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Sylvania 300 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes
"Well, we had the track record last year. We came back and the track just wasn't fast enough to break it. The guys at Penske Racing did an awesome job with this ALLTEL/Mobile 1 Dodge, and we'll just take it from there. We'll have to make it as good as we can for the race this weekend. (Since last year) I've definitely learned a lot, especially since our first win. I'd say I've learned as much as these guys on the team, and that makes a big difference this year. It's not about the track being good to me, it's about doing good on the track. The guys have done a great job, unloading as fast as we did and having good racecars. That's a good start, but these guys make the difference. We're just trying to hang on to it, and do the best we can."
"We had a really good Dodge since we unloaded off the truck. My first qualifying lap I didn't feel like it was as good as it should have been. To run that second lap after dropping off on my first lap I realized I had left a little bit on the table, so I was a little bit worried. That's about it. The balance of our Dodge was really awesome. I was a little bit worried in practice with (Earnhardt) Jr. running a .73-sec. lap. It seemed like everyone else was stuck in that next second bracket. We were a little worried there for awhile, but then we finally got our dialed in. We were able to almost duplicate our practice speed in qualifying.
"This is definitely a good track to be on the pole from the track position standpoint as well as pit selection. You know, at places like Michigan it's a little bit easier to pass on. You can go three or four-wide through the corners and draft down the straight-aways. It's not as important there, but it's always important to qualify out front. We continue to stress our Fridays on qualifying and then work the rest of the week on race trim. It's definitely a benefit to be able to start up front, there's no doubt.
"It means a lot to the entire team. To me, it's another dot on the resume. I just go out and do the best job I can, and where we end up is where we end up. I know the team does the best job that they can, and together we were able to put it on the pole.
"I guess the only thing disappointing about that first win was that it was shortened by rain. But at the same time it doesn't matter. We got the checkered flag when it counted. If we can come back here and lead the most laps and win on Sunday, that's great. We'll just take that going into next week. One lap, one second, one day or one hour at a time or whatever, that's how we approach what we do.
"If a guy goes out there and says that I've got the best equipment, then we might not have the best horsepower or we might be lacking a little bit in downforce, you're already selling yourself short. I truly feel that we have the best of everything. We go out there and we try to the best at everything we do. I've always said that I enjoy qualifying - that I get to go out there and attack the racetrack one-on-one. It's me versus the racetrack, and I don't have to worry about anything else there.
"I just go out there and do the best that I can. We've definitely experienced some of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows this year. No matter what you look at in life, whether it's the stock market, the temperature, your race career or your relationship with your significant other, it all goes up and down. You just try to maximize the good part of it and minimize the bad part.
"We don't race any harder because of the SAFER walls, and we don't take any more changes because of them. I don't try to avoid the wall unless I'm in the position where I know I'm going to hit it. Then I do the best that I can to try and hit it the safest way I can. I can go back and tell you from Daytona, when I was crashing there this year, from the time that I got hit until I hit the wall I never let off the gas purposely because I didn't want to either nose-in or go left-side into the wall. I wanted to hit it with my right side. From a driver's standpoint you go out there and do the best you can each lap, and when you've got that 911 and you know you're going to hit the wall you just ride it out. It's just like any car accident, if you know it's coming you just try to brace yourself and go.
"I think there's definitely a possibility of seeing the best race we've seen at New Hampshire tomorrow - at least in the last three years. I can't speak much from before that. I think the race-ability of this track has gotten better. Even with getting a little more age on it the track will widen out. I will say that the one thing we need to be careful of, and I hope NASCAR takes note of it, is that the track usually does build up a lot of marbles on the high side. Whatever we can do to keep those marbles down will give us the opportunity to keep racing up farther and farther. The guy that goes out there the first time and steps his right-front tire into the marbles is going to wish that he didn't. The track is flat enough that they just kind of lay there. They don't blow up because we're not carrying enough speed into the corner, and it doesn't have enough banking to allow the stuff to roll down. It's just something that's just a character of this racetrack."
"That lap was about what we ran in practice, and I thought the racetrack had slowed down more than that. I'm pretty happy with the Havoline Dodge. We're not good qualifiers, so I think if it qualified well, it'll probably race pretty good. We had a really good car in July, and I had just a devastating wreck. It looked spectacular, but it didn't hurt at all. I just don't want to do that again. This is the same Dodge that we brought to Bristol. It had been a backup car all year long, and Bristol was the first race that we raced it. I told everyone this morning, 'It's disappointing that we had this car all year long, and it ran third at Bristol, and now we can have a really good qualifying effort with it.' I'm happy for everyone on the team.
"It was a good day for the Havoline Dodge. The car was just a little bit loose, still. I think in order to be really fast you have to be good on your first lap. I really needed another lap to get going. I didn't have anything for them on the first lap. I don't know if we needed to build air pressure, or scuff up the tires or what. I think I average about 20th in qualifying, so if we can come out of here with a top-five, that'd be great.
"We just need to be doing what we're doing right now. We've got two or three cars that I really, really like, and that we run really well with. We're going to try and race those cars for the rest of the year. Our whole team is working better. Everyone's getting along here, and we're all having fun. When you're running well, it makes it lot more interesting to be here. We'll just keep doing what we're doing, and it's going to be wonderful if we can win a race before the year is over."
"We were just a little free. It was on flats. This is just at tough place. You can mess up pretty quickly here. But the guys have done a really good job here on the Coors Light Dodge. This is the best we've qualified here in awhile, so we'll see what happens."
"These guys have done a great job on our Dodge all day. I never seem to qualify well here, so I wanted to get a good qualifying run for them - you know start up front, so we don't have to fight back up there. Our Dodge Dealers Dodge has been pretty good off the truck today. We ended up 23rd or something in practice, so I'm just happy to get that lap in and get ready to race here.
"Our recent success says a lot for this race team. I think everybody on this team has just puts all of that (rumors) out their mind. I know I have. I'm not even worrying about it. I'm just trying to race the best that I can. That's all you can do. I'm sure these guys are doing just the same thing, and whatever happens, happens."
"We went to Milwaukee and did some testing up there, and I believe it helped us. Definitely, our rear spring setup and stuff like that was a gainer from last time. Really though, that test was designed for race setup stuff. We've got that race setup that we worked on in Milwaukee in the car for tomorrow for happy hour. We'll see if it works. I hope it's real close, because if it is then that gives us an alternate place to go testing at. Even if it isn't it sure set us off in the right direction for things to try and work on.
"I tightened our Dodge up (for qualifying) a little bit, and when I saw the track cooling down and getting in pretty good shape, I should have loosened it back up, but I didn't. I was a little too tight. That cost me some speed. I ran a 28.97-sec. in practice, and I really thought I could have run a 28.80 or something, but I ran a 29 flat, which puts me in the 11th spot, and that's still a good run.
"Our Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge, it's good. You know, you come out, you make your run and do the best you can. It's not like anyone else is going to touch Ryan Newman. We'll have to see what everybody else has got for tomorrow, and we'll see what happens on Sunday. Our lap wasn't bad. We're pretty decent right now."
"That's a very bad effort for us. We've been fighting a loose car all day today. We've fought it, fought it and fought it, and it's still too loose. It's the same car that we had at Richmond last week and ran really, really well with. It's the same car we had here in the spring race at New Hampshire. I know we've got a really good race setup, but we're going to start really far back in this Sirius Dodge. Oh well.
On doing double duty this weekend...
"I miss doing it. I'm glad Jimmy Smith and the Team ASE guys gave me the opportunity. It's pretty neat to be in a good truck. I did that when I was driving the Yellow car for James Finch. We sat on a couple of poles and won some races. I don't think it hurts. I think that Darrell Waltrip, Harry Gant and them all will tell you, 'As long as you're logging laps you're learning something.' It doesn't matter how old you are. That's the whole key. New Hampshire is a tough old racetrack for qualifying. For some reason you just can't ever seem to back up what you ran in qualifying. It's the opposite of a lot of other tracks. You can go faster at a lot of other tracks. New Hampshire is just one that never lets you go faster in qualifying than what you practiced. You'll say, 'I wish I could just run what I ran in practice.' I don't know, it's just something about the track. It's a great place. I hope we'll have a good day Saturday and a good day on Sunday."
"Well we were 28th fastest in practice, so we had to get it done in qualifying. We ran a .112-sec. lap in practice, and we got close to it. It was pretty wobbly on the get-go lap, so I thought, 'Heck, I just need to get a good lap, not slide the thing and we'll take what we can get.' It worked out good. This is a new car. It was brand new last weekend, and we really liked it. We're just glad to get it here."
"This was a good lap for the Target Dodge. We've struggled this year, and we just keep chipping away at it. We keep getting better, but we just don't get the results and that's what we're working on this weekend. That lap was wild. It was definitely loose. We lost a lot of grip from practice to qualifying. We just touched the wall on that last lap there, and I think if I didn't have to peddle it off a little bit, we would have been better. If it looked a little out of control, it probably was."
"We ran in qualifying just about what we did in practice. Right now we are just a little off, but it's better than what it was when we unloaded. Not quite enough bite coming out of the turns, but this Cheerios team is working hard to get the car where it needs to be."
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