Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookie finished at Atlanta:
K. Kahne, 5th
B. Vickers, 7th
B. Gaughan, 18th

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings after Atlanta:
K. Kahne, 304
B. Gaughan, 209
B. Vickers, 208
S. Wimmer, 203
S. Riggs, 193
J. Sauter, 133

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE BASS PRO SHOPS MBNA 500 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY, OCTOBER 31, 2004.

KASEY KAHNE IN THE No. 9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT ATLANTA. Notes: Kahne finished fifth, his 11th top-five and 12th top-10 finish of the 2004 season. He took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the 17th time this season. Kahne led once for four laps, the fourth consecutive race where he had led at least one lap. He becomes the first Raybestos Rookie to score a top-five finish in the fall race at Atlanta since Kevin Harvick finished third in 2001. Kahne is just the sixth Raybestos Rookie to finish inside the top-five at the fall race at Atlanta (since 1975). The others:
1979: Dale Earnhardt, second
1987: Davey Allison, fifth
1994: Mike Wallace, fifth
1997: Jeff Green, fourth
2001: Kevin Harvick, third

KAHNE: "From about lap 160 or 200, somewhere in there, it started fluttering real bad at the end of each straightaway and off the corners. We just lost a lot of power. On the restarts, as soon as I shifted to fourth gear it was over. It would take like a lap to get going and then it would do it more but we still had a good car. We would just get too far behind. It was a tough fight. Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and all those guys at Hendrick. That's pretty special for them to win on such a hard week and for all those families and everything it was a pretty sad deal last week so congratulations to Hendrick Motorsports." YOU FINISHED FIFTH BUT YOU HAD A VERY GOOD CAR. "It's frustrating a lot in this sport and I'm finding that out. You hear people give an interview and say how bad luck theirs is and I think I have bad luck and you really don't have that bad of luck. You forget a lot of times how good of luck you have the other times. It's a pretty good run for us. I would have loved to win but today we ran fifth and that's pretty good." THE RESTARTS NEAR THE END OF THE RACE WERE INTENSE. "It was tough. Our car wouldn't take off for about a lap and a half. I just hoped that nobody would run into me during that time. I tried to stay out of the way. They could go either high or low or wherever that might be. I tried to stay out of the way as good as I could and ended up having no wrecks. It was pretty hairy watching the cars fly by me like I was parked. It was still a good run and we still had a great finish for what we battled there all race and then with the engine issues at the end." YOU STARTED NEAR THE REAR OF THE FIELD BUT CHARGED TO THE FRONT EARLY IN THE RACE. "We took off up there pretty good. We had nothing for Mark Martin and there at the end we were the closest we had been to him all day but we just had the motor issues. It's a struggle. You never know what's going to happen but we had a pretty good run. It was a pretty good finish, really." DID THE PROBLEM YOU HAVE LATE IN THE RACE SLOWLY DEVELOP? "It just happened, about lap 200 or somewhere in there. It just happened and after that it slowly got worse. But it just, bam, one lap it just happened and it was over from there. Leaving the pits on the green flag stops we were real slow for the first lap on them, too." ANY IDEA WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM? "Some type of fuel issue, I would imagine; something to do with carburetor, fuel, fuel lines. It happened at Michigan earlier this year and it just wasn't fixed [smiles]."

TOMMY BALDWIN, CREW CHIEF, No. 9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE: YOU HAD SOME BAD LUCK BUT STILL POSTED A GOOD TOP-FIVE FINISH. "We really wanted a win today. It's a good finish. We had some motor problems. The thing would take like two laps for it to get wound up and stuff was happening there. But we'll take another top-five finish. We were the Raybestos Rookie of the Race again and that's what we're after. We'll hit 'em hard next week at Phoenix." YOU CHOSE NOT TO PIT AT THE VERY END OF THE RACE. "We were going to lose so much position anyway I figured the further we were up the less we were going to lose. If someone had boggled behind us, we would have been gone. It was just a chance to take. We got five bonus points and probably ended up in the same spot we would have ended up in anyway." WERE YOU SURPRISED HOW WELL THE CAR RAN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE? "Actually, it took us a lot longer to get up there than we thought compared to yesterday's practice. The car wasn't very good in the beginning. We dealt with an ill handling racecar for most of the day and we just kept trying things and really never got it any better. Kasey did a great job driving it today. This is his kind of place. I doubt that if anybody else was in that thing today it wouldn't have finished where it finished." COULD WE SEE THIS CAR AT DARLINGTON OR HOMESTEAD? "I don't know yet. We've got to pick this thing apart and try to find out the problem first." DID YOU HAVE A FUEL PROBLEM? "It was definitely a fuel pick up problem, fuel pump problem, the fuel was too hot, something there. We'll have to go back and look into it and dissect it."

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET: Notes: Vickers finished seventh, his fourth top-10 finish of the 2004 season. This is his first top-10 finish since he placed ninth at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway in July (race number 17). WAS THIS THE BEST RACE THAT YOU'VE HAD ALL YEAR? "It was definitely one of our better runs, that's for sure. I'm really proud of the guys. They did a good job keeping up with the car. We were pretty loose at the start of that race and they did a good job getting the car better and getting it fixed and keeping up with the track all day." HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO RUN SO WELL HERE TODAY? DOES THAT GIVE YOU MOMENTUM FOR THE FINAL THREE RACES? "Yeah, it definitely does. Everybody did a good job and we had a good run. We were fast at the end of the race and that's when it counted. That was the most important part and it will definitely be momentum for the rest of the year." IS THIS YOUR FAVORITE TRACK? IS IT YOUR BEST TRACK? "It's definitely one of my favorite racetracks. It's at the top of the list. It always has been. I've always enjoyed it here. It's fast and slick and the race groove is wide. It's a lot of fun." WITH THE THREE WIDE RACING LATE IN THE EVENT, THIS LOOKS LIKE A FUN TRACK. "It really is. You can really put on a good race here, you really can."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 77 JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS/KODAK EASY SHARE DODGE: "We had a very solid day. Mark Martin was on a tear, man. If Mark Martin isn't so fast we may not go more than a lap down. We had a good racecar, very solid. It did everything we asked it to. It stayed a little loose all day but that chassis 32 has been loose all year. It just has a little twitch in it that we need to go back to the fab shop and figure out. The boys worked hard. They did a great job with the Jasper paint scheme. Mark Wallace, one of our old owners, this is his backyard it's good to run well for those guys. We had a good day in the Raybestos Rookie deal and that helps us pull away a little bit."