARD HIT IN THE WALL. "Yeah, it's really unfortunate. We had a great car. It might have been a great day had we not had that issue."

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BILLY JOHNSON - No. 61 Roush Performance Ford Mustang BOSS 302R - (qualified 5th; finished 32nd)

"I want to thank everyone at Roush Performance for doing such an amazing job. They worked at the shop so hard to get this car ready. Jack did a great job qualifying, moving through the field and looking awesome. I'm not sure what happened or what went wrong but the important thing is that he was okay and able to walk away from it unscathed. We'll go back to the shop, put her back together and go on to the next one.

-source: ford racing