GFS Marketplace 400 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes

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

“Just relax and do your deal and that’s really all you can do. If we do all we can do that’s it. As a team, if we perform like we’ve been doing and everybody does their job that’s all you can do. Whatever happens in the points happens.

“Every day around here is like Russian Roulette. You never know. Every time you go to the track it’s get all you can get. It’s not totally like Russian Roulette, but Bristol is kinda that way. You’re in everybody else’s hands there. Anything can happen and you can get in trouble pretty quick. You just have to do the best you can. I like Bristol. I’ve always seemed to run pretty decent there. I feel good about going there.

“We don’t want to be talked about. We go to the track and race and that’s all we want. We don’t want to make movies and all that stuff. We’re here to race, and that’s the way I look at it. When you perform good and get attention that’s great, but how would you like to not be performing and get all the attention? That looks bad, too. I’m pretty happy with what we’ve got going on.

“That’s what Jimmie Johnson did last year (hit a hot streak like Tony Stewart’s on now). That’s the way it is in this sport. The way it’s set up now, but that’s part of it and everybody knows that. I’m sure Tony just wants to get as much as he can. He’s winning and that’s the way you get points.

“It’s all about consistency, and that’s the way it’s been forever. You can win the battles, but it doesn’t matter unless you win the war. The key here at Michigan is to have a great handling car all day, get good fuel mileage and good pit stops. It’s the same everywhere. You do the best you can, be there at the end and have a shot to win.

“This place seems a little slicker, a little rougher and doesn’t seem to have as much grip as California. California is getting that way now. It’s starting to lose its grip a little bit, but as far as the shape of the racetrack it’s about the same. If you’re good at one you should be good at the other, but that’s not always the case.

“I’m not going to count anybody out (of The Chase). Look at us last year. We were 14th or 15th going into it (last race). It’s so close right now anything could happen, and you never know when it’s going to happen. It’ll go down to the wire. Who knows what’s going to happen?

“The pit crew has been real consistent this year. They’re not making big mistakes. When they make one they overcome it, and that’s what the whole team has been doing. They’re good under pressure and that’s what you need.

“We had a great car at Indy and we thought we were to that next level. With 20 or 30 to go we were getting ready to pass Tony for the lead and we got tight. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. We’re getting better as a raceteam, and when that happens you’ll see fourths turn into seconds and seconds turn into wins. You can’t rush that. You’ve got to let it happen and let it build.

“Once we get to The Chase it’ll be a different deal. You can race all out. You’ve got nothing to lose. Right now we’re bouncing back and forth. We could be in or we could be out. You’ve got to play it safe. Like last week, I could have maybe finished ninth or 10th. We got mixed up with Nemechek and I backed off. That was better than taking a chance on wrecking. You’ve got to do that now. Racing smart is the big thing, don’t make any mistakes. Hopefully everybody around us will do the same thing. We went through all this last year, and I think that’s going to help us stay focused on what we’ve got to do this year.”

SLUGGER LABBE (Crew chief (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

“We came up here and tested last week and it was 95 degrees. The track temperature was really hot. We had a really good test, so we’re looking forward to racing tomorrow. We’ve got four races to get in The Chase, and we’re focusing hard on that. If something does happen on Sunday we’re prepared for whatever happens. Last week we finished 11th, and we thought we’d do better than that, but if 11th if the best you can do on a given day 11th is better than 12th. When we get in The Chase, 11th place won’t be acceptable, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to get in The Chase first.

“It’s not that easy, but we’re working hard on engines. We’ve got some different engines for The Chase. Once we get in The Chase we’ll run a different engine package. We’ve got some new cars we’re coming out with, but one thing we’ve done we’ve used up all our tests to get in The Chase. We tested the last four weeks. We go to Richmond next week to test and then we’re out, but we’re making sure we get in The Dance. There’s no since to save tests if you’re not in the race. We’ve used ‘em up to get to that point.

“The team morale is up. Jeremy is doing really good. Everyone gets along good. Finishing races is what we’ve got to do. I heard a stat yesterday that if you’d finished seventh in every Chase race last year you would have won the championship last year. We’re 11th. If all we’ve got to do is move up to seventh, then that’s something that should be done very easily.

“Sometimes you can sneak up like a cat and jump on ‘em when they least expect it. I think you’ll see some good things out of us Sunday.

“We tested here and the air temperature was 95 degrees and the track temperature was 138. We figured if we could get the car good in those conditions we would be really good. Yesterday we were looser than what we thought. It really threw all the teams a curveball. We adapted to that, and I think we’ll be really good.”

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

“The car was pretty good, just a little bit on the free side. I didn’t know exactly what to expect of the race track. It was a good run for the Alltel Dodge. Hopefully we’ll end up in the top five and that will be a good starting spot for us Sunday. It’s pretty hairy here qualifying, but it’s a great track to race on. You can move around a lot and have a lot of fun in the race. Matt (Borland) and I have been great friends for different reasons. We get along off the race track, but we also get along on the race track. We enjoy doing what we do. He was the best man in my wedding. Being able to have a relationship on and off the track we’ve had a lot of fun together. Actually, we’re really happy with the car. We’ll have to see how we are in the race, but it should be pretty good. Points wise we haven’t been performing. I think we can get a top five out of it tomorrow. That would be a good day for us, but this car is capable of winning. We’re here to win the race, and that’s what we’re going to try to do tomorrow.”

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“I’ve got mixed emotions about my last race here. I feel good about the car. We’ve got to start in the back tomorrow anyway because we lost the transmission in practice yesterday. This will be a very important race for us. We’ll drive the car hard early, get track position and get it up front. I hate we’ve got to start in the back, but that’s racing. I’m glad we caught it yesterday. We didn’t need a transmission failure on race day.

“That was a cool win yesterday for him (son Steve). I was really excited about it, but I’m disappointed today for qualifying. We needed to do better to get a good pit position. Now we’ve got to start in the back tomorrow, and I hate that. We’ll have to work our way to the front now. We had a good conservative run today, but we need to be faster.”

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Charger)

“It’s great to be back at the track. Michigan has always been one of my favorite tracks. We got us a win here a few years ago, and we’ve got a good car this time, too. Hopefully we’ll have a good day tomorrow and if we do maybe we can get us another one.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Dodge Charger)

“We changed just about everything from yesterday. I was real tentative with the car. I didn’t know what to expect with all the changes we made. We picked up a lot from yesterday, but that’s where we needed to be yesterday. The car drove a lot better. I wish I hadn’t messed up my first lap. The tires have so much more grip on the first lap, but I was able to compensate for it on the second lap and it wasn’t too shabby.”

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 91 Auto Valve/Bumper-to-Bumper Dodge Charger)

“It wasn’t bad. I was a little loose in three and four and lost some time, but we’ll see where we end up. They worked hard on the car, and I think it’ll be pretty good tomorrow. Running a limited schedule you’ve got to be good when you come to these deals. This impound stuff is a whole different format for me.”

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

“We were about 37th in practice, but the guys kept working on it and we got the best out of it. We really didn’t make any qualifying runs yesterday or when we tested, so the guys did a good job getting the car where it needed to be for qualifying. I knew we wouldn’t be on the front row, but hopefully we’ll end up in the top 10 somewhere. The track changed quite a bit. It had a lot less grip than when we tested here. I feel like what we learned in the test should help us even after Michigan. It should help us at California and places like that, but all-in-all that was a good qualifying run for us. Hopefully we’ll be good tomorrow.”

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

“Track conditions were a lot better today. The car was loose when we were on the track yesterday, and they changed it up a good bit. It was pretty good today. We were pretty tight off, but it felt good. I used the whole racetrack coming off turn four, and that probably hurt us a little bit. We usually run well at Michigan. We didn’t the first race this year, but we usually do. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s good to have this white Dodge back. This is the car we finished second with at Indy. It was brand new at Indy, and we really liked it. We wanted to bring it to Michigan. We ended up with a good qualifying effort, so we’ll just wait and see how it ends up tomorrow. It’d be nice to drive this white Charger into victory lane.”

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger)

“We qualified second here in June and ran in the top five most of the day. We left a lugnut off on a green flag pit stop and had to pit under green. We got a lap down and couldn’t make it up, but hopefully we won’t have to deal with that this time. We didn’t qualify as well, so maybe we’ll race better.”