From Ford Racing:
Canadian David Empringham and Tom Nastasi, co-drivers of the No. 5 Blackforest Motorsports Ford Mustang GT, won Friday’s Fresh From Florida 200 at Daytona International Speedway. Empringham took the lead with only a few laps remaining by squeezing on the inside of the No. 55 Hyper Sport Mustang GT. This is the second time in the last three seasons Tom Nastasi has put a Mustang in victory lane for the Grand American KONI Challenge season opening race.
David Empringham – 5 – USG Sheetrock/Ramset Tools Mustang GT -- IS THIS THE TYPE OF COMPETITION WE’RE GOING TO SEE ALL YEAR LONG? “I certainly think so, 106 cars and a lot of good teams and good drivers. It was quite a battle. Certainly it was a lot of fun for me racing with Tom and my good friend Scott Maxell. We share offices in Scott’s store and all week long we kind of joke about racing against each other and it came out today, it was quite a battle.”
DID THE NISSAN AND BMW BEING UP THERE AT THE END KIND OF SURPRISE YOU? “I certainly knew that Billy would be strong. Certainly the advantage goes to the Mustang on this track, and we need to take the advantage whenever we can get it. We go to short tracks and it flip-flops the other way, and Bill’s a tough car to beat. Here we had an advantage and we’ll take it and we had to fight against the other Mustangs.”
HOW ABOUT THE PASS FOR THE WIN? “I had a little bit of a run on Scott [Maxwell], and I knew the only way I could get him would be on the inside. So I just kind of hung out a little bit high on the outside of his quarter panel. As the banking finished, I dove to the inside and I think he knew that was happening and he was already on the white line and I could tell that he wasn’t going to give it up and I was going to go in the grass. It was a pretty tight squeeze and we both managed to make it through.
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR TOMORROW’S ROLEX RACE FOR TOMORROW? “For me, it’s a much different race. This is a sprint race and I’m in the No. 61 DP car and it’s going to be a whole different mentality. Keeping the car under you and trying not to make any mistakes and being easy on the car and hopefully just go round-and-round with the least amount of mistakes compared to the other competitors.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THOSE LAST LAPS IN THE END AND HOW YOU WERE ABLE TO PULL AWAY WITH THE HORSEPOWER? “They were strong, but I knew we had the advantage in the right places. I was more worried about Scott. I was struggling a little bit out of the east hairpin; I kind of burned up my left rear too much trying to get by a few people. One of the restarts and I was back a ways, I was getting anxious. We were really strong until we pitted early and everything looked really good, and I went out with a new set of tires and the tires had an imbalance and I decided to not gamble and come in and change tires a little bit later than I wanted to, so I fell behind Scott and Bill. So I knew it would be quite a challenge. I thought we had lots of time, I wasn’t too worried about it, and then there was such a long yellow it turned out to be a bit of a panic to get by those guys.”
SNIP...
Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster, co-drivers of the No. 55 Supercuts Hyper Sport Mustang, fought for the win until the very end of the race at Daytona International Speedway. The team ended up in second place after leading for a total of 17 laps of the season opening race for the KONI Challenge Series.
SCOTT MAXWELL – 55 -- TALK ABOUT FIGHTING IN THE LAST FEW LAPS WITH DAVID EMPRINGHAM. “Overall the race was great. We got second, I’m a little disappointed about that, but it was a great race. Especially with Bill and Dave at the end. I thought I had him where I wanted him; I thought I could get him on a pass if I kept him close enough. On the last laps, I couldn’t pull his draft. It was a fun race and a good battle and it’s always fun when it’s another Mustang and a guy you trust. We trust each other and gave each other a lot of room. The car was great all day.”
HOW DID LAPPED TRAFFIC PLAY IN WITH THE CAUTIONS? “With the cautions now, it kind of gives you clear track. My car was pretty good in traffic; I didn’t really have any issues with the traffic. I was just hoping that it was going to stay green. I thought we had it and then we had a couple yellows and just couldn’t get back up there.”
JOE FOSTER – 55 --WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND DURING THOSE LAST LAPS? “It was exciting. To be honest, before we got to that point, we had already had a great weekend. It was great overall for the team. Scott and Dave are old sparing partners and share an office in Toronto so Scott said he wasn’t going to let him by. I figured it was going to probably come down to the two of them anyways. My job was to hand off the car and serve him up an opportunity to win and all we can do is to get him in the position to take the win. We did everything we should have done to win. It just didn’t roll out that way. It was a good weekend and we’re in it for the long run and to win a championship. It was great for Hyper Sport and Supercuts. This year we have a real live commercial sponsor, which in this series is rare. We want to make sure that we give them good enough bang for the buck, which I think we did.”
HOW WAS THE TRAFFIC? “Traffic was crazy as usual. We’re always managing brakes because of that, a little bit of transmission managing too. I was kind of surprised to be able to lead, as I was racing to pace and almost a level of abuse to the car. It was fun racing with Tom [Nastasi], he’s a great guy.”
DID THE CAUTIONS HURT ON FUEL STRATEGY? “Yes, it was difficult. We took a gamble on fuel strategy, which we needed a caution for, and we got that caution. We then got anther caution that we didn’t want because Scott had a better car. In the end, the restarts did kill us a bit and wish we could have pulled away a little earlier.”
SNIP
After taking over his No. 4 Blackforest Motorsports Mustang GT from co-driver, Valerie Limoges, Alex Tagliani, brought his car into the garage with engine problems. During Limoges’ stint, she started losing power and the problem continued after Tagliani took over the car.
ALEX TAGLIANI -- 4 -- MUSTANG --(finished 83rd)“It’s unfortunate, because Valerie did a great job coming from 22nd and up to 10th. Once she started reporting that she had lost some power, she was starting to fall back. Then I jumped into the car and right away I felt that the engine did not have any power under the yellow and I called the pits and I told them that the engine didn’t feel like it had enough power that it needs to have. The Ford Mustang usually has a lot of power anyways, but at that point cars started passing us. I told them that I would do the best that I could and try to finish the race, unless there was a big major issue. I passed a few cars right away, and then all of a sudden, the engine started falling back and then it just started doing backfires and [having] a lot of weird noises and I just pulled it into the pit and it was just the engine. It’s unfortunate for Blackforest Motorsports because the car was performing and Valerie did such a good job and I think we could have had a podium today. When I jumped into the car, I was really comfortable. The team did a great job on the setup.”
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