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2010 Daytona 500 Qualifying Report: Read All the Roush Fenway Racing Drivers' Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
2010 Daytona 500 Qualifying Report
Kenseth Leads Roush Fenway Daytona 500 Qualifying Effort
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 6, 2010) – Matt Kenseth led the way for Roush Fenway Racing in Saturday afternoon’s Daytona 500 qualifying at Daytona International Speedway. Kenseth turned a lap of 47.36 (190.050) to pace the Roush Fenway camp with the 11th fastest time of the day.
David Ragan (47.55) qualified 24th and Carl Edwards (47.57) was just behind at 26th. Greg Biffle turned a 47.77 lap to round out the Roush effort at 37th.
Kenseth, Edwards and Biffle will each take part in Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout, before the Sprint Cup Series takes a break from action before resuming for Daytona 500 practice on Wednesday.
Roush Fenway Racing Individual Driver Qualifying Reports & Quotes:
**David Ragan
Practice Session 1: 48.264/27th
Qualifying: 47.458/24th
The season kicked off this weekend at Daytona International Speedway. Ragan was looking forward to starting the new season with Donnie Wingo as his crew chief and try out some of the changes made to the cars over the off season. The first and only practice session was cut short due to rain, but Ragan was able to make a qualifying run. Ragan picked up the pace in his qualifying effort, making his way around the 2.5-mile track in 47.458 seconds, fast enough to qualifying 24th while Mark Martin took the pole position. Next up is the Duel’s next Thursday to set the field for the Daytona 500, in which David will start 11th in the first Duel.
Ragan Post Qualifying Quote:
“Obviously, it would be great to qualify on the pole today, but we’ve put a lot of emphasis on our race car for the races and I think that’s just about what we expected. We expected to pick up a little bit from yesterday, not having a lot of practice. We changed a couple of things and Donnie Wingo and everyone did a nice job. The car looked pretty good and it’s got some good speed to it, so we’ll see how it is when we put our race setup in. I’m looking forward to Wednesday when we start practicing.”
**Greg Biffle:
Biffle Qualifies 37th in Daytona for a Starting Position of 18th in the First of the Gatorade 150’s
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. (February 6, 2010) – Greg Biffle turned in a lap time of 47.768 after getting the 3M Ford Fusion up to a speed of 188.411 mph this afternoon at Daytona International Speedway. At the conclusion of qualifying, Biffle was 37th on the board.
“I slowed down in three and four for some reason. Practice doesn’t make the car faster. It is what it is. Basically, when you unload here and you start making laps, that’s about the speed of your car. I don’t know. That’s as fast as it’s gonna be, I guess.”
Biffle was 32nd fastest in yesterday’s rain-shortened practice session. He and most of the other competitors only got to make one qualifying run.
Biffle’s starting position for the Daytona 500, however, will be determined by his finishing position in the Gatorade 150’s. He will start 18th in the first of the two qualifying races.
The Daytona 500 will air live on FOX at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, February 14th.
**Matt Kenseth:
Kenseth Qualifies 11th in the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford at Daytona International Speedway
DAYTONA BEACH, FL. (Feb. 6, 2010) – Matt Kenseth turned a fast lap of 47.356 seconds (190.050 mph) around the 2.5-mile tri-oval of Daytona International Speedway Saturday afternoon to earn the 11th position in the qualifying session for the Daytona 500. Mark Martin captured the pole for next Sunday’s Daytona 500 with a fast lap time of 47.074 seconds, while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. earned the second starting position for the Daytona 500.
Kenseth, who won the 2009 Daytona 500, is the defending champion of next weekend’s first points race of the 2010 season. Saturday’s qualifying effort is just one of the ways in which the field is set for the Daytona 500. The two fastest qualifiers from Saturday’s qualifying session are “locked into” the front row for the Daytona 500. Those are the race’s only guaranteed positions coming out of qualifying day. The Gatorade Duel at Daytona, two 150-mile qualifying races, determine starting positions for the Daytona 500 beyond the front row.
“That was a really good lap for us,” commented Kenseth after his two qualifying laps. “That was faster than the rest of the Fords at the time, so that was a good run. Drew (Blickensderfer), Chip (Bolin), and everybody back at Roush Fenway in the fab. shop did a good job to get some speed out of the car, so I’m excited to get it in race trim next week and see how our Crown Royal Ford runs.”
“All fifty-some cars are here trying to win one,” continued Kenseth. “There’s a lot of competition every year and this year is no exception, so there’s going to be some really exciting racing down here this weekend. I’m really looking forward to racing the Crown Royal car tonight in the Shootout, as well as next week.”
Kenseth and his No. 17 team will have to wait until next week on February 10th before they can get another chance to test their car’s speed with practices for the Gatorade Duel. The finishing positions in the Gatorade Duel will help set the starting grid for the 52nd running of the Daytona 500.
Practice for the Gatorade Duel will take place from 12:00pm – 1:30pm EST with final practice from 2:00pm-2:50pm. The Gatorade Duel will be televised on Speed Thursday, February 11th beginning at 2:00pm EST.
**Carl Edwards:
Post-Qualifying Quote:
– No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 26th) – “It’s hard to feel that extra mile an hour, but our Aflac Ford Fusion was not as fast as we wanted it to be, but it is cool standing down here with all these fans. You have a bad lap like that and you come down here and they’re all pumped up ready to go racing. We’ve got a race tonight with our Scotts Fusion in the Bud Shootout. That should be a lot of fun, but we’ve just got to go race in those qualifiers and try to get the best spot we can, and then go into this Daytona 500 not thinking about qualifying. We’ve just got to go to be the best handling car we can be and be there at the end, and I’d say we’ve got just as good a shot of winning it as Matt Kenseth did last year, so that’s good enough for me.”
Edwards will race in the first Gatorade Duel race on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 2:00 p.m. (ET) to determine his actual starting spot for the Daytona 500.
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