Pennsylvania 500 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes

JAMIE McMURRAY, DRIVER OF THE NO. 42 HAVOLINE/TEXACO DODGE CHARGER

How was the car? “The car was really tight on the short runs, but by the end of the run I could make it up but we couldn’t gain anything. We wanted to make the car good in the short run in practice yesterday, and in qualifying it was super fast.”

What did you learn since the June race? “What we learned is that, since it’s an impound race, the guys that qualify well tend to stay up front. The race we had a month ago wasn’t that way. The guys that started in the back were able to get up front. I think a lot of that came because guys didn’t tighten the car up enough for qualifying. We switched our car over from race to qualifying and we went to the extreme – we went a lot further than we thought we needed and I was still too loose. Today, we went even further. I was shocked at how much they had to tighten the car.”

Do the drivers need to have more give and take on turn two? “That’s a tough thing to do. At the June race on the last restart, I did all but wreck Jeff because I was on the inside. If you hit that bump at the right angle it’s not that big of deal, but if you hit it and you’re tight it really launches your car straight. We’ll have to wait and see. I ran on the racetrack last night and went over to see what they had fixed. The curb looks great and they’ve done a wonderful job. It seems like we had a dip before and now we have a high spot. That’s what it feels like, at least. There was as much rebound as what we run on the front shocks. The tires don’t come back down quick enough and it feels like you actually pull the front tires up off the ground. It feels like they need to pave a little bit more in each direction.”

Is there any reason to doubt your commitment for the 2006 season? “No. Obviously, when you race a car, every time you get in it, I don’t think anyone wants to go to Martinsville or Bristol or here and run 500 laps or 500 miles and not give all they can. I think a lot of times what destroys race teams or makes race teams good or bad is the people who are around. I sat all my guys down at Loudon last week – we had a meeting – and it was very unfortunate because I didn’t get to tell my guys first – they had to read it on the Internet. That’s tough, but you get in a situation where you can’t talk. You want to tell your friends, but you can’t. You try to do the right thing and it just ends up making someone mad. Obviously they had read everything on the Internet and knew what was going on. At Loudon we had a pre-race meeting and I told everyone ‘Look, I don’t really need to tell you this….’. And I told them that I’m going to give it 100 percent. I’m usually in a pretty good mood and I’m easy to be around. I think everyone understands the deal. It’s one of those deals where no one is going to give up. They’re still giving me really good race cars and I think we’ve proved that today. There’s nothing more that I want to do than prove all of you wrong who said that our team was going to fall apart when everything was announced. “

What is the story behind the car that you brought here and have raced so much this season? “When I find a car that I like, that’s the car that we race, except for Daytona and road courses and short tracks. At Martinsville and Richmond we have a different car. We did the same thing last year, and we got on a streak where we ran so well for so many races. I would say that 95 percent of those races were the same car, not this car but another car. You work so hard to make the bodies not outdrive the racetrack. When you get the bottom clearance, you see the tires rub on the fenders. So then you work on making the tires clear the fenders. When you bring new cars, that’s what you fight every weekend. It’s so hard to make it not drag or not make the fenders hit. We like this car and we ran second with it at Texas. The guys just cut the nose off and make it better. Everyone has their own way of going about that, but we feel like when we get a car that works, there’s no point in trying something else. You just run it until you find something better.” How hard has it been to focus on racing with everything else going on?

“Yes, it’s tough. I’m almost 30 – I’m 29 now – and I still kind of view myself as a kid. I still do goofy things and I do things that 20 year olds do. That’s kind of who I am. When it comes to the different side of it, that’s really tough. That’s probably the hardest part, aside from not having time. You never make everyone happy and you always end up disappointing someone. For me, I hate it when I disappoint someone, whether that’s a car owner or your family or a friend. That’s tough. You feel like you’re doing what’s best for you, and you end up disappointing somebody.

Is there anything reassuring about winning the pole today? “Qualifying to me is irrelevant, because I don’t really care if I qualify first or 20th because the races are so long. It’s good for the media, because it gives you something to write about. It’s going to show that our team didn’t give up. If you qualify second, you don’t care, but if you qualify first, it’s a good story.”

What would it do for you and your team to win this weekend? “Obviously it’s frustrating. But I think what’s more frustrating is that we haven’t led very many laps. I think if we were to come here and lead the most laps and run in the top five, that would do as much for me as winning. Just putting yourself in that position, and once you do that enough you end up winning. Even when we ran well at Texas and Daytona, we didn’t lead laps, we just put ourselves in good position at the end of the race to finish there. Yeah, a win would be huge, but right now we need to get back to where we can run in the top 10 every week and try to better ourselves.”

Were you worried that, because you were out early, that Ryan Newman would catch you? “It’s great to get the pole, because I’d rather go out last and qualify 15th because you don’t have to worry about it. You sit over there and stare at the monitor. It takes about a minute for everybody to go around here – it takes forever. Once Ryan went I felt pretty good about it, because he’s the king of qualifying. I think going out early was an advantage. If I could have gone out first it would have been an advantage. They talk about the Hoosier rubber being on the racetrack and that the car doesn’t handle the same. Yesterday, I was the first car on the racetrack and I thought I had a ton of grip immediately after ARCA practice. I felt like for me it would be an advantage.”

How important is getting the pole as you look at the Chase for the Championship? “Qualifying represents how your car will handle in the race, so if you qualify well you race well at these races. It makes feel good. You get a good pit stall and an opening, which is huge, because the pits stalls are so big. Donnie told me yesterday that he didn’t care how we qualified, just to get it to where we could race good.”

STERLING MARLIN, NO. 40 COORS LIGHT DODGE CHARGER, STARTING 25TH

“We slowed down some from yesterday. I don’t know if the ARCA cars put some Hoosier rubber down. But we were really tight yesterday in our qualifying run and really loose today. I’d rather be a little loose now because when you get the tape off you’ll be in good shape for the race.”

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE CHARGER, STARTING 42ND

“The car just got loose on me and I spun out off of three. I was fortunate that I didn’t hit the fence and that we can come home with a solid race car. Obviously we’re going to take a provisional, but I think we have a lot better race car than we had yesterday. We all practiced with a real tight race car and we’ve been doing everything we can to loosen it up. We couldn’t make anything happen, so last night and this morning the guys worked really hard to loosen it up and Jimmy did a lot of work on the right front fender to try to get the thing loose. And we did a good job, because it’s loose now. I hate that we didn’t get a good qualifying spot, but I feel a lot better about the way the car was. The fact that it was loose in qualifying makes me feel a lot better about the race.

KYLE PETTY, NO. 45 KYLE PETTY CHARITY RIDE/BRAWNY DODGE, STARTING 33RD

“It was pretty good. Yesterday we did everything about race stuff. It was a good run for us. We didn’t spend a lot of time on qualifying and focused mainly on the race. We really didn’t even tape off our grille. With these impound races every lap on the racetrack counts and this one counted, too.”

RUSTY WALLACE, NO. 2 MILLER LITE DODGE CHARGER, STARTING 13TH

“I was a little loose off the last turn. I felt like I left at least a couple of tenths on the ground out from being so loose in the last turn, but everywhere else is not too bad. I got into turn one a little deep but I was in the throttle early and got through there good. The tunnel turn turned out pretty good but when I got to that last turn I thought ‘Oh boy!” I was a little slidey out there. But, I think being a little loose today will make us good for tomorrow.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE/TEXACO DODGE CHARGER, STARTING FIRST

“It is a good car and had a lot of grip. I was a little bit shocked about how much grip it had. We were really good in race trim and when went to bed last night I was all excited about today. We’ve had a lot of drama in the last couple of weeks with all the announcements we’ve made and I’m just glad we’re running well. It’s good to get back focused on racing. I didn’t really let all that stuff bother me. We had a super fast car last weekend but had problems with the No. 17 or we would have finished well. We’ve got a good car for this weekend. We don’t usually qualify well, except for here, where I seem to qualify well. It’s cool to get a pit opening, but the pit boxes are so big here that I don’t know that it’s that big of deal. Any time you qualify well is good. And in the impound races, the guys that qualify well race well, so that’s very encouraging.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 9 DODGE DEAALERS/UAW DODGE CHARGER, STARTING 15TH

“We’re just happy the car came back in one piece. I came pretty close to getting into the wall in turn one on the first lap and lost a lot of time. I had to make the second lap was the faster lap, which shouldn’t be the fastest lap. I definitely lost a lot by not making it the first lap but the car is in one piece and we’ll start about 15th tomorrow and hopefully go to the front. The track is always changing. Last year both the races were different and this year it’s similar to some of the other tracks where the heat plays a big factor in what the track’s like. The track is warming up right now so it’s definitely a little freer than what it was earlier. We still had a good lap and I’m pretty happy for our Dodge Charger.”

JEREMY MAYFIELD, NO. 19 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE CHARGER, STARTING 16TH

“The Dodge was good. I was really proud of the guys. The car was a lot better from where we practiced yesterday to what we ran today. It was little loose, but that’s part of it. We should be good tomorrow, but you never know. We’ll pull the tape off and go for it.”

JEFF GREEN, NO. 43 CHEERIOS/BETTY CROCKER DODGE CHARGER, STARTING 26TH

“It was a pretty good lap. We worked really hard on race stuff yesterday. We just threw something at it yesterday to make a qualifying lap and that didn’t work, so I was proud of my guys and what they gave me to qualify today. We’re basically going to take the tape off and race. We’ve run this car a lot lately, and it really responds to cars around it. I look forward to tomorrow. This is the same car we ran here in the spring, where we had a fast race and a really good race. I hope we can do it again.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 12 MOBIL 1/alltel DODGE CHARGER, STARTING FOURTH

“We had a pretty good lap, and definitely had a shot at the pole. I just got loose in turn two. It was pretty good for being fourth, and we’re happy about being up front. We didn’t have a good qualifying effort here in the first race, so it was definitely a big disadvantage for the first race. We just got loose in turn two and lost a lot of speed there, but definitely had a shot at the pole. We didn’t really make that many changes between practice yesterday and today, it’s just a little bit faster because there’s not as much rubber and heat in the racetrack. I think we’ll be good for tomorrow.”