Mark my words: 'New' Martin is a happy racer
By Lee Spencer
SportingNews
November 21, 2005

If watching the battle between Greg Biffle and Mark Martin in the closing laps of the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway didn't have your heart racing, then you must have ice water in your veins. The Roush racers ran each other cleanly over the closing laps with Biffle holding the point by just 0.017 seconds over Martin at the finish.

Martin had nothing left to give -- which doesn't really differ than any other race -- but the satisfaction he felt at the end of what should have been his final day in a Cup car is the very reason I could not stand to watch him go.

When Martin arrived in the media center, he was as hyped up as I've seen him in a long time. He was comfortable in his surroundings sharing the stage with teammate Matt Kenseth, who finished third and Jeff Gordon, who clinched 11th in the standings.

Hearing Martin recant the finish tells you everything you need to know: "Man, it was close. I thought we were gonna be able to pull it off but we were just inches short. I guess maybe we needed another lap, or maybe I would have crashed trying."

That's a racer, folks. But here's the bonus round. Most race fans know that this was supposed to be Martin's final year. But Kurt Busch elected to leave Roush a year early and left a gaping hole in the Roush roster. Being the team player that he is Martin agreed to stay one more season, but he wasn't happy about it. That changed after Sunday night.

"I turned over a new leaf," Martin says. "Kenny Wallace said I was a pessimist after Charlotte, so I got mad and I'm so excited about coming back that I just can't stand it. I wish we were starting tomorrow and I'm gonna win. That's the new me."

That is a new Mark. And Jack, since Mark is sacrificing his family time to race, here is your opportunity to give him one last shot at the title. Get out the checkbook and secure his current crew for 2006. The No. 6 team led by Pat Tryson is one of the most dedicated staffs in NASCAR. This crew deserves to be compensated accordingly. Stop the bleeding before it begins.

Martin, Biffle Go Down to the Wire at Homestead Season Finale
Mark Martin and the #6 Viagra® Racing Team
Homestead-Miami Speedway/November 20, 2005

HOMESTEAD, FLA. – Mark Martin said all along that he and his Viagra® (sildenafil citrate) Racing Team would fight until the last checkered flag fell at Homestead and they did just that. Martin and the No. 6 Team went down swinging in Sunday night’s Nextel Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with Martin and the No. 6 team fighting to the very end, coming up just short of victory as Roush teammate Greg Biffle edged Martin out at the line finish line by inches for the victory in one of the most exciting races of the season. Martin and Biffle led a 1-2-3-4 Roush finish at Homestead, with Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards close behind.

"That was a great race,” said Martin moments after climbing out of the Viagra® car. “The race track was just in perfect condition. I really wanted to get a win for Viagra® in their last race, and I was so close. Congratulations to Greg Biffle on the win and congratulations to Tony Stewart on the championship. We had a great night - man, it was close. I thought we were going to be able to pull it off but we were just inches short.

“I guess maybe we needed another lap, or maybe I would have crashed trying,” added Martin. “I raced Greg hard and I raced him clean and vice versa and he was in front when it was over. I would have loved to have one, but I guess only one guy can win. We had a great run, a great finish and a great year, and we were able to move up to fourth in the points in the last race.”

Martin was running in second place and had caught leader Casey Mears when the night’s eighth and final caution waved on lap 251 with only 16 laps remaining in the race. Martin and crew chief Pat Tryson decided to take two tires under caution and excellent work by the Viagra® Racing team’s over-the-wall crew put Martin back out in second place, and first of the cars who pitted.

Dave Blaney opted to stay out and restarted ahead of Martin in the lead when the field went green with only 11 laps remaining. Martin, who’s car was stronger on long runs than on restarts, would have to contend with Blaney and the lapped No. 01 car, allowing Biffle to close the gap and take the race lead with only eight to go. Martin refused to go down without a fight, mounting a late charge, catching Biffle and making the move to the inside coming off of turn four. The veteran was able to pull along side the No. 16 car, but came up just inches short of making the pass at the finish line.

“I did everything I could,” added Martin. “And I thought I had him, - but we just came up inches short. Still, it was a lot of fun and it’s really exciting to end the season this way. This is a great race team. These guys are killer. I've had the time of my life in 2005. I want to thank the fans. I want to thank Viagra® and Ford, Pennzoil, Gatorade, Goodyear, Maxwell House and all the people that support us. Like I say, I hope we can keep these guys (on the No. 6 team) together for another year and we’ll come back and make one more run at this thing.”

The race was a tale of two stories for Martin, who struggled in the early going with his No. 6 Viagra® Ford Taurus, radioing to Tryson early on that he did not feel the car was competitive. He started fifth, but fell all the way back to 12 th by the ninth lap of the race. However the car began to steadily improve, breaking back inside the top 10 for good on lap 34. The Viagra® Race Team was stealer all day, gaining Martin several positions on pit road, including three on its fourth stop of the day on lap 127, a 13.09-second stop that put Martin inside the top five for the first time of the race when green-flag racing resumed on lap 130.

By the lap 200 mark, Martin’s No. 6 Ford had become a rocket, passing teammate Carl Edwards for second place on lap 209. Martin took over the lead just after leader Casey Mears pitted on lap 227. He brought his No. 6 Ford down pit road a lap later for a green-flag stop to take on four tires and fuel and Martin was back in second once the field had cycled through on lap 238.

Strong on the long run, Martin spent the next several laps moving in on Mears and appeared poised to take the lead just moments before the caution fell on lap 251, setting up the 11 lap shootout for the win.

Martin finished the chase with six top-five finishes in the 10 races, including a win at Kansas and second-place runs at Texas and Homestead. Overall he had seven top fives in 10 races.

“Oh man, I'm the luckiest man in the world to drive that No. 6 car,” said Martin. “I sure hope that we're able to keep all those guys together. They are true winners. We scored a lot of points in the chase. If you look at what we did, we were in the top five almost every race, except for two where one time we shot ourselves in the foot, and the other time was the wreck at Talladega. I'm just hoping that I can drive cars that good again next year. That was fun. The track was spectacular tonight and I’m looking forward to taking another shot at it next season.”

Martin Runs third in 2005 Busch Finale at Homestead

HOMESTEAD, FLA. – Mark Martin and the No. 9 Pennzoil Platinum race team notched their fifth top-five finish of the season with a third-place finish in the Ford 300 in the Busch Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Driving in his second NASCAR race of the day (Martin finished eighth in Craftsman Truck Series race earlier in the day) Martin started the race seventh and led 13 laps en route to the third place finish.

“We had a really good car with the No.9 Pennzoil Ford today,” said Martin. “We just weren’t quite as good as those two guys in front of us. We were able to run with them for a while, but they just seemed to roll through the corner a little better than us. It wasn’t a huge difference, but it was enough for them to get away from us a little bit.”

Martin started seventh and wasted little time mounting a march to the front. By lap 10 the veteran had cracked the top five. With the exception of a handful of laps Martin would run inside the field’s top five for the remainder of the race. The Busch Series’ all-time winning driver moved into second on lap 80, before taking the lead from Ryan Newman on lap 85 just before the day’s fifth caution.

Martin led the next 13 laps before giving the lead up to come down pit road under the day’s sixth caution on lap 99. With the car performing at its best level of the day, Martin took four fresh tires and fuel. A few cars opted to stay out and Martin returned in sixth position as the field returned to green on lap 106. Four laps later Martin moved back inside the top five.

Martin broke back into third on lap 146 where he was running when the day’s seventh caution was issued on lap 152. The team again came down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment and after a stop of 14.80-seconds returned to the field in second place when the field went green on lap 157. Martin was unable to hold off the No. 66 car of Greg Biffle and fell to third on lap 160. He lost third position to Kevin Harvick on lap 169, but passed Harvick’s No. 21 car back on the following lap. He was able to hold off Harvick’s charge for the remaining 30 laps and move on to the third-place finish.

The finish was Martin and the No. 9 team’s sixth top-10 finish in eight Busch starts in 2005. Martin finishes his 2005 Busch season with two wins and a pole.

Martin Runs Eighth in Rain-Delayed Return to Truck Series

HOMESTEAD, FLA. – Mark Martin made his return to the Craftsman Truck Series with an eighth-place finish in the Ford 200 on Saturday morning at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Martin’s return was delayed one day when persistent rains refused to let up on Friday night – forcing the race’s start to be delayed until Saturday morning.

“Man, that was a lot of fun,” said Martin. “We really leaned a lot today. I know that if we went back out and raced it again tomorrow we would be able to finish a lot better based on the things that we were able to pick up during that race.”

Martin broke inside the top five for the first time on lap 59. He moved into third on lap 83 and took the lead just before pitting on lap 95. He was running in fourth position when the day’s seventh and final caution was called on lap 127. Martin and crew chief Pat Tryson opted to stay out. The moved proved to backfire as Martin would be unable to hold off the trucks behind him on fresh tires; eventually settling for the eighth place finish.

“We were a little better than that all day – we just fell back to the new tires there at the end,” added Martin. “Still it was really fun to get behind the wheel of a truck again and I can’t wait to get more time in the seat there in the future. I think that we are going to have a great time with the truck series.”

Martin started in 14 th and had moved inside the top-10 by the time the day’s second caution was called on lap 31. Martin brought his No. 33 Stonebridge Life Insurance Ford F-150 down pit road for four tires and fuel and his No. 6 Nextel Cup crew sent him out in ninth when green flag racing resumed on lap 32.

The race was Martin’s third career start in the Craftsman Truck Series and his first since winning at North Wilkesboro in 1996. Martin plans to run a handful of races in the Truck Series in 2006, before running a full truck schedule in 2007.

FORD DRIVERS FINISH STRONG IN FORD 400
Ford Racing: News
November 20, 2005

Homestead, Fla. — Ford's NASCAR NEXTEL Cup drivers gave one last hurrah to the NASCAR version of the Ford Taurus in the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The finish marked the first time Roush Racing has finished 1-2-3-4, with Greg Biffle taking the victory followed by Mark Martin (2nd), Matt Kenseth (3rd) and Carl Edwards (4th).

In its eight-year history racing in NASCAR’s top division, Taurus ended up winning 100 points races and 108 overall when the Budweiser Shootout and Nextel All-Star Challenge are included. In addition, Taurus produced three driver’s championships (1999, 2003, and 2004) and three manufacturer’s championships (1999, 2000 and 2002).

Ford will be racing the all-new Ford Fusion in 2006.

MARK MARTIN – NO. 6 VIAGRA TAURUS (FINISHED 2ND)

“That was a great race. The race track was just in perfect condition. I wanted to get a win for Viagra in their last race. I was so close. Congratulations to Greg Biffle. Congratulations to Tony Stewart. We had a great night. Man, it was close. I thought we were gonna be able to pull it off but we were just inches short. I guess maybe we needed another lap, or maybe I would have crashed trying. I raced Greg hard and I raced him clean and vice versa and he was in front when it was over.”

YOU HAVE NEXT YEAR NOW.

“I hope these guys stay with me. I hope we don’t lose any of these guys. They’re killer. I’ve had the time of my life in 2005. I want to thank the fans. I want to thank Ford, Pennzoil, Gatorade, Goodyear, Maxwell House and all the people that support us. Like I say, I hope we can keep these guys together for another year.”

DID THE 01 HOLD YOU UP ON THE RESTART?

“We just did the best we could there. Greg got to the front first. That’s just how it works out. It’s just how it fell. That’s racin’.”

IT LOOKED LIKE YOU TRIED TO MOVE HIM UP TO GET A HIGHER LINE ON THE LAST CORNER.

“I did everything I could, man. I got beat. It was a great race. I’d love to win, but I reckon me and my teammate wouldn’t have been any good. We also moved up to fourth in the points. If I would have wiped out in the last turn, we wouldn’t have done that either. I tried to win. I thought we might. We had a great race. We came up short. That’s racin’. Only one guy gets to win.”

MATT KENSETH – NO. 17 DEWALT TAURUS (FINISHED 3RD)

KIND OF APPROPRIATE WITH ROUSH GOING 1-2-3-4.

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool for Jack. I was thinking about that and that’s pretty cool. It was a great race today. We kind of stole a third-place run there. We didn’t run very good all day. Robbie made a great call putting two tires on it and it worked out good.”

EMOTIONAL DAY FOR THIS TEAM.

“Yeah, it’s a hard day. Without Johnny R. and Robbie I wouldn’t even be here. They’re the ones that gave me a chance to get in the Busch Series and he’s a special, special man and he’s gonna be missed a lot for sure.”

WHAT ABOUT YOUR SEASON?

“I feel pretty good about it. It’s been an interesting year. We’ve had some turnover. We started the year 43rd in points and worked our way back up to make the chase. I’m real proud of the guys for that. We’ve got a really good group here. I just have a feeling for some reason that next year we’re gonna have an even better group. We’ve had some turnover and sometimes that’s healthy. I think we’re gonna have some young guys in the there that want to do it worse than ever. We’ve got some hungry guys and I think they’re gonna be ready for it next year.”

MARK MARTIN-MATT KENSETH PRESS CONFERENCE

MARK MARTIN

“I thought I had him. That’s the overview. Oh man, I’m the luckiest man in the world to drive that 6 car. I sure hope that we’re able to keep all those guys together. They are true winners. We scored a lot of points in the chase. If you look at what we did, we were in the top five almost every race, except for two where one time we shot ourselves in the foot, and the other time the wreck at Talladega. I’m just hoping that I can drive cars that good again next year. That was fun. The track was spectacular tonight.”

MATT KENSETH

“We didn’t run very good tonight, really. We finished really good, we just got a really fast pit stop at the end and got two tires. My car was pretty good on two tires for about five or six laps, I could actually keep up with Mark and Greg, and then it just kind of gave up a little bit but we were out far enough to finish third. That was about it. We didn’t run very good, we just finished good.”

MARK MARTIN CONTINUED

A GOOD FEELING OR DISAPPOINTMENT THAT YOU HAD FIVE GUYS IN IT AND DIDN’T WIN?

“I’m happy to be fourth considering I was fifth coming in. My team’s performance was spectacular in the chase, so I can’t ask for more than that.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED

“I think that once you get in anything less than winning it is somewhat a disappointment, but kind of like Jeff said, if you perform good, that’s what you feel good about. Probably seven out of the 10 races we performed really good to be contenders in the top five at least. Other than that, we had some trouble in a few races. When you have trouble, you lose a lot of points. When you run good every week and don’t have trouble, you get a lot, so at least we’ve been running good. That’s the main thing. A couple races in the chase we didn’t run that good, but overall we ran pretty good and that gives me some hope for next year.”

MARK MARTIN CONTINUED

ON TONY STEWART WINNING

“I would like to say congratulations to those guys, and one other thing. Last year, surely the champion didn’t score as many points as Tony did this year. I don’t know, but I’d have to say that 19 out of 21 races being in the top 10, you’re not gonna beat that. Those guys were unbelievable. Old or new point system, that’s just incredible.”

ARE YOU ENCOURAGED ABOUT NEXT YEAR NOW?

“I turned over a new leaf. Kenny Wallace said I was a pessimist after Charlotte, so I got mad and I’m so excited about coming back that I just can’t stand it. I wish we were starting tomorrow and I’m gonna win (laughter). That’s the new me.”

JEFF GORDON SAYS, “It took Kenny Wallace for you to figure that out?”

MARK SAYS, “Yep, it took Kenny Wallace.”

THOUGHTS ON THE LAST LAP

“I got a good run across the bottom of one and two and got off the corner beside him. The outside just has so much momentum here and it also pulls the inside car loose. For every single reason in the book I didn’t want to wipe us both out, but I sure did want to win. Being able to hold beside him down the backstretch made me feel pretty good. If I could get into three and get it stuck down on the bottom, I felt like I had a good chance if I didn’t get sideways. I had to let him roll in a little bit further into the corner and I got it pinned to the bottom and got back to the gas, and when I did that – without getting sideways – I thought, ‘This could be our race here.’ He just rolled the top just a little bit – he had that momentum coming off the corner – and, like I say, it was just so close. It was just inches, but I thought there when I got it pinned down on the white line and got back to the gas, if he hadn’t had just a really perfect corner around the top there, we would have had him by a few inches, but it was a great race. He’s a great competitor. As you guys saw, my car was faster on the long runs and that thing was just spectacular on the long runs. It’s strong suit was not restarts, and it just took me a few laps to get that thing rolling on the restart and he got to the front first. If I could have cleared those two guys and got out in clean air and got a couple of laps under my belt before Greg got to me, I think I might have been able to keep him back, but he got to me so quick that my car just wouldn’t roll yet. It took it a few laps to come around.”

HAVE YOU NOTICED A DIFFERENT TONY THIS YEAR?

“I think Tony drives a lot the same. He definitely has learned to handle situations better through experience and that’s a hard thing to do, but, like Jeff said, I don’t believe the trophy makes the man. Tony Stewart, in my eyes, is the greatest race car driver I’ve watched drive in this era. A.J. Foyt might have been that when I was a little boy, but Tony Stewart is my driving hero.”

FINAL COMMENTS

“I would like to say one more thing. I want to salute Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd. This is big. I’m excited for Rusty and sad for Rusty at the same time. I’m so excited for him to start a new chapter in his life. I am incredibly sad to think that all those times that we had and all the things that we’ve done along the way are a thing of the past. I look forward to the next 30 years. If they can be anything like the past 30, we’re still in for a good time. He’s entertained me for almost 30 years.”

THOUGHTS ON CARL’S FUTURE

“They asked me after the race about him and I said, ‘He’s magic.’ And they said, ‘How do you mean?’ And I said, ‘Well, you see him. He’s magic.’ The guy is pretty incredible. That’s all I can say.”

MATT KENSETH CONTINUED – THOUGHTS ON CARL’S FUTURE

“Carl is just massively talented. Some people are really gifted and naturals at it, and then there are other people probably like me that have to work really hard at it. Carl is one of those guys that it just comes so natural that I don’t think he has to work real hard at it. I’m not saying he doesn’t work hard because he does and he’s real interested in the sport. You see him walk down pit road. He’s the only driver I’ve ever seen in my life walk down pit road during qualifying with a headset on listening to the scanner to see what everybody is saying about the race track. I mean, he’s really involved in it, but he’s just so naturally talented. He reminds me a lot – they’re different personalities – but he reminds me a lot of Greg Biffle. Those two guys can just get in anything and drive it an inch off the fence without hitting it all day long and get every ounce there is out of the car all the time. I think he probably surprised us all with how good he did, but he’s definitely one of those gifted people.”

MARK MARTIN CONTINUED

DID IT OCCUR TO YOU BEFORE THE RACE THAT YOU COULD HAVE WON YOUR LAST RACE IN THE VIAGRA CAR?

“This particular one I was too busy, but you know what, now that you say that, I might have been willing to wreck for it if it would have been my last one. I don’t know. That wouldn’t have been my style, but I did everything I could to win it, but that’s pretty ironic. I would have been in a pickle, wouldn’t I. I would have been in a pickle right there. I hadn’t thought of that, but, anyway, it was a great race and it was a lot of fun, we just came up short today.”

CARL EDWARDS – NO. 99 OFFICE DEPOT TAURUS (FINISHED 4TH)

“That’s a pretty cool finish with Mark and Greg. We did almost everything. We elected for four tires on that last pit stop. The Office Depot Ford was awesome. I’ve got to say congratulations to Greg and Mark, and especially Tony Stewart. He’s a true champion. I’ll be really proud to go up there on stage in New York and get to congratulate him. This was a fun season.”

TIED FOR 2ND WITH BIFFLE. WHAT ABOUT YOUR CHASE

“We just have an unbelievable team. We’ve been working really hard and Office Depot has put a lot of confidence in the team. My guys are unbelievable. Points or no points, whatever, those last 11 laps are what it’s all about. I haven’t driven like that very many times in my life. My mouth was dry and I was shaking and I was just driving as hard as I could. I’m having a good time and that’s what it’s all about and we’ll be back next year.”

HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU CAN CONTEND NEXT YEAR?

“If we can maintain the same amount of luck, we’ll be alright. We’re gonna have a good time next year. I can’t wait.”

DALE JARRETT – NO. 88 UPS TAURUS (FINISHED 17TH)

“I thought we were going to be a lot better than that. Never could get the car turning in the middle of the corner, and that hurt us. We fought all day and got as much as we could.”

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH THE WAY THE SEASON WENT?

“Can’t be pleased. We won a race, that was good, but we got to get this part of our program a little bit better.”

KENNY WALLACE – NO. 97 IRWIN INDUSTRIAL TOOLS TAURUS (FINISHED 21ST)

“All in all, for what I got thrown into last week, you know, I’m holding my head high. I got these guys a 16th and a 21st. And I never said I was the greatest driver but I’d like to think I did these guys a good job for my circumstances. I kept the car ahead of my brother Rusty in car-owner points, and that was important for me to have these guys to keep that pride to go to Daytona. If I would’ve gotten this 97 and I’d a lost the car-owner points and the 2 car would’ve shown up in Daytona ahead of these guys, I’d have felt bad about my self. But, hey, a 16th and a 21st, for the champion car I wanted better but the guys are proud of me. Part of me is a little upset, but part of me, Jimmy Fennig, my crew chief, said the reason they hired me was all them drivers have respect for me. So, I’ve got to look at that on an even base.”

FINISHES ASIDE, WHAT HAS THE EXPERIENCE OF THE LAST WEEK BEEN LIKE?

“Nerve-wracking, just knowing everybody’s looking at me – you know, how much talent do I have? Can I do it? I’ll tell you what: This is just an incredible race team. I was racing some of the best in the business there the last two weeks, and it gave me a lot of confidence. The experience was just incredible, something I’ll always remember the rest of my life. Now when I talk to this bunch, I can talk to them about chassis and not have them look down upon me, you know, because I raced hard.”

WHAT DO THE LAST TWO WEEKS DO FOR YOU PERSONALLY FOR 2006?

“Well, I ran so bad in my Busch Series car, it killed my confidence. Now, I’ll go in to the winter with my head high and feel real good about myself. Don’t let nobody kid you, the best in the business – when Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace and Bobby Labonte – when they went in their streaks, there’s nothing like a little picker-upper, and this just really saved my confidence. It’s a wonderful experience. Wonderful.”

ELLIOTT SADLER – NO. 38 M&M’S TAURUS (FINISHED 23RD)

“Tough season. I’m proud of the way my guys fight every race, they never give up. We struggled a lot there at the end. But, my guys stuck together, we had awesome pit stops during the race, they never hung their heads. We’ve got a championship-caliber team, we’ll just come back next year and prove that to everybody, so we’ll be okay.”

RICKY RUDD – NO. 21 MOTORCRAFT GENUINE PARTS TAURUS (FINISHED 37TH)

“Just disappointed to end up this way. We had a really good car. We had come from 25th to 18th and we were going forward and got wrecked on pit road. It’s a darn shame, things like that.”

HOW BAD WAS THE CAR, AND WHAT WAS THE WORST ASPECT AFTER THAT?

“It knocked the front end out of whack, and messed up the aerodynamics and this is a real aero track. If it wouldn’t have been a points deal, we’d have probably just parked it, but we needed to go out there and run as fast for the fans.”

A FEW YEARS AGO, WHEN YOU WERE IN THE 28, THERE WAS A SIMILAR SITUATION. DID THAT CROSS YOUR MIND AT ALL?

“No, not really. I did what I was supposed to do, and a guy turned in a pit stall and knocked me into somebody. We were barely moving, we hadn’t gotten going yet.”

WHEN IS STEPPING AWAY GOING TO SET IN?

“Probably about February, Daytona time.”

BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 National Guard Taurus (FINISHED FIRST)

“The night didn’t start out very good for us. The car was real, real tight, loose in, and I got it off in practice. I started the race car way too tight for the race tonight, and really paid the price early on. I made it hard on the pit crew tonight – you know, putting rubbers in and taking rubbers out and doing a tremendous amount on the race car under the caution. They did a fantastic job, the speed, of getting all that work done and keeping the track position. And finally the last pit stop, I think was the only time we didn’t make an adjustment on the car and it was Doug’s call for two tires there at the end. It was the best the car had been all night, that last run I drove almost to fourth or whatever so the car really come around. Then right there at the end I had the thing perfect.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE THREE-WIDE PASS FOR THE LEAD WITH LESS THAN 10 LAPS REMAINING?

“That was pretty hairy, but, you know, I had to go. There was no time to race those guys and when you’ve got fresh tires on and the car is sticking to the race track – you know I went down in there and it just stuck beautiful. Right when I turned in and I was flat on the throttle and the thing was stuck to the race track awesome, and they were sort of holding me up a little bit. I kind of breathed the throttle a little bit and Blaney slid up and gave me just enough room, barely, to get my car between ’em. Actually, I just drug the brake pedal a little bit, I never lifted on the throttle, slowed the car down and then I let up on the brake pedal to get between them. Blaney started pushing up coming off the corner and had to get out of the throttle, gave me room. It was phenomenal pass. But just did what I had to do to get by him and try to hold Mark off.”

LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE, TO THINK THAT A COUPLE OF LOOSE LUGNUTS AT TEXAS MAY HAVE COST YOU A CHAMPIONSHIP…

“It not ‘may of,’ it did. It’s something I’m going to think about for a long, long time. I lost the championship by eight points in 1999 and lost one this year by 35, and we lost over 50 with the loose wheel. When it happened I didn’t think anything of it, because I figured we’d get back on the lead lap, no problem, you know? But just no cautions. It was an unusual race. Even if had been a race like tonight we would’ve been able to get back on the lead lap. But that’s the way it goes. Things happen for a reason. It wasn’t our year. We know what not to do next year. We can count on our hands – flat tire at Dover, which we can’t do anything about, not a great run at Martinsville and then that crash at Talladega. So there’s a lot of races that we gave up a tremendous amount of points, besides that loose wheel. But that kind of sealed our fate there. I’m excited about the win, thankful for all the opportunities I’ve gotten this season, that Doug and Jack have given me my entire career and then to come off this season with six wins and be second in points, only 35 back behind a two-time champion like Tony Stewart, I can’t think of a way to finish this season out any better.”

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, THIS IS A GOOD FINISH.

“You know, it was funny, we kept getting better and better and better and better and better. Every adjustment made to the car tonight was right, was correct. The only thing that I did wrong was failing to get right in practice. It’s kind of funny, the press conference, I was kind of thinking about this all week, I was hoping that we wouldn’t lose by only 35, because then it would bring that Texas thing back in my head. If was 50 or more, it would’ve been a moot point, you know, because it didn’t matter. But I’m so thankful being second – I mean, even tied, from what I understand, I don’t know exactly, but they said it was a tie and because of the wins we got second, so that’s pretty neat for us.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – THOUGHTS ON FINISHING 1-2-3-4, BUT NOT WINNING THE TITLE.

“Nobody’s race cars have ever been better driven than our cars were tonight by all the guys. They did a super job. The engineers did a nice job on the car. Ford Motor Company did a great job negotiating for the templates and the architecture of the car with the NASCAR tech folks. We were luckier than we should have been last year. Anybody that watched that race, we shouldn’t have won a championship last year here. Of course, Jimmie Johnson finished behind by only seven or eight points, and Kurt Busch had a wheel fall off and go down the right side of the pit road and he missed the end of pit road and got a tire as the caution came out. So that was more luck than we deserved. Of course, Matt Kenseth had extraordinary durability the year before in 2003 with what I call an obsolete Taurus. It hadn’t been changed since ’97, so we really got more as a team, and as a company we got more than our share of luck, and, yeah, we had wrecks at Talladega and we had lackluster performance for our 16 car at Martinsville, and, of course, we had a loose lugnut. Hopefully, we won’t have another loose lugnut next year. But things happen. Greg says they happen for a reason, I’m not sure of that. I sat down, you can bet that I had a conversation with the young man who left the lugnut loose. It was the first time it ever happened for them, the first time he ever made a mistake and he’s just fine. But we just hope we don’t have things like that in the future, and if they do fall on us on a year when everything else has gone OK, well then it takes a while to win a championship. Mark Martin has sat there four years and hasn’t been able to do better than second out of his 18 years now. Anyway, this is fairly young for our 16 team, it’s very young for our 99 team. The 17 team is still by Mark’s standards, fairly young. We’ve got a lot of time for a lot of championships and these guys are gonna go get them as long as I can keep them in good cars.”

GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS IT CELEBRATING AFTER THIS RACE THAN OTHERS?

“Obviously, it’s way more difficult this year. Last year was a tremendous celebration because Kurt won the championship and it was my third career win and second win of the season in really dominating fashion. Tonight, we just worked our way to the front and it was kind of bittersweet. Like I said, missing out by 35 points, but jumping from fourth, 102 out, all the way to second and cap off the season with six wins, that puts us in the win column for the most wins. I can’t be more proud of my team, and Doug and the engine department. I hated to talk about it before, but we didn’t have one engine failure the entire season – practice, testing, nothing – ever. I didn’t want to jinx myself and talk about it before the season was over, but tremendous effort by the engine department. If you can imagine those guys having a flawless record like that is pretty incredible.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED IN NOT WINNING?

“No, I considered at that time (at Richmond) that our odds were one in three, and I think we’ll have one more miscarriage before we’re able to close the deal again. Hopefully we’ll win and then we’ll have to give up two sometime after that, but we’re not supposed to win all these races and we certainly won’t win all the championships. The competition is too tough, it’s too tight and there are too many risks that we can’t manage. And we’re all just human. Everybody that touches the car, that puts a lugnut on, or that touches the car to tighten a hose is gonna make a mistake from time to time, but you can’t make a habit of it. But I’m not disappointed. I did not expect to win the championship this year. I guess I would be sitting here if we had with a little embarrassment if we would have won three in a row. ‘How did I let Mark Martin down all those years if I could help the other guys win three times right after him or while he was still not able to do it.’ So I’m a little relieved in a way that I won’t get more criticism than I’ll get for having the year that we’ve had. We’ve had a great year. The talent that’s around and the ability that’s around to make the decision of whether to put two tires or four tires. Nobody has got better minds working on their cars and nobody’s got better drivers for our cars than we’ve got. It’s awesome and I’m just glad to hang with them. But, no, I’m not disappointed. I didn’t expect to win.”

GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – CAN YOU COMMENT ON WINNING THE MOST RACES THIS YEAR?

“It just says what kind of job Doug has done this year in getting these race cars prepared and the team. Bobby, Keith, our car chief – and all the guys working on the race car back at the shop. Our engine program. When they give me race cars like that, it’s hard not to win and when we don’t it’s because I made a mistake or we did something in the pits wrong – made the wrong two or four tire call. But when they give me race cars like that, I let one slip away last week and kind of winning this one even makes that one hurt even worse because I could have won the last two of the season. I can’t be more grateful than I am. I just wake up in the morning and it’s exciting every day that I get to drive these race cars that Doug’s put together. I’ve got so much confidence in my team, I never question one thing they do or decision they make – ever. You know the loose wheel, I wouldn’t ever consider taking the guy off of that duty – off of that job of changing that tire – because he’s very, very fast and we feel it was partly mechanical, a failure at the same time. So I’ve got a great team and that’s how I won six times this year.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE LAST LAP?

“Racing a veteran like Mark, he squeezed me up going down the backstretch pretty tight to the wall and he let off early getting into three and four to get back to the gas early, and I kind of drove it down in there a little bit further and got back to the gas as soon as I thought I wasn’t gonna push up and get in the fence. And then we started down the frontstretch, and I was pretty tight to the wall there and Mark was just trying to squeeze me out of room. It was pretty incredible to race a guy like that for the win – Mark, a veteran like that – it was pretty neat. I’ve never raced Mark for a win like that. I raced Mark hard at Kansas and finished second to him there and couldn’t chase him down. Another thing I want to comment on is this is the last race being able to race with Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd. I watched those guys many years before I ever started driving in the Truck Series and they’re icons in our sport. I’m gonna miss racing with those guys next year.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – WHAT ABOUT CARL’S YEAR?

“I have to think about my words here because I don’t want to make anybody mad. We’ve got everybody that drives these Roush Racing cars do a super job, but given the fact that we don’t have another young driver that started in this decade, I’m gonna say that Carl Edwards – I predict – is the driver of the decade for not only Roush Racing but for all of Nextel Cup racing. I can’t imagine anybody coming into the business in their first full year and being able to win four times, and won in the Busch car for the first time this year. He finished tied for second in points. There are a lot of things about Carl. First of all, he’s a really great person and he’s the kind of young man that if you thought about having another son, you’d love to have him be your son, and if you had a daughter, you’d like to have your daughter bring home a young man like Carl to be your son-in-law. But, anyway, anybody would love to have Carl be in their family because he’s such great people. Aside from having a father who raced and told him about racing and a mother that taught him about life, Carl also has got a willingness to accept advice, which a lot of young people don’t have, advice on what he might do and what his risks and what his hazards are. Carl has learned immensely from Greg, from Mark, from Kurt, from Matt. Anybody that is around him that is working with the same kind of equipment that offers honest, wholesome advice for him, he’s gonna take it. Of course, he sits down and watches all the races numerous times before he goes and sees who won and sees what strategies were working. He’s got a great crew chief, but the main thing is that he assimilates information. He doesn’t have to make all these rookie mistakes that you see rookies make and the ones before made. He’s not doing all of that. Mark and the guys have been willing to talk to him. He’s asked the right questions. Six o’clock in the morning he’s in the shop doing his calisthenics, doing his workout things. We’ve got a gym in the shop and he puts in a full day. If he’s not doing appearances every day of the week when he’s not at the race track, so he works hard. He’s gonna run the two program again next year, so he’s accumulating laps as fast as he can. Anybody that Carl trusts can talk to Carl and he’ll learn from it. That’s one of the reasons he’s as good as he is going forward.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – THOUGHTS ON THE LAST LAP

“I thought that I was gonna see one of my prophecies unfold in front of my eyes. I’ve been talking about two of our guys rolling themselves up in a ball coming off turn four, and I saw a worse scenario than that. I saw Greg and Mark getting tangled up and, of course, Matt and Carl getting tangled up behind them. So I thought there might be four of them not make it to the start-finish line. That was the horror that was in my mind.”

DOUG RICHERT, Crew Chief – WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT GREG TAKING THIS NEXT STEP FORWARD?

“The biggest thing is we’ve communicated even more from what we learned last year. We were able to take that momentum into this year. A lot of our setups that we ended up with last year was stuff that we started with at the beginning of this year. We made some body changes with the new spoiler rule we were dealt and I said it at the of last year that if you took an inch of spoiler off the back of the car that all it was gonna do was make him even better because he does have a natural tolerance to maybe a looser condition. He can tolerate it much longer and much easier than a lot of these other guys that are out there. So as far as progressing along, the calls and stuff Greg makes as far as in practice to make changes to the car with springs and shocks and as we try to take the next step further, it’s just clicking for us. That’s where the biggest progression has come.”

GREG BIFFLE CONTINUED – WAS THE LAST DEBRIS CAUTION LEGIT?

“You know, I honestly don’t know. I didn’t see anything, but then the lap that we were gonna pit – coming off turn four down just about two cars off the bottom – it looked like red sheetmetal. I saw it get thrown up in the air and I just barely missed it. Then we put right-side only tires on, so I was concerned whether I had run over something with my left sides. Of course, I never saw if they picked it up or not, or if that’s what the caution was for because I came around – I went down pit road and it’s five minutes before I’m back over there. If it’s laying on the track, I probably wouldn’t see it. But somebody had run it over, so there was something out on the race track laying there. Other than that, I didn’t see anything else. A lot of times when there’s debris or something like that, a lot of times we think it’s bogus because we don’t ever see it. Then they tell us where it’s at and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, there it is.’ So a lot of times we’re looking just right where we’re looking. A lot of times we don’t see it, they’ve picked it up before we get there, but I did see something coming off turn four over there.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – DOES FINISHING 1-4 IN THE RACE AND 2-4 IN THE CHASE BOLSTER YOUR ARGUMENT WITH NASCAR ABOUT CAPPING CARS?

“If they’ll have an open forum and consider all the points of view – both the competitive and the business reasonably – I think it actually plays both ways. It’s clear that the people who bought tickets today saw great cars that were well driven by teams that were very professional in the way they prepared the cars. If you want to talk about sponsors, we had great sponsors that got their money’s worth that were involved with all my programs. Of course, they’re committed and anxious to go forward. The investment that I made, I think, showed itself. I made a big point of saying that the business of running these race teams is not like coining money. I’ve got a lot of debt. I’m leveraged as much or more proportionally as the race tracks are for what they’re doing, so we’ve invested wisely and we’ve worked effectively and everybody that’s involved with us is getting a return on their investment that makes sense. That’s part of the American economy and that’s part of the reason democracy and capitalism in this country works the way that it does. I hope it’s an example to the other owners and the other investors of what they need to do in terms of staying in there and developing their young men, and both the people that work on the cars and the people that drive the cars, and make investments in them so they can go forward down the road. We are not in a position where somebody as they could once break out a big checkbook and come in and hire the best driver, and hire the best technology and go do this. You have to build it. And what I’ve done is I’ve built great technology that I’m willing to share with the likes of Tim Brown and other people that want to come in the same as Rick Hendrick is. I think the same as the organizations that ISC and SMI have, and the other people that own race tracks, are very professionally done. I think we set a standard for how to run these race teams right now.”

BIFFLE SCORES EIGHTH RUNNER-UP FINISH IN FORD 300
Ford Racing: News
November 19, 2005

Homestead, Fla. — Greg Biffle, who this year has one Busch Series victory and eight runner-up finishes, fell victim to a late race restart after a caution tightened up the field.

On the final restart, Biffle appeared to have the advantage, but a calculating Ryan Newman passed Biffle on the high side and raced past the No.66 Royal Office Products Ford and into the lead. Newman held off the charging Biffle for the final two laps, winning by three car-lengths.

Mark Martin, pulling triple duty in Truck, Busch and Cup races, had another good run in the No. 9 Pennzoil Platinum Ford with a third place finish.

Ryan Newman won the race and Martin Truex Jr. scored his second consecutive NASCAR Busch Series Championship.

GREG BIFFLE-66-ROYAL OFFICE PRODUCTS FORD TAURUS (FINISHED 2ND)

DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A CHANCE TO HOLD OFF NEWMAN BEFORE THAT LAST RESTART?

"His car runs really good off the caution and they really get going well, especially in that Busch car. We always see that, and I knew that he would probably pass me down there in turn one. I drove down in there and just lifted on the throttle a little bit, stuck the nose and held it to the floor all the way around, and he just drove past us like we had a parachute out the back. A couple of laps and these cars start sliding around and we can beat him, but on those short runs, we just can't run with him."

GREG BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE

"It was unfortunate for the Royal Office car to see that caution. We had probably one of the fastest cars all night and the car ran really well. Man, I hardly made any adjustments to it. We were just kind of conservative at the beginning and I kept finding my line around the race track and would move up and move down, and found some stuff that would really, really work well. Ryan's car is just really fast off of the start. Once those guys get to where they can't use the whole motor and can't run their cars as hard as can be, the way I can drive my race car, I can beat him on the long run. But, that short run, when it gets bunched up and they've got cold tires, their cars are faster. They were faster here, and he was faster at Michigan on the short run; he beat us really bad there. It's tough to lose them like that. I figured that I probably wouldn't beat him when the caution came out just because of how strong his car is and the way his car gets around the corner on the start. We saw it all night, and we've really seen it every Busch race he runs. He qualifies fast and he runs really fast off of the green flag. We see him pass three or four cars, go up to the top, cut across the bottom right in the middle of the corner, just dicing through traffic. Then, 10 laps later his car just starts backing up, or 20 or 15. So, I knew he was going to be right there. I just drove in the middle of the race track down there and figured if he was going to have a tough going around the bottom and a tough time going around the top, he'd have to choose what he wanted to do, and I just ran the middle because that's about where my car was fastest. I think one more lap and I could have passed him."

"It was. I saw him (Truex) at the front of the pack - the tail end of the lead lap - and then he got a lucky break, which I didn't get at Texas. He got a smoker or something and got the caution and got back around, and a short while later he was back in the top five. Those guys are smart racers. They do a good job, and Martin is a good driver. To elaborate, Clint Bowyer, I'm very impressed with his car control as well. Both of those guys do a great job, and I'm glad it came down to the last race like this and they were both racing for it."

"It really is. It's kind of incredible to finish second that many times. We've had a great race car at a lot of these races. I would have to say, probably four of those second-place finishes, we had the fastest race car and it was just circumstances that we didn't win it at the end. Here, the caution came out and Ryan was able to get around us. A couple of other places, I remember when that pit stop, when the 21 won a few weeks ago, Ryan was really fast and got a lap down, Kasey Kahne was really fast and crashed, and they kind of handed it to us on a silver platter. And, we had a problem in the pits and came out third and couldn't quite get back to the front and finished second. A lot of those, we looked like the car to beat right up until the end and then something small happened. If something big happened, of course, we wouldn't be finishing second. Everything has to be so perfect to win these races in the Busch Series, and the Nextel Cup Series. They're very difficult to win and there's a lot of competition."

"I think it's really good for the top 15 drivers in the Busch Series. It's really good for them to race around us. You would not believe how much David Stremme has learned this season. I have raced around him a lot and he was a weapon two years ago. You could never tell where he was going, and the same with six of those guys tonight; they're dangerous. The 38 car, I wrecked him at Richmond because we were coming down the frontstretch and getting ready to go into the corner, and he was in the middle of race track and I wasn't sure where to go, and he just stopped. He just lifted on the gas and I drove right into the back of him, and it almost happened again - same car, different driver - going into the corner here tonight. They look in the mirror and see the car is six inches behind you, so let's just hit the brakes and see what happens. I was all over the brake pedal trying not to hit him. I'm completely sideways and I get out from behind him and I'm in the grass, and I'm like, 'Oh God, I'm going to wreck,' and just saved it. But, David Stremme, and I believe it's from racing around guys like myself, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, he has learned a tremendous amount about car control. When there's a faster guy behind him and it's early in the race, he moves over and lets the guy go. He's learned a lot of how to race, and that's going to go a long ways. Those guys need to learn those things when they move into the Cup Series. There's a couple of guys that are going to be racing Cup next year, and there's a lot of guys that won't put up with them being in the way for a long, long time."

"It's just everything. It takes so much to win a championship. A few times this year he tried to give it away. They had some bad luck, and they made some mistakes, but they recovered from it. Clint Bowyer, give him another year and he'd been a tough customer. At the beginning of the season he didn't have a lot of experience and he made a fair amount of mistakes and got used to the race cars and started wining races. If he'd started out like that, Truex would have been in big trouble. They have a great race team, and DEI builds great race cars and great engines, and Truex has proved that he has the mental capabilities to keep level-headed inside the race car and deal with all of the situations as best as possible."

"They've (Newman) got something figured out with their cars that is making them stick to race track very, very good. They've got them down on the race track, and the car platform is really solid and doesn't move around a lot. I can tell you one thing, they're making a lot of power; I can promise you that. I hate to bring it up, but we saw it at Michigan on the chassis dyno. They're beating everybody, so that makes a little difference, and it's all the small things that add up. I think these cars favor his driving style. They drive, not sideways, but yawed out a little bit like a dirt car and they're forgiving because they have a big spoiler on them. The Cup cars don't have that kind of grip, and you can abuse them a little bit. You can kind of horse them around, and that favors Ryan's driving style. Penske is a great organization, a great team. They've got a phenomenal building and engineers, and they can build great equipment. They've got the best-of-the best equipment, and Ryan is a great driver, and you put that combination together and it's going to be really hard to beat."

MARK MARTIN-9-PENNZOIL PLATINUM FORD TAURUS (FINISHED 3RD)

"I want to thank the Pennzoil team for such a great job. It was a fast car in qualifying, fast in practice, fast on pit road and fast on the race track. Those other two guys could just roll the corner just a little bit faster than I could, but it wasn't a balance issue, so it wasn't something we could adjust for."

HOW DID THE TRACK CONDITIONS CHANGE AS THE SUN SET?

"It didn't change."

MARK MARTIN PRESS CONFERENCE

"The Pennzoil team unloaded fast. We didn't practice very much, we qualified fast, we were fast on the race track and fast on pit road. We really didn't have a balance issue. The car really worked well, and the balance was nice. I was able to run low or high, those other two guys just managed to roll the corner just a little bit better. There were a couple of long runs where we caught them, where they got away and we caught back up. Our car was a little bit better on some of the long runs, but when it came down to it, we just couldn't roll the corner quite as good."

"Most of the time I'm more thinking about how I can get up there and run with these guys, or chasing those guys - Truex and Bowyer. Honestly, this sport is in great hands. Bowyer has been phenomenal, and I think everybody has known for a while that Truex is phenomenal. Martin really proved himself to me. I don't know how many people actually watch IROC, but to me Martin really proved himself this year. Not just at Atlanta, all the way. He went into Atlanta with a good solid points position, and that's one of the ways that I judge people - the guys that get into IROC and what they're able to do with it. He's a solid guy and Bowyer is too; the sport is in good hands."

"It can be body/aero. It can be shock. It can be spring or attitude. It could even be just as much as a little bit of camber. We were pretty conservative this weekend with all of our cars, and who knows? It's just a little bit, a little bit of grip, and it's something you can't adjust for."

JON WOOD-47-CLOROX/WISK FORD TAURUS (FINISHED 6TH)

"This race reminded me of the race I won in Kansas. We would have lapped the field if I would have not had to go to the back some many different times. As for tonight, we could have easily had a top-five finish, but when there was a wreck in front of me, I went low to miss that and messed my fender up on the apron. Then I had radio trouble and didn't pit one time. Other than that, we had a good car."

IS THIS THE WAY YOU WANTED TO END THE SEASON?

"We're running a lot better now than we were at the middle of the year. It's also good to finish a year out on a positive not."

COULD YOU USE THE ENTIRE RACE TRACK TO RACE TONIGHT?

"Sometimes the top would work, and sometimes the bottom would work. My car, there wasn't any particular place it wanted to be."

DAVID GREEN-27-KLEENEX FORD TAURUS (FINISHED 9TH)

YOU USED PIT STRATEGY TO GAIN TRACK POSITION AND IT SEEMED TO PAY OFF TONIGHT.

"I misunderstood Stewart (Cooper, crew chief). We used a set of tires in practice yesterday, and I thought by saving a set we would have a set up on them, but that wasn't the case. A lot of times this year we've done a gas only and it's been terrible, but for once it wasn't bad. We just thought that track position and clean air was key because every time I put new tires on, other than the original at the start of the race, the car wasn't as good. The tires weren't matched up properly and it was loose, loose, loose. I'm proud of these guys. We were still kind of the underdogs on this deal and you see all the Cup guys up there on the leader board and we're up there with them now. I'm proud of these guys, and I'm proud of Stewart, a first time crew chief. Nobody gave us a prayer all year, and with Ford's help we were able to get to victory lane."

COULD YOU USE THE ENTIRE RACE TRACK TO RACE TONIGHT?

"This race track is by far the best track that I've seen in a long, long time and maybe Humpy can watch what happened and make that track like this one."

CARL EDWARDS-60-CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS FORD TAURUS (FINISHED 19TH)

"I slid into the wall trying to make something happen late in the race and that hurt us. It was my fault. We had a pretty decent car on a real long run. It was terrible on the short run, and I should have just waited a little bit longer. I was just trying too hard too early. Either way we would have been top six."

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FOR TOMORROW?

"I learned a lot of stuff. This is extremely valuable and we learned a bunch and I think that's really going to pay off tomorrow. We learned about the track and the tires."

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

"I think to define a successful race is by how well I perform and whether I make mistakes, and I made a pretty big mistake tonight, so I'm a little bit disappointed in my performance. I apologize for not being in the best of moods, and that's just very frustrating. My guys work too hard for me to run into the wall there. I did have a blast there. After a while the line and the groove started turning into a real high line and it was a bunch of fun. I've got to say congratulations to Martin Truex. That's a huge accomplishment. His first two full seasons in the Busch Series and to win two championships; that's awesome."

"Running that Cup car last year was really the first time I drove a stock car, a full size stock car on pavement. Any experience I can get in a stock car is good experience, so running both series has really been a great opportunity for me and I really appreciate the opportunity that Charter has given me. This is a dream come true to get to run all of these races. It's just kind of sad in a way that it's all over. I'd like to go race again next weekend. It's going to be a long winter; I'm ready to go to Daytona again."

"They (Truex) just didn't have the bad days. We missed that one race at Nashville, and just had some bad days. On average, Brad Parrott and I went through the whole season and looked at our finishes - finish for finish - and the ones that got us were those 39ths and 40ths and the finishes where we had wrecks. We will not do that next year; we're going to be really tough to beat next year. We're going to be on our worst days, we're going to be better at making the most of our bad days instead of falling apart on our days when we're running 15th. That's what I think Martin does a great job at. He's always there and he's a true champion."

MATT KENSETH-17-WASTE MANAGEMENT FORD TAURUS (FINISHED 26TH)

YOU HAD A SOLID RUN GOING. WHAT PUT YOU BEHIND THE WALL?

"We didn't have a bad car, we just broke a valve or something like that. We couldn't run with the leaders, but once we got our track position and a couple of other adjustments, I think we could have been a top-five car. It wasn't great, but it was going to be OK."

ASHTON LEWIS, JR.-25-TEAM MARINES FORD TAURUS (FINISHED 43RD)

WHAT HAPPENED?

"I was on the outside of the 5 car and I think he just got loose and took us both out. I had raced Mike Wallace like that for a long time and gave him enough room, and he knew had to drive it. It's just when you have inexperienced people out there, you try to give them all of the room in the world and it's still not enough. It's just frustrating. The way our way has been, it's probably the way it should have ended up. It's a tough deal, and we'll go back and make sure we build faster race cars so we're not back there racing those people."

ROOKIE KLUEVER, VETERAN MARTIN TOP FORD TRUCKS AT HOMESTEAD
Ford Racing: News
November 19, 2005

Homestead, Fla. — Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year winner Todd Kluever was the top finishing Ford driver, earning a 7th place finish in the rain delayed Ford 200. Kluver lost track position after several pit stops and struggled to retake positions on the 1.5 mile oval.

Mark Martin made his first Craftsman Truck Series start in nine years at Homestead. Martin will be pulling triple duty this weekend as he runs the Truck, Busch and Cup races. Martin ran in the top-10 the majority of the race but stuggled with passing trucks due to his lack of experience with the unique aerodynamic push the trucks experience in traffic. Martin finished behind teammate Kluever in eighth place.

Todd Bodine won the race and Craftsman Truck Series veteran Ted Musgrave beat Dennis Setzer for the series title.

TODD KLUEVER-50-WORLD FINANCIAL GROUP FORD F-150 (FINISHED 7TH)

"We had a really good World Financial Group Ford F-150. We were just off today in the pits unfortunately. My guys are normally really good and I'm not going to hold it against them. We gave up a lot of track position there, though. We did have a really good truck, something that would have been top five for sure, and maybe even fast enough to run with the leaders. I was driving my heart out trying to win for these guys, and they gave me a really good truck, and that's all I can ask for. It's one of the better trucks that I've had all year. It was, all in all, a good day for us, even though we didn't get the finish to show for it. We just needed to keep our track position. We started out eighth or ninth, I think, and then we pitted and were 13th or 14th on the restart and worked our way all the way back up to seventh or eight, and then fell back to 10th or 11th again on the next restart. It's unfortunate, but my guys have been really good all year, and I'm not going to hold it against them."

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED TO BE A NIGHT RACE. DID THE FACT THAT IT WAS RUN IN MORNING CAUSE ANY ISSUES FOR YOU SETUP-WISE?

"With practicing yesterday morning in the clouds, and it wasn't very hot out, it was probably very similar to what it would have been last night. We just kind of stayed with it, and fortunately it turned out we raced the same time we practiced. We were pretty good, just a little free to start, and then Mike Beam made some adjustments and they were really good. The truck really came alive the middle part of the race and it was really good the second half. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep our track position."

TODD KLUEVER RAYBESTOS ROOKIE-OF-THE-YEAR PRESS CONFERENCE

"Our season has really been up and down. The first 12 or so races, I had a different crew chief, a different engineer and a different truck chief, and for whatever reason we really didn't click. We ran in the top five a couple of times and we ran 25th a couple of times, too, so it was really inconsistent and really frustrating for me. Just before Kansas, Jack made a change, and me and Ricky swapped crews a little bit. I got Mike Beam as a crew chief, and Hal Rolston as an engineer and Steve McCain as a truck chief, and for whatever reason we've really clicked. The last half of the season has been really good. We're lacking a little bit as far as aerodynamics, I think, with the Ford program a little bit right now, but they're working on it. The trucks that I drove at the end of the season were a lot better than the stuff we were driving at the beginning of the season, and that's thanks to Mike Beam and Hal, especially for doing a lot of homework during the season. The second half was great, I just wish we could have started the season off the same way. I really feel like we gave the first half of the season away. I really didn't feel we started competing and racing until Kansas. Part of the thing the first year is learning, and you can't learn anything if you're running 15th or 20th. You have to be in the top five running with the guys that run up there very week. It's been a great second half, and an up-and-down first half, but the only disappointment that I have is that we didn't win a race."

"I guess I have to thank Jack Roush for the opportunities that I've had already. It's pretty amazing what he has done as far as developing people's careers in the Craftsman Truck Series. Having four people come through his organization that turn out to be Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year is pretty impressive, but I plan on running again for Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year in the Busch Series next year, and in 2007 I'll be back at it again, running for Raybestos Rookie-of-the Year in the Nextel Cup Series in the AAA Ford Fusion. I'm excited about the future. All of the Busch plans are not finalized exactly at this moment, but I'm excited about it. They tell that if I can manage to pull off rookie-of-the-year three years in the row that I'll be the first person to do it. Greg Biffle was the only other one, but I think Jaime beat him out in the Nextel Cup Series."

MARK MARTIN-33-STONEBRIDGE LIFE INSURANCE FORD F-150 (FINISHED 8TH)

"I had a lot of fun running the truck series again. I learned a lot. I knew I had a lot to learn because it's been so long, but that sure did show up there today. We kinda know what we need to work on next year and the next race maybe we'll improve on it. I certainly see where we can improve."

WITH THE CHANGE IN THE SCHEDULE THIS WEEKEND DUE TO WEATHER, WILL FATIGUE BE AN ISSUE FOR YOU?

"I don't think so. We've got a bunch of iron men here, and I don't think it will be a problem. I'm used to running 500 miles on Sunday and the truck and Busch races are shorter than that, so I don't see it being an issue."