As part of the continued "Racing for a Miracle" program, Marcos Ambrose, Richard Petty and the No 9 STANLEY team spent the morning unveiling their special Children's Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals) paint scheme for Saturday night’s race and donating $100,000 to CMN. If Ambrose and the No. 9 team win, STANLEY will donate $1 million to CMN through the Ace Hardware Foundation. If Ambrose and his Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) team finish second or third, STANLEY, through the Ace Hardware Foundation, will donate $500,000 and $250,000 respectively.  Ford Racing caught up with Ambrose, Aric Almirola and Petty to talk about the program, having Petty back and the track this weekend and Petty spoke about what it is like to be back to the track following the death of his wife Lynda.

RICHARD PETTY, owner, Richard Petty Motorsports – WHAT IS IT LIKE FOR YOU TO BE BACK? “I just felt like I needed to sort of had a little time on our own so I have been gone for two or three weeks but I am back in the saddle again now. I am just learning to live all over again.”

DO YOU THINK BEING AT THE TRACK WILL BE A GOOD DISTRACTION? “Yeah, doing the things we were supposed to do the last few weeks have been put off so starting Monday we were in Georgia and Tuesday we were in Tennessee and Wednesday in Wyoming and now here on Thursday. The busier they keep me the better off I will be.”

HOW ARE YOU DOING? “I am surviving. It is going to be different I guess. After 55 years I have to start all over again. I was fortunate that all the kids came home for Easter. We had all the kids and grandkids home and that really made things work good.”

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE OUTPOURING YOU WILL RECEIVE AT THE TRACK TO BE LIKE? “It is great that so many people knew Lynda so well. Of course she had been around a long time too. She never met a stranger. Every once in awhile I would come in the house and see people I didn’t even know. She would invite them in the house to spend the night or whatever. Again, it is just going to be different.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A PART OF A CHARITY CAUSE LIKE THIS? TO GO THROUGH WHAT YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH AND NOW BE A PART OF THIS, HOW DOES IT ADD IMPACT TO YOU? “I think it kind of pacifies myself from the standpoint that we have troubles but a lot of other people have a lot of other trouble. Like with Victory Junction Gang camp and other stuff that we do, we were so fortunate. I had 4 kids and 12 grandkids and every one of them was perfectly healthy. And you look at all the people that are not that way. From that standpoint you just want to give back I guess.”

HOW CLOSE DID YOU FOLLOW RACING WHILE YOU WERE GONE? “They kept me informed. They called everyday about what was going on and I watched some of it on TV. It was still not the same as being there though.”

RICHARD PETTY CONTINUED … WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE GONE FROM THE TRACK FOR SO LONG? “I have never been gone that long. Never. I have never missed two or three races in a row. Maybe one from time to time but never more than that. It is a different situation. I just have to learn to live with it.”

MARCOS AMBROSE, No 9. STANLEY/ACE/CMN Ford Fusion – YOU HAVE SCORED THE MOST POINTS IN SHORT TRACK RACES SO FAR THIS SEASON. “I didn’t know that. That is pretty cool. This track races differently because it has an aerodynamic affect to it. We are hoping our short track program will cross over to here but we know it will be slightly different with the configuration of the track. We have a lot of races to win this weekend. We have Richard Petty back and it is great to have him back at the track. We have a chance to win a million bucks for the sick kids in the Children’s Hospitals and we have a chance to make the Chase and a chance to win my first oval race. I guess it is all stacked up to be a lot of reasons to win and we know it. We have brought a really good package here with a car that we know has run well here in the 2014 season so we are looking forward to it.”

YOU HAD TWO TOP-FIVES AT THE OTHER SHORT TRACKS. HOW MUCH CARRIES OVER? “I think that some of it crosses over but this track is a short track race but it kind of drives like an intermediate. I think that we are going to have to be slightly different with our setup and our aero which has been a problem for us a little bit on the intermediates so far. That will come into play a little bit. We have to be ready for that.”

RICHARD SAID HE HASN’T EVER BEEN AWAY FROM THE TRACK THIS LONG. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU GUYS TO HAVE HIM BACK? “Well, he is here this morning with us and is smiling and enjoying being here and that is what it is about right? Richard is a legend. He has done so much for our sport and it is great to have him back and see him smiling again. We love having him at the track and hope he will be with us at all the races from here on in. It has been a tough couple of months for the Petty family and our thoughts have been with him although we haven’t been seeing him.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 43 Smithfield Ford Fusion – WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU TO HAVE THE KING BACK THIS WEEKEND? “It is going to be really important. He is our leader and the face of our race team. To have him back and have him back on top of the trailer and in the garage with us will be big. It is big for me as a driver but really big for our entire race team to have his presence back is going to be huge.”

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 #FordAlwaysRacing Fusion, met with members of the media at Richmond following the final Sprint Cup practice session Friday afternoon. Edwards spoke about the weekend ahead and more.

CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 #FordAlwaysRacing Fusion – TALK ABOUT THIS UPCOMING WEEKEND. “We couldn’t come to a better track as far as I am concerned. We have had great luck here lately and with the pressure off for us, this is really just a fun Saturday night race. This is great. I am proud to have #FordAlwaysRacing on the car. The website, fordalwaysracing.com should have some interesting footage of us wrecking some little Ford cars which was fun. Ambrose is a maniac. Aric isn’t far behind and Ricky Stenhouse is definitely a cheater, as far as go-kart racing goes. We tore some stuff up and had a good time. I don’t know when that video will be up but it was probably pretty expensive considering all the cameras we broke. It is a pretty cool sponsor to have on the car this weekend.”

YOU TOLD THE CREW YOU HAD SOMETHING YOU COULD WORK WITH OUT THERE. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CONDITIONS ARE AND IF IT RAINS WILL IT CHANGE THE WHOLE BALLGAME TOMORROW? “Well, the rain is coming and if it does in fact rain like it looks like it is going to, it will change the track a lot. Then we have two races, the second of which is on different rubber than we will race on Saturday night. I think the first 100 laps of the race are going to be very tough and be a little treacherous and when I told my crew that, I was putting together how things went the whole day and I feel we have a piece that will be good for the second half of the race. This place is so hard to predict what your car will do at the end. It has taken me 10 years to figure out how I want my car in practice so that it is good in the race. I feel pretty good about it.”

DID YOU SEE STEVE O’DONNEL’S COMMENTS FROM IOWA YESTERDAY AND YOUR REACTION TO REDUCED HORSEPOWER COMING AND THAT AERO AND TIRES ARE ALSO ON THE TABLE AT THIS POINT? “I could not be more excited that they are considering the whole package. When I first heard the horsepower change, I thought, ‘Oh man, this is not going to be good’. But to read the comments and see the word aerodynamics in there – you guys know how I feel about that. I have worn them out. They roll their eyes when I start talking about less downforce but I really believe it doesn’t matter if we have 500 horsepower if we don’t have aerodynamic influence it allows Goodyear to build softer tires and make the racing more dynamic. There would be guys with old tires, worn out tires and you could race closer. I feel like if they approach it the way they say they are going to, it is going to be great. Anything that makes it cheaper to run in the series makes it more competitive and if you take the aero part out of it will make better racing and lets Goodyear work on the tires more. As a package, I am really excited about it.”

CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED … YOU HAVE A WIN BUT OVERALL ROUSH SEEMS TO BE STRUGGLING A BIT THIS YEAR. DO YOU FEEL YOU GUYS ARE MAKING STRIDES IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION? HOW MUCH FURTHER DO YOU NEED TO GO? “Well, unlike that guy, I think we have it out of reverse and are in a forward gear now which is important. That is the key. This sport – what happens from my perspective is this sport moves forward so quickly. You have to move forward at that rate or great. At Roush Fenway we picked up our superspeedway program and our short track program but the 1.5 mile program which has been our bread and butter for a long time that has not been very good. We have been working very hard on it. For us to have a legitimate shot at this championship we have to fix that and everyone is working as hard as they can. There is a lot of things on the table and if any of them proved to be helpful it will only be better for us. As a group we are working as hard as we can. I believe we have a really good shot at winning this race here and we are fast at Phoenix and even were fast at Martinsville. We will probably be good at Dover too. We just have to be better at the 1.5 mile tracks.”

LOOKING AHEAD TO TALLADEGA, WHAT WILL THAT BE LIKE WITH QUALIFYING? “If I weren’t in it, I would be tuned in to watch because it will be entertainment. We were talking about it today. The only time we have had to do that at Talladega was last year I believe and we knew it was going to rain qualifying out so everyone was trying to post the fastest time and it was insanity. We ended up on the pole, which was great, but we almost wrecked the race car. Jimmy and I were talking about that and thought we had to do this and that but then he pointed out the fact that we will have three rounds of it. I have a feeling that it might be more dangerous than the race from a tearing the race cars up standpoint. I really don’t know what to expect. I am glad we are in the position we are in with points and we have a win already because it is going to be interesting.”

IF YOU ARE IN THE TOP-10 WITH 10 LAPS TO GO TOMORROW NIGHT, HOW DOES THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE A WIN CHANGE HOW YOU MIGHT RUN THOSE LAST 10 LAPS? “It isn’t just the fact that we have a win, I think the big point is that a win will be so important. For us, yeah we have a win so we won’t have a lot to lose. We could lose a bunch of points but if we are in the top-10 with 10 to go, sometimes you can’t do anything. Sometimes you race your guts out and can’t do anything. What will end up happening is you will probably get a caution, especially as you build toward the 26^th race, there will be a lot of guys staying out and crazy things on restarts. If we are 10^th, that doesn’t mean much to us at this point. We want to go for it to get another win. We will take a bigger risk and I think a lot of people will do that. That is the mindset in the garage and it is getting bigger and bigger. As we get farther along in this – that is why I believe there will be more than 16 winners. There will be 18 or 19 winners because there will always be that group of guys willing to take a chance that on a given day don’t really have a shot to win.”

YOU SAY THIS IS FUN. AS WE GET CLOSER TO THE CHASE AND THERE ARE A BUNCH OF WINNERS, WILL IT BE FUN MAYHEM? “There could be some interesting scenarios where you have three or four guys on the final restart at a place and we all have wins and feel we are in the Chase and it could turn out a lot like Ambrose, Almirola and I in the Ford Flyers in the Ford video I was talking about. I will tell you what is neat and I gotta give Brian France and the guys credit because I was pretty vocal about my concerns with this format, but right now I am having so much fun coming to the race track. This is a fun race. A lot of times we have been so focused on points and qualifying up front and in the past we haven’t had as much fun as I am having right now. That is the long way of answering your question but I think it could get pretty exciting with interesting stuff as we get closer and people have nothing to lose.”

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS (*Order set by rulebook due to rain)
2^nd       Brad Keselowski
11^th     Marcos Ambrose
15^th     Aric Almirola
16^th     Carl Edwards
17^th     Joey Logano
26^th     Greg Biffle
29^th     Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
33^rd     David Gilliland
37^th     David Ragan

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion / QUALIFIED 2^nd
TALK ABOUT THE PRACTICE SESSION AND QUALIFYING BEING CANCELED TODAY. “We have been keeping the trend up here of starting up toward the front and that is something I am really happy about. Pit road selection is important with that. Always here it is a track position battle but probably more so than ever here this weekend. We did some runs and felt like being in traffic would slow our car down tremendously. Starting up front hopefully we can just avoid it the entire race. The Penske cars have been very strong all season and I am proud of that. My teammate is especially strong this weekend and I think he will be one of the guys to beat. Hopefully we can get right there with him and get a solid race and a win. Richmond hasn’t always been the best race track for us so we would like to get the great finish we have been capable of and just haven’t put all the way together. We would still like to qualify and have a shot at the pole but we foresaw this coming and put a little extra emphasis in the practice sessions to get a good run out of it and a good spot and I am glad to see that kind of panned out for us.”

SINCE YOUR DREAM SCHEDULE BLOG POST HAS CREATED A LOT OF TALK. YOU SAID YOU CAN’T GET EVERYTHING YOU HOPED FOR, BUT WHAT KIND OF REACTION ARE YOU GETTING? “You can never expect to get everything you want in anything. In some cases you just hope to get something. I think it is just a great topic that is healthy for our sport to always have a discussion ongoing, whether or not we all agree which is going to be very seldom, few and far between when we can find things where everyone in the sports agrees upon. When I look at my role as an ambassador of the sport, it is one that I take very seriously. Being a part of that dialogue and attempt to always better the sport is one of the things that I would like to play a role in if possible. Certainly I don’t have all the answers or pretend to have all the answers. You start with what you think and how you feel and I am glad to share those things with our fans. I don’t really see anyone else out there doing that. It kind of puts me in a unique spot and I like to have fun with that and I think our fans do to.”

 HAS THERE BEEN ANY REACTION TO IT THAT CHANGED YOUR THINKING? “There are always better ideas. It is hard to think of one specific off the top of my head. I didn’t come in here with a list, sorry. I am sure there are always better ideas and I don’t pretend to know everything, I just have fun with it.”

YOU DESCRIBED YOURSELF AS AN AMBASSADOR OF THE SPORT. IS THAT EVERY DRIVERS JOB OR JUST THE MORE THOUGHTFUL GUYS’ JOB? “I think every driver is an ambassador of the sport without a doubt, just some have a louder voice. Winning races, running up front, those types of things give you a louder voice. Each individual has a responsibility to pick how they want to carry it from there. I am privileged, very privileged and it is something not lost upon me that with winning a championship sometimes that voice gets louder and heard in different areas than perhaps I would even think it would have been. That is a tremendous opportunity to help out. I am glad to do that.”

LOOKING AHEAD A WEEK, WITH THE FORMAT OF WINNING TO GET IN, THIS TALLADEGA RACE COULD BE ONE THAT AN UNDERDOG GOES FOR AND WINS. DO YOU VIEW TALLADEGA AS A LOTTERY BALL, ANYONE CAN WIN TYPE OF RACE? “I don’t know if I really see any favorites. It is hard because this new car has really changed the game in a lot of different ways. I think it made plate racing better. I think this year it has been better racing than last year. All we have is Daytona to sample from but we had the Unlimited, Duels and the 500. I felt like the racing got better in the sense that last year at Talladega we saw it get single-file against the wall and nobody could make a move and we saw that a little at Daytona as well. That seems to not be the case with this package. I am not 100% sure of that though. It is hard to give you a great answer for that. Talladega will always be a wild card in some sense because of how big and wide it is and the lack of handling. It has always been that way for some reason. Obviously I got my first win there in kind of a wild card fashion. At the end of the day, I feel like the person that wins there deserves it and made a great move. I don’t think of it as a lottery. I never feel that way about it. I always feel like the person that wins there made a great move to make it happen and in that sense there are 25 or 30 drivers that are very skilled and talented enough to pull that off. It is still a bit of a wild card in that sense because it isn’t what we are used to. We are used to it being maybe 15 or 20 drivers. Do you add another pool of five or 10 drivers and teams into the mix that are capable of winning, yeah, and I think that is great. With the new format, that can change everything, assuming that team can stay inside the top-30 because I don’t personally expect there to be more than 16 winners. That could be very significant.”

WITH YOUR BLOG, SOME OF THE FANS RESPONSE IS THAT YOUR BLOG HAS BEEN INSPIRATIONAL TO THEM. WAS THAT YOUR GOAL? WHAT KIND OF BENEFIT DO YOU GET FROM IT? IS IT LIKE A THERAPY? “I think you can look in this room and most the media would tell you that the sports world is evolving, at least in a media sense, and so it is a challenge to me to be able to put out great content for not just my fans but all of our sports fans. I understand some of the challenges that are within this room to get those messages out and it seems like specifics of this sport, those messages always seem to get stuck in some kind of PR front or branding front and that was always very frustrating to me personally. That was kind of a way for me to escape that and get out great content and also at the same time it is personally rewarding as a way to engage some people that I wouldn’t have been able to really reach before. I think it has had a further reach than I thought it would, which is great. Certainly in some ways it serves as therapy and way for me to talk and take a more measured step to not get in trouble like I used to all the time. That is good for me. It is certainly good for Roger (Penske) and I am having fun with it and am really thrilled there has been a response at all. I am happy and humbled by that.”

“I have a list of ideas, so I will be good for the next three or four weeks. It is hard to pick which one I want to use at any time and it seems like as I come out with different ones about three or four more hit me. I feed off of this group and hopefully this group feeds off of some of the work I do. I really think it is great for everybody. I am just having fun with it and rolling with it.”

NEXT WEEK IS THE 20^TH ANNIVERSARY OF (AYRTON) SENNA’S DEATH. DO YOU REMEMBER MUCH OF ANYTHING FROM THAT? “Yeah, for me personally it reminded me a lot of when Dale Earnhardt died in the sense of the kind of general mood and atmosphere within my own family’s household. My dad and brother used to wake up early and watch the Formula One races and I was only nine or 10 years old but I can remember my dad was a big Senna fan and I can remember that he was never really a loud cheerleader type but I can remember him being more so of that than anything else I have ever seen which was always unique to me. I just remember the somber tone in the household. My dad raced and so that brought up a lot of questions as a kid that I would ask my mom and dad. There was a sequence of untimely accidents at that time. I can remember that one and the death of this one driver – my dad raced in the ARCA series at the time and there was one driver I was a huge fan of outside of my dad and he had died I want to say a year earlier. I think he died in 93. His name was Chris Gehrke and I remember when he died my parents wouldn’t tell me. We were watching TV one night and one of those memorial pictures came up. I remember that and my parents rushing me off to go take a bath but I had already seen it. It was too late. That brought up a lot of questions when I was a kid and it was really hard for them to explain to me when I was eight, nine, 10 years old. Those are the memories I have.”

 DO YOU FEEL YOU WOULD HAVE WON A CHAMPIONSHIP WITH HENDRICK AS QUICKLY AS YOU DID WITH PENSKE? “I don’t know. I feel lucky to be where I am at. I feel lucky to be with Roger and very fortunate. It is a really tough question to answer because it is a fork in the road moment and obviously I didn’t go down that direction. I am not going to say I haven’t thought about it. Absolutely I have thought about it but part of me says I would have never met Paul (Wolfe) and would have never gotten the chance to work with him if it wasn’t for that. I definitely think I could have made a large contribution to where they are at but then again, somebody else would look across and say they have won two out of the four championships since that happened so what more could you have made for a contribution? I am not sure but I definitely feel like I could have helped out.”

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