YOU WON THE POLE LAST WEEK AT MICHIGAN AT OVER 200 MPH, TODAY YOU WIN THE POLE AT UNDER 100 MPH. YOU CAN DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING OUT THERE AT JUST ABOUT ANY SPEED. “Now that I have a taste for it I think Kentucky will be about 175 mph and I will be gunning for that as well. I am really thrilled for today. I put a lot of effort into this race and everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports and the whole Stanley team have been rock solid behind me for the road course program. Ford Racing has done a lot of hard work here too and we brought a brand new hot rod for this race and it is even better than what we had here last year. I am glad we could convert the effort into a great result. It is only one lap and we have to do a lot more on Sunday but at least we can go home and say we had the fastest car. I was more nervous running 90 mph than I was running 200. You just have to be really precise with your marks and very aggressive and carry momentum through these tight corners.”
RICHARD, TALK A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE UP HERE THE SECOND WEEK IN A ROW WITH MARCOS AND AT SUCH A DIFFERENT TRACK. RICHARD PETTY — “Well, winning this week was not as unexpected as what last week was. That, I tried to tell him and I didn’t want to put any pressure on him for when he did come out here. I guess everything went good. Anytime you can sit on the pole it is good but the big deal now is getting ready for the race. I think we won the race here with Richard Petty Motorsports a couple three years ago, so some of the guys know how to win here also. We have a driver we think that gave one of them away out here so it is time he got one back for us.”
TODD, YOUR FEELINGS AND WHAT THIS TEAM CAN DO HERE AT THIS COURSE THIS WEEKEND? TODD PARROTT — “Well, like Marcos said we have a great team here at RPM and we had a great test back the end of May and brought a brand new race car and a lot of hard work and effort went into it from a lot of people. The test went well and yesterday was a really big day for our team going out to the hospital and visiting all the kids there in Sacramento and I am glad we were able to deliver the pole for the kids to start the race on Sunday. That is really cool. I think what this man did today was incredible. I sat there on pit wall and watched the Sprint Vision and was in awe of that lap. It was just incredible. I have seen a lot of qualifying laps here but that was one of the smoothest, easiest looking laps I have ever seen. I am really proud of him.”
MARCOS AMBROSE CONTINUED — WHAT DOES IT DO FOR YOUR TEAM AND INTERACTING WITH THE CREW GUYS THIS SUCCESS? “It is great for morale. The guys on the team have been working double time and a half the last month. They have had no days off and working crazy hours just to turn over cars we need for all the testing and stuff we have going on. It is great to give it back to them. It is great to be able to say thank you for all the hard work. It is not often in your life when you get so many people putting so much effort into something you love to do. It is awesome as a drive to be a part of that.”
DID YOU WATCH JEFF (GORDON’S) QUALIFYING LAP? “It didn’t look that close to me (laughter). I was hiding underneath the truck. I didn’t want to watch. Jeff is such a talented road racer and I watched him back in Australia when he was winning all those races at Watkins Glen. He is one of the world’s best road racers and I knew he had a great car after the lap he put down in practice. I was very nervous to watch him go. I tried to act like a wombat and put my head on the ground and just wait.”
DO YOU FEEL THIS RACE TRACK OWES YOU ONE? “No, no it doesn’t. I beat myself up here in 2010. It was nothing to do with the car or the track, it was me. I have got to make amends for that if I can and with experience comes knowledge and I know what not to do on the last restart and we will go from there. I am excited to be given the opportunity to drive for RPM and be the Stanley driver this weekend. We have as good a chance as anyone to win the race and that is all you can ask.”
