Q-and-A with NASCAR Drivers before Michigan International Speedway
By Alice Arutoff
Dearborn — Yesterday
the Ford Racing team visited World Headquarters to test our great products and
meet with employees. @Ford Online had the opportunity to talk with a few of the
drivers about the upcoming race.
How was your experience at the track
this morning? Did you have any favorite vehicles?
Trevor Bayne: All of
them were awesome. Obviously the Mustang had the most power, and the GT500 was
pretty epic. But the Fiesta ST I think impressed a lot of us. The stick shift
and the sportier car, we had fun with it.
Travis
Pastrana: For me it was just awesome to get to
spend time with all the employees and all my fellow competitors. It was really
fun to jump into all the cars. [Joey] Logano was the best on the skid pad, it
was kind of depressing. I thought I was doing pretty good, and he’s going around
with an automatic. I was like, ‘How’d you get that to do that.’ It was pretty
cool.
Greg Biffle: I love
going to the race track, and it’s been a while since we got to go on the wet
track. We got to have a lot of fun with the Mustang on the wet and dry track. My
favorite was the Explorer Sport with the EcoBoost engine – lots of power. I’m a
big fan of the EcoBoost engine and the 365 horsepower. The thing really, really
goes. And we want to put the gas down and go, but yet it still gets the good
fuel economy.
Brad Keselowski: I had a
blast driving all the different Ford vehicles, running around all the tracks and
finding their limits. But you’ve got to love the Fiesta ST. That car, it’s just
a little pocket rocket and it gets it done. I had a lot of fun with that, but
really there isn’t a bad car to have fun with on the test
track.
How did you like getting to spend some
time with the employees?
Biffle: It’s great to
see all the employees; they build great products and are all working very hard.
It gives them a chance to come out and see the drivers – I’m sure they watch us
every Saturday and Sunday. So it’s fun to meet them.
Big win for Ford Racing on Sunday, how
did that feel?
Bayne: That was a pretty
big win for us and our team. This season we’ve been trying to get some sort of
momentum and every time something good happens something bad was happening. But
this time we had something really good happen by going to victory lane.
You got married just before the big
win. Can you share a little about that?
Bayne: Man it was cool.
Ashton and I have been dating for three years now and she’s never gotten to go
to victory lane with me. I’ve won two races since we’ve started dating. She told
me as soon as we got married I had to go ahead and win to get the pressure off
and to prove to people I should have married her a long time ago. So there was a
little bit of pressure but we got through, got to victory lane and got Ford its
200th win, so that was a little bit of the icing on the
cake.
How’s the season going for you so
far?
Pastrana: It’s my first
full season with Jack Roush and the whole racing program is absolutely awesome.
I’ve got Trevor Bayne to kind of look up to every weekend. I can see where the
bar is and then figure out how to get there. We’ve got a long way to go. But I
know that I have the speed, and what it’s going to take to get there. I know we
have the team to back me, everything to get there – I just have to figure out
how to stop crashing and start winning some of these things.
Keselowski: We’ve had a
great start to the season, scoring a lot of top 5s, very close to quite a few
wins – it just keep coming up that little bit short. We led the points score
earlier in the year, had a little bit of a stumble in the month of May, but
we’re on our way to rebound. I think we’re going to be in great standing to
hopefully win some races and be in contention for the championship at the end of
the year.
Are you hoping to get Ford Racing its
1,000th
win?
Bayne: We’re trying this
weekend. We get the first shot on Saturday in the Nationwide Series. If that
doesn’t happen then the guys have a chance on Sunday. But we’d like to go ahead
and get it in the books on Saturday. That’d be really cool.
Are you looking forward to the race
this weekend at Michigan International Speedway?
Bayne: MIS has been good
to us since the repave, especially in the Cup Series. We’ve qualified sixth and
seventh. Running in the top 10 of both of those races – we blew an engine in one
and we blew a tire in the other. If we can get through that I think we’ll be
really fast. The Nationwide Series, I’ve not driven since they’ve repaved the
track – so I’m looking forward to that. The high speeds, being wide open and
just going really fast in those Mustangs.
Pastrana: This is going
to be my first time here, but I’m really looking forward to racing here in
Michigan. I have a lot of friends and family out in this area. Everyone’s going
to be coming to the race and I’d like to put on a good show for
them.
Biffle: Right in the
backyard. We take a lot of pride in winning this race. I’ve won it three times
and finishing second last week gives us a little momentum. We think we’re
getting closer and closer, we’re getting our cars better. We still have a little
ways to go, but this is a great track for us. So our best chance all season to
win is this weekend.
Keselowski: We love
coming back home to Michigan. What we like about it is we’re so close to
headquarters here. We’re hoping to see a lot of Ford employees supporting us in
the race and hopefully we can win in front of
them.