Daytona Post-Qualifying Quotes

PAUL MENARD -- No. 98 Peak/Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 23rd)
"Obviously, you'd like to qualify well, but your focus has to be on the race. At a place like this, you kind of have to give up a little bit of pure speed to get some handling for the race on Sunday and the 150 on Thursday. We weren't planning on sitting on the pole, but being the fastest Ford to this point is pretty cool. We picked up a lot from yesterday -- everybody did, but we picked up a little bit more than most. Hopefully, that will give us a good start for the 150 and we can race and have a good handling car where we can race good."

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AJ ALLMENDINGER -- No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 25th)
"I think that was a little slower than we wanted to be. Looking at everybody's times and where we were yesterday, we thought we could be a little better than that. We knew we weren't gonna be on the pole, and, ultimately, that's all that really matters here is being on the front row at Daytona. Qualifying is just better for stats, but we're happy. The car is fine. We'll get here on Wednesday and get down to real business, get the thing handling good for the duels and go try to win that."

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KASEY KAHNE -- No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Qualified 28th)
"I was actually really happy with it. We picked up close to a second from yesterday, so, to me, that was a great lap for our Budweiser Ford. The team has done a great job and the Roush Yates engines run really well, so it was nice. It was a good pickup and I'm looking forward to the Shootout tonight. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna be exciting."

HOW DO YOU LIKE WEARING THE TEAM USA COLORS? "I like it. Budweiser did that with the Olympics coming up and we're gonna do it here at the 500 and also the following week at Fontana, California. It means a lot to us and it's all for the Olympians, so it should be a good program."

CAN YOU READ ANYTHING INTO WHAT WE SAW YESTERDAY AND TODAY? "It's tough to say. We picked up a lot. Greg picked up a little bit, so I think it'll be a lot closer. It looks like the 88 is really quick again, but I'm happy with the way my car ran from yesterday. I felt like it was a lot better."

ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT QUALIFYING HERE? "No, because I've never qualified good at these tracks, ever, so I don't worry about it. I just go and make my laps. I was actually pretty excited coming down here because I thought this would probably be the best I could ever qualify here and I think we should have a pretty decent spot for the 150 on Thursday."

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ELLIOTT SADLER -- No. 19 Stanley Ford Fusion (Qualified 36th)
"We definitely wanted to run a faster time than that, but our hearts are not broken. We want to race good on Thursday and want to race good on Sunday, so, hopefully, we'll be able to do that. We'll work on getting it driving good. That's what has worked well for us in the past and being the Daytona 500 time has moved up being more in the daytime on Sunday, you've got to have it handling so we'll go to work then and see where we end up. Hopefully, we'll get a good starting spot for Sunday."


Credit: Ford Racing