Chevy Rock and Roll 400 - Dodge Post-Race Quotes

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) – Race winner. Finishes ninth after 26 races, qualifies for final 10-race chase.

“He (Jeff Gordon) pretty much said most of it right. I can see his point, but he’s got to see mine. If we were me he’d be saying you need to make it zero right now. That would be pretty cool. Both teams, the 24 and 48 have been the teams to beat all year. It is kind of a weird situation for whoever was 10th, I’m going to say ninth because we’re probably night right now. To sit here and complain about that, but I can definitely see his point. I haven’t really thought about how the points are going to be rewarded. It is going to be pretty strange and trying to keep up with it on the racetrack and things like that. Like Jeff said one week you can go from first to 10th or 10th to first. There’s probably going to be a lot of switching going on throughout the last 10 races.

“I didn’t think it was too aggressive tonight. I thought it was a pretty good race. I didn’t think it was too bad. I didn’t see a lot of crazy stuff going on. I know there were a couple of cautions, and I wasn’t too sure what happened on them. I thought it was pretty smooth, a lot of green flag laps. There were several cautions in a row, but I don’t think it was real serious.

“Next week it’ll be you haven’t won in one race, so we’ll start all over again. We had a really tough couple of years trying to get this team where it needs to be, and I think we’ve got it. I think we’ve been on our way to getting it there. It just all sort of came together. We probably needed the last two weeks. California and Bristol were reality checks for us. It kind of slapped us in the face and said you need to wake up and get on top of this thing or you’re not going to be in it. Everybody on our race team stood up to the plate and gave me good cars and good motors and great stops to be able to win that thing.

“I’ve seen a whole new level this week, and Jeff can vouch for this. Ray has a way, it’s wild, it’s like he’s got a power or something, a way of stepping the deal up when it needs to be stepped up. I don’t know what he does. It’s not in a negative way, either. It’s a positive way. He talked to everybody all week and kept us all pumped up. He told me right before the race, no matter what happens, win, lose or draw, we walk out this gate with our heads up and keep going. It really wasn’t a pressure thing. I don’t know what happens. It’s like magic. Everybody worked together well this week to be able to do this.

“That’s kind of been our mentality anyway. Our crew chief Kenny Francis doesn’t say a lot. He’s kind of a quiet guy and the whole team is kind of a low key deal. We’ve just been doing our own thing and working with the 9 and working well with them. We learn from each other all the time. It’s pretty cool. We were both close to getting in, and it’s pretty neat having that situation for Ray. Maybe the experience level or our team being together for a couple of years helped more than Tommy and them guys just being together this year. I’m sure they’ll be tough from here on out and next year for sure. The only thing I can relate to is that we’ve been together a little longer.

“I couldn’t believe it. The way my luck’s been I thought there’s no way in hell he (97 car) is going to run out of gas. They told me it was going to be close. I kept running hard trying to catch him. We were pretty even at the end. I just didn’t know if I was going to have anything for him or not. All of a sudden he ran out, and I was like, ‘this can’t be true.’ Now it’s my turn to either cut a tire or hit the wall or something. That’s luck and it’s what we’ve been needing all year. The breaks kind of went our way tonight. It was an unbelievable feeling when I saw that.

“I was so proud of the race team tonight. The last couple of weeks we’ve been terrible on pit road. We stuck with the same guys. They kept working hard, and they worked real hard this week. They knew this race was going to be the one to pull us out of the hole, and they did it. They came in here tonight and did their part and did it well. I’m very proud of them.

“I kinda watched the Busch cars last night and the trucks the night before, and the tires really weren’t falling off that much. We chose to stay in front the first half of the race and remember what we had to do. We came in and got gas only and we were pretty good on old tires. Then we had to pit under green and if there had been a caution there would have been big trouble, too. We gambled a little bit and it paid off for us.

“In the last four or five races we’ve made huge gains in our team and also the last two weeks lost it all. Ten races is longer than you think. This was our turning point last year, from here on. It was a long 10 races then and I’m sure it’s going to be a long 10 now. I think you’ve got to go all out. The good thing about it now is you’re locked in the top 10. You have nothing to lose. You might as well go for it every week.

“I couldn’t see us getting in without winning the thing. That was our only option, unless he (Jeff Gordon) didn’t show up and Jimmie (Johnson) didn’t start his car up. We were in trouble. We had to win tonight, and if we didn’t we wouldn’t be here. We might have if we finished second or third or something. That was our goal. We weren’t going to accept anything else.”

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) – Finishes 20th in race, 10th in standings after 26 races. Qualifies for final 10-race chase by 15 points.

“The 15 points doesn’t matter. I guess what matters is that we made it. We won the battle, but we haven’t won the war. We’ll get our guns polished up for the last 10 races and do what we have to do as a team to stay focused and take the right racecars to the right race tracks and make the right calls. The driver will try not to make any mistakes and make sure we don’t have any DNF’s, engines failures and mechanical problems and go from there.

“I don’t think it’s right. It’s just not right from a points system standpoint for it to be that way. The bottom line it is that way right now. It is what it is and we’ll treat it that way. Everybody had an equal opportunity this year, and luckily we made it into the top 10. Luck if you want to call it that, but we made it in and we’ll focus on what we have to do next.

“I knew with the 48 going out it was a good thing for us points-wise. As it turned out, it didn’t make a lot of difference. Kasey having problems and us getting tight on that long green flag run, there was nothing we could do but try to hang on.

“Everybody is in the same boat now. It’s just who gets to be a survivor. I feel good about it, but like I’ve said, it doesn’t matter if it’s this race or one in the last 10, any little thing can take you out – any person, little debris, bad luck just like tonight getting caught a lap down. We were basically a hundred feet from getting past the 5 car to get the Lucky Dog deal. That would have changed our night totally, but it just didn’t happen that way.

“It was only crazy for a few people. I think that’s some of the most green flag runs I’ve seen here at Richmond. I think it was a pretty decent race. I don’t think there was as much passing as it should have been, but we’ll go on.

“We haven’t had some of the performances, but I think we’ve got a lot of potential going into these last 10 races. We’ll just have to do our best and see what happens.”

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge)

“It got slick out there running under green. We got close to running out of fuel. The guys did a great job. We got really tight there at the end, but we made it in and it’s a big deal for the Penske Racing Team. We didn’t have a wick to turn up there for awhile. It was a good effort by the entire team, and hopefully we can take some momentum into the next 10 races.”

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

“I’m so proud of this team. Everybody thought we were down, and we kept fighting back. The pit crew was awesome tonight. Kenny (team director Francis) made some phenomenal calls. We didn’t make any changes on the car. We’ve got great cars. I can’t say enough for the team. The guys really stepped up this week. They’ve been standing up every week, but this was the week that counted. It’s been nerve-racking. We’ve been working hard and driving hard, running hard. We just couldn’t get the break. We came here tonight, and I couldn’t believe how good my car was. It was so good. Ray and all the Dodge Dealers stood behind us. Ray knew we could get the job done. I’ve got to thank my car owners, Ray and Mary Evernham. They’ve been awesome to me.

“Me and Ray are great friends now. We knew we could get the job done. It was just a matter of time. We’ve been running decent all year and just came up short. You’ve got to go through the hard times to have a championship team like this. That’s what they’ve done. This is the best and strongest team I’ve ever been with. The last month or so we’ve been running so good. We’ve been running better than the guys ahead of us. We’re pumped up now, and there’s no reason we can’t win the championship. I’m pumped up more than I’ve ever been in my career. I’m just glad to be a part of this race team, especially with Dodge and all the Dodge Dealers. I want to thank them for sticking with us and waiting for this day to come true here.”

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) – Finishes 9th in race, 11th in standings. Misses 10th-place by 15 points.

“I don’t know how much we missed it by, but that’s the way it goes with the points. We’ll look back and try to win one of these races in the next 10. We gave it all we had, but we just came up a little bit short.”

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) – Finishes 24th in race, 12th in standings. Misses 10th by 28 points.

“It’s just disappointing that we didn’t get it done. I thought we had a car that could get in that final 10, but it wasn’t meant to be. We had a terrible car tonight. It just didn’t happen. We’ll try to win some races now I guess. Right now it is (disappointing). We can still do a lot with our rookie season, and we’ll work toward doing that.”

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge) – Finished 35th

“I was passing the 88 to get the Lucky Dog. The 88 was beating the heck out of me because he didn’t want to get passed. Then by the time I cleared the 88, the 4 car got by him and the 4 car starting beating the heck out of me. Then off the corner off turn 4 he took me out and took out a lot of other people, too. You can blame it all on Jimmy Spencer.

“I was pulling forward (before race started) and they kind of checked up in front of us before we even took off and Shane Hmiel ran into the back of me.

“I guess everybody was fighting hard to get that Lucky Dog. I passed the 88 and he was beating the heck out of me because he didn’t want me to pass him, and then Jimmy Spencer came up and started doing the same thing. Then he spun me out. I was trying to be clean. I didn’t want to hurt any of the guys who are running for the championship. We had a good car. We were going to go right by him, and Jimmy just wanted to take somebody out I guess.”