NASCAR Cup

Allmendinger, Ambrose Watkins Glen post-qualifying interview

Ford Racing

Edited: Aug 13, 2011, 11:23 PM

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A.J. Allmendinger, Richard Petty Motorsports Ford and Marcos Ambrose, Petty Motorsport Ford

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion

HOW WAS YOUR LAP? “It was pretty good. I felt like I got into one just a little bit deep and locked the right-front just a little bit, but felt like I carried good momentum through there. I was just a little tentative getting in the bus stop, sitting there in line when we sat there I could see the track was really dirty getting in there, so I was a little bit conservative getting in and tried to make it all up through the bus stop and got a little bit loose, so I lost a little bit of time there. I don’t know if that was enough time lost to Kyle, but I felt like overall the car was really good. It’s been solid ever since we unloaded. Greg Erwin and everybody on the Best Buy Ford just brought a good car and I feel like these last couple weeks, although the results may not show it, have been really good. We’ve been working well together and I think we’re making a lot of progress, so to go out there with what we’ve been building on is really good. To have a good lap today was really good.”

IS IT NICE TO GET THIS KIND OF RESULT? “Yeah. I’ve always liked Watkins Glen a little bit more than Sonoma. I feel like I’ve struggled at Sonoma. Watkins Glen is a race track that you’ve really got to be aggressive on and you can really kind of just hang the car out, and I feel I’ve always been pretty good here, so I look at this track – coming to it – if we can build some momentum and get a good finish tomorrow, we’re right there in points. Obviously, if we get a win that puts us with a chance for the Chase, but I’m not looking at that as make or break. I feel like if we can just keep getting better as the year goes on and have a good, strong finish to the end of the season that that’s gonna be what I’m gonna look at for our season and really build off of that, so this is a great place to start. We’ve always been fast here.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion

HOW WAS YOUR LAP? “I felt a little unfortunate really. We had a probably had the hardest part of the practice and I underdrove it just a little bit, but we’re proud of our efforts. It would have been great to be on the front row with AJ, but we’ll start third for the race. We’ve got a great package. I feel really confident and we’ll just see how the day unfolds. It’s gonna be interesting to see how it goes on fuel strategy and brake wear and all those factors that come into play on a road course. Hopefully we make the right judgment calls in getting the car ready for the race.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER CONTINUED – WHAT IS ERWIN BRINGING TO THE TEAM? “It was built by Mike Shiplett. He really got our guys working well together and we were bringing good stuff to the race track and it was something that we were just lacking a little bit, so with the change Greg brings a lot of experience. Obviously, he’s a crew chief that has won a lot of race, been in the Chase and been in championship contention. I think that experience level has really been helping me in times where I maybe get a little bit lost because I forget that I’ve been in here for five years, but when it comes to everything that I’ve been through in this sport, I look at that I’ve really only had two really competitive seasons, so I’m still learning a lot. There are times where we kind of get lost and I think Greg can kind of keep the team on track and figure out whether we need a big change or a small change or race strategy – things like that – and just help make me a better race car driver. Inside the race car driver and out of the race car driver trying to figure out what we need with these race cars, so, like I said, the results don’t show it but Indy we were really fast all day. Pocono I felt like we were pretty good on Friday and on Sunday we lost a little bit, but it was still a solid weekend. Since we’ve unloaded, I feel like Marcos is the guy to beat, but we’re right there with everybody else and we have something for everybody else, so he’s just brought a lot of experience and that’s just in three weeks, so I think as the season goes on, hopefully we just keep building on that.”

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