Sharpie 500 - Dodge Post-Race Quotes

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) – Finished Second, jumped three spots to 10th in series standings. Newman is one point out of ninth and five points out of eighth.

“It was a good run for us. To come home with a top five is what we were asking for and second place is that much better. Junior had a great car and drove a smart race. I did my best to drive a smart race. I had to avoid a couple of accidents and I got beat up a couple of times, but I’m happy to come out of here with a runner-up finish.

“Junior was pretty fast, and our car wasn’t perfect. I think if it had been perfect we could have run with him, but that was the only way. I look forward to these next two races and the last 10. We’ve got to take ‘em one step at a time. Our team has gained a lot of momentum from this run, and I can see that without even talking to them yet. This is big for us and hopefully we can take this momentum into these next two races. I feel like a little of the pressure is off, a little bit at least. We were better than we have been tonight, but we need to get better still.

“I’m glad I’m 26 (years old) because that last run there was pretty tough. Our team fought back. We got caught in the pits. Jeff kinda slid through his pits, and I was gauging my pit stop off his. I couldn’t see. He backed up and blocked us in, but we fought back from that and the guys had an awesome strategy. We did all we could to get in the top five, and we came home second. It was a really good effort for the ALLTEL Dodge. It was a good points’ day for us, but we can’t count our chickens. They aren’t going to hatch for three more weeks.

“I think it was more mentally demanding than physically demanding. Your body gives out a little bit, but your mind becomes such a repetitive process with cornering and gas and trying to manage your rear tires coming off and your front tires in the corner. It’s definitely one of the most physical runs we’ve had all year, if not the most physical run. I’m glad I’m young and got me a good Gatorade bottle to drink.

“It’s definitely a good thing (being back in the top 10). We’ll just focus on the next two races. I can say one thing, I said earlier that Junior’s guys are happy, but our guys are happy times two. That was a big race for us to get some momentum within the team and communication and chemistry and all the great things that it does to run good. We haven’t been able to do that the past few weeks, so it was a good run for us.”

“California is a big race for us. We’ve got a Sony paint scheme and it’s a Sony race. It’s one of our great sponsors, so we look forward to that part of it. It’s a place we finished third in the spring, so we look forward to going back from that perspective. Coming in with a second-place finish on our shoulders should help the momentum.”

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

“We just never really had a hold of it. I crashed the car yesterday in practice, and we missed the last 45 minutes of practice. That really hurt. I think I damaged a few things we couldn’t fix. That hurt us tonight. We just weren’t that good tonight. It’s going to be fun all the way through, but we need a couple of top-five finishes now.

“It felt like the longest race (of my life) at times. That long green flag run seemed like it took forever. It was a tough race for sure, especially with an ill-handling racecar. That made it even tougher. We just didn’t get a hold of it.

“We’re still hopeful. We’re going to have some good cars the rest of the year, but I’m disappointed. We lost some good points today. We’ve got to run good at California and Richmond and hopefully we can come out in the top 10.”

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

“We qualified good and raced good. We had a good car, and the guys did a real good job on the car. We had a good weekend. That’s two good runs this season at Bristol. Maybe they need to add a couple more races here for us. We’re getting back on track. Nobody is giving up. We might not be able to make the top 10, but I hear finished 11th is going to be worthwhile, so if we can’t finish 10th, we’ll shoot for 11th, learn all we can and get ready for next season. It was a long race, and it was pretty hot out there tonight. I’m ready to go to the house.”

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge)

“I thought we had a car capable of winning at the beginning. The 8 car got better and we stayed the same or maybe got a little bit worse. Any time you can survive this, man I’m happy. This is actually one of the tracks where we thought we’d run good. I think 11th is my worst finish ever in a Cup car here. This is where I thought we’d gain some points. A couple of guys had trouble, so I’m pretty happy. We’ll be good the next two races.

“We’re getting close enough now where those 25 points I lost here last time is going to come into play. Hopefully we can overcome that. We felt like this would be one of our better tracks. Junior just kept getting better and better. We really checked out on that one long run. I really felt like we could adjust on it and make it better, but everything we did to it made it tight or loose. I thought we were about a fifth-place car, so I’m happy with our finish.

“California is going to be the race we need to get through. We struggled there in the spring. We ran in the top five in both Michigan races, and usually that’s a good sign for Fontana. If we can just not have any DNFs in the next two, I think we can make the top 10.”

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)

“We had that hot rod hooked up, but things didn’t work out. It was just a typical Bristol race and things didn’t go our way tonight. We’ve got a lot of racing left this season, and like I’ve said before, there’s no give up in this team.”

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Engines & Trans. Dodge)

“Nothing really went wrong. I don’t know what happened. There were about five, six, seven, eight cars in front of us. It’s a Bristol night race man. Somebody checked up and we all hit each other. We actually had a really good Dodge to run up front, run in open air as fast as the leaders and catching people. We had a good Dodge tonight. My guys rebuilt it and I love ‘em. Shane (crew chief Wilson) does a great job making calls. They did a great job putting that racecar back together after we crashed in qualifying.”