Checker Auto Parts 500 - Dodge Friday Quotes

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

COMMENT ON YOUR FIRST CAREER START AT PHOENIX IN 2000 “We were 20th in practice and all I could think of was racing against Dale Earnhardt and starting beside the guy who was leading the points with two races to go or whatever it was. I didn’t want to do something stupid and screw up a guy who had a chance to win the championship. Fortunately I didn’t. We had brake problems and a windshield got caught on the grille and cooked the motor. The brake pedal was hung up and stuck and we cooked the brakes. All kind of things happened. It was a good experience knowing we learned some things. We knew we could come back and do it better. I was nervous. It was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been with all the hype around the opportunity to do what you’ve always dreamed about doing. It was definitely the most nervous I’ve ever been in a car.”

COMMENT ON NEW TESTING POLICY “It’s all right. It gives us time off during the week, but we’re still going to go test at other racetracks. We’ll spend just as much time testing as we always do, but we’ll see how it works out. I’m a little disappointed in some of the decision-making processes lately. We’d like to test at all the tracks, but that’s unfair to the team from the money standpoint. You’d like to learn everything you can, but we’ll let NASCAR create the rooms and may the best team win. I know the multi-car teams had an advantage with the testing procedures, so maybe that’s a way of leveling the field. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that Roush and Hendrick had one of their cars testing if not every race then every race in The Chase.”

WHAT WILL YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THIS SEASON? “I think once we get our hands untied we’ll be able to show what we’re capable of. We’ve done pretty well this year struggling with what we’ve had to work with. It’s a clearer picture now than it was halfway through the season when we were struggling and we didn’t know why. We look forward to the opportunity to get things right and have the right tools to work with so that we can shine like we feel like we’re capable of.”

COMMENT ON KURT BUSCH AS A TEAMMATE NEXT SEASON “I haven’t talked to him other than once back at Watkins Glen. We briefly talked maybe for 20 minutes about it. I know he looks forward to it, and I look forward to a good change. I’ve said before my opinion about what’s going on right now with what the current situation is. I think any change is definitely a good change, and I think Kurt is a better change than that. I’ve always heard good things about him as far as being a teammate. He’s obviously a good driver. He won the championship, so we’ll see. You don’t have to know a guy to be a teammate. You don’t have to even talk to him. I’ve proven that about the last six months. I’ve actually enjoyed my last six months. It is better in the grand scheme of things. You’d like to get along with everybody in the world, let alone your teammate. It’s definitely better to get along, but if you can’t the best way to deal with it is your best way. I don’t think there is a best way.”

DO YOU THINK YOU’LL BE ABLE TO WORK WITH KURT? “I think not just the drivers, but the teams…. We’ve operated for four years now as a one-car team and supported a lot of things the other two teams were doing and got nothing in return. It’ll be nice to see the tables turned as far as some of the help coming back our way. From a financial standpoint as far as an information sharing standpoint, so much of this garage is follow the leader that once you get something right it’s just copy the other guy’s homework and hope you get just as good a grade. Those Roush and Hendrick guys, for sure the Roush guys, are good at doing that.”

ARE YOU BY NATURE A LONER? “For the most part. I get along with the people I feel I want to get along with and need to get along with for different reasons. I’m a different personality. It’s hard to say. I’ve always been different I guess. I forget what it was, but Krissie and I were talking about something. She said, ‘boy, that’s different.’ I said, ‘well, you married me because I’m different.’ She said, ‘yeah, I guess so.’”

HOW DO YOU SEE THE CHASE? “That’s the way in The Chase or out of The Chase or before The Chase or after The Chase. You go out and do the best job you can.”

COMMENT ON RACING THE BUSCH CAR AT HOMESTEAD “We went down there and had a good test. I look forward to the opportunity to go there and see if we can start another streak. We’ll see if we can do that. We’ve had a lot of fun racing that car this year. We’ve had a lot of great support from Alltel, Mobile 1 and Sony to be able to do it. We look forward to the opportunity to go down there and end the season on a good note, both on the Busch and Cup side. There’s going to be lack of testing at race tracks, but there will be plenty of testing. We’ll see if running the Busch races help. We’ll probably run a similar quantity of Busch races next year. I get the opportunity to learn about the racetrack a little more by running Busch on Saturday. It’s a different day and different car.”

COMMENT ON RACING AT PHOENIX “This track is totally unique in one and two versus three and four. The banking, the radius, the ark, the way the wall transitions in and out. It’s a very unique racetrack, no other one like it. Probably the closest one to it is Darlington minus the banking and Southern hospitality. It’s a lot the same, yet a lot different. I really enjoy it. I enjoyed racing the open wheel cars here. It takes a different package to get around one end versus the other. You’ve got to be able to adapt your driving style to the race track and your car to the race track. It’s definitely a driver’s racetrack. You’ve got to hustle the car around here. It’s not a place like Kansas or Chicago where you can aim it and hold the throttle down and see what happens.”

WHAT’S YOUR MINDSET GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND? “We just want to do our best each and every lap, each and every situation. That’s all we do.”

COMMENT ON HOMESTEAD TRACK “They did a real good job designing Homestead. There’s really no trouble spot. Entries are a little bit on the free side because there’s not much banking. The farther you get in the corner the more banking there is. It’s very symmetric in that one and two are the same as three and four, as far as the way you drive it and the way it feels. They’ve got really good exits and openings so you can pass and make good racing. It’s a well-designed racetrack and a good racetrack to end the season on. The racetrack is super smooth and it’s usually pretty good for grip. It’s really temperature sensitive.”

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

DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR THE OFFSEASON? “I’m going to go on a cruise as soon as the season is over. I’m going to take some friends from Washington and the guys who work on my sprint car, my sister, there’s going to be about 20 people. We’re going through the Bahamas. I heard about the pirates, so we’ll be on guard for that. I’m sure we’ll be doing a lot of testing getting ready for next year.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEW TESTING RULES? “If they limit tests and we need to test we’ll find places to go. You can go to different road courses, Nashville and Kentucky for the intermediate tracks. You can always find something. It will cut back some on testing, but at the same time if we need tests we’ll go find a track to test at. Having three teams next year will be great. We’ll have a lot more information. Having more teams doesn’t hurt a program unless you don’t have the money to have three teams. Ray Evernham and the people at Evernham Motorsports have done a great job bringing in sponsors like Valvoline and Stanley to go along with the existing sponsors and have three very strong Nextel Cup race teams.”

COMMENT ON THE TEAM’S PROGRESS THIS SEASON “I’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned a lot of things, but I think the progress will be made in the off-season, possibly at Homestead and then in the off season getting ready for ’06. We’ve tried a lot of things this year, but I think we’ll really make progress in the offseason. I’m not satisfied. I’ve made plenty of mistakes this year and not finished some races I should have. I’ve learned a lot, but I still have a long way to go and focus on that next year.”

COMMENT ON THE CHASE “You can be within 400 points and that opens a door. As many good teams as you have out there, you still have one or two teams that score a lot of points through the season and don’t have DNFs. It’s really hard to stay within that 400-point range. I think more often than not it’s going to boil down to the top 10. It opens up the door for more teams to win the championship. It’s made a closer points deal. If you put 15 teams in there it would give more teams an opportunity to win, but the good teams will still come out on top.”

WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE TITLE THIS SEASON? “I don’t know who I’m picking. I think Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart have the best shots. I would say the Roush teams have somewhat of an advantage throughout the season with better balanced race cars, but Tony and Jimmie have put together great seasons. I think one of those teams will win it. Carl Edwards has done an awesome job, and he has a good opportunity to be there at the end.”

WHAT’S THE PRIMARY GOAL FOR THE 9 TEAM NEXT SEASON? “We want to make The Chase and win more races. Winning one race in two years just isn’t enough with the team and people we have. One win a year isn’t even enough.”

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

“We’re excited. We feel like we’ve got good cars and good equipment, and we’re counting on a good run here. We’re going to sit down at the end of the year and look at things. It seems like we know how to get in The Chase. We’re not doing anything different, but it seems like we just have bad luck once we make The Chase.

“We had bad luck last year, and we’ve had bad luck this year. We cut a right front tire at Martinsville and it killed us. Then we broke a flywheel, stuff that never happened. We’re going to have to get better, but how do you get better at not cutting tires down. We’ll have to look at it hard and see what we can do.

“We try hard every week. Sometimes it looks like you’re trying harder than you really are, but that’s not the case. Every time we come in for a pit stop the guys give 100 percent and do the best they can. When you’ve a good car it looks like you’re driving the wheels off of it. When you don’t have a good car, it looks like you’re not. It’s the same with the pits. If you don’t have a good car, it doesn’t matter what you do in the pits. We’re trying to get the car’s balance and chemistry going. We’ll get it. It’s just a matter of time.

“We’re doing all we can do. If Tony Stewart had cut a tire at Martinsville or broke a flywheel, where would he be? That’s the way I look at it. We’ve got a strong foundation under us, and we’ll keep going what we’re doing and things will come around.

“We can pass here. You’ll see two-wide and three-wide racing a lot. This is one track where you can pass. It’s not like some of the other tracks where you just can’t pass no matter what. We’ll try to get a couple of good runs under our belts here and at Homestead next week and work hard over the winter to get ready for next season.”