Chevy American Revolution 400 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes

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

“I thought it was pretty good through three and four and a little off in turn two. I got into turn one a little too far and got up the track higher than I wanted to be. I didn’t know if it would be the pole, but I knew it was good. I always know we have a good shot. It was fast in practice. We just didn’t make a qualifying run. I knew it was balanced well, and I feel like we have a real good racecar for tomorrow night. It’s awesome to win two straight Cup poles and two poles today at Richmond. I was worried about Ryan Newman. I knew he was in a backup car, but I knew he was going to be fast.

“It wasn’t a perfect lap. I went into turn one too hard and got up the track probably a car width too high. I got a good run off and down the back stretch and made up for it there. I knew if we lost the pole that would be the reason.

“I’ve always liked Richmond. Last year this was our worst racetrack probably or one of our top two or three racetracks for some reason. We came here and tested this year and definitely feel like we were in better shape than last year. It’s going to be a long night, but track position always pays off. You’ve got to make the right decisions in the pits and keep your car out of trouble and keep it together. It should be a good race for us. We finished both races here last year. We didn’t have very good finishing results, but we finished.”

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Charger) – Qualified 2nd

“That’s all it had on the first lap (40th fastest). We were sliding around on cold tires, but it was a good run, especially with a backup car. I know we had a shot for the pole. I wish we could have got the ALLTEL Dodge on the pole, but we look forward to the race. I think we’ve got a good piece to work with. We were sliding around pretty good on the first lap, but we got everything we could out of it.

“The other car was the preferred car, but it no longer is, so this car is the second best option. I wish we could have got the pole, but I think we’ve got a good car. We went back on old tires with this car and we didn’t even tune on it, so I think we’ll race good.

“(Second) is a good place to start. We’ll have decent pit selection. Maybe we can stay out of the first crash and have a chance to lead some laps. I wish we could have got the pole, but I got up in the marbles in practice and got up into the fence. That’s about it. We brought the primary (car) for a reason, but we’ve got a good backup. Obviously it wasn’t the car we preferred, but it’ll work here fine.

“In a way we still do (consider the backup car a secondary car). They’re all built by hand. Both of them have a little different body on it whether it was trying to be duplicated or not. No two cars are built the same. That’s why we choose one car over another.

“It’s easy to say it (Darlington) was a no win situation and we still could have won. My best answer for you there is sarcastic in a way, but the best situation would have been if Carl Edwards wasn’t as good a driver as he is and spun out we would have won the rest. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, situation that didn’t work out in our favor. We were in the right place at the wrong time. We’ll never know if there’s a better answer than what we did.

“This track doesn’t change a whole lot. It usually just kind of slows down when it gets hotter. You can tune it (changes) in your racecar before the start of the race. We’ll just have to see, but that’s not going to bother me at all.

“(The practice crash) moved the engine over inside. The rear end was knocked over a couple of inches. I don’t know what suspension damage there was in the front.”

JEFF GREEN (No. 43 Betty Crocker/Cheerios Dodge Charger)

“We needed to go a little faster, but we picked up a little bit. That’ll give us a good starting spot. I love to race here. I wish we raced here every week.”

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“That was a good lap. I got loose on the first lap and I knew I had to get some heat in the tires. On the second lap I was able to bring it back. I was a little looser than I wanted to be. I was going to put a pound of air in the right rear tire, but I’m glad I didn’t do that. That would have really got me in trouble. That’s exactly what we ran when we tested here. A good handling car and fast pit stops and track position will be the key. That’s what we’re after.”

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

“That was a little better than we ran in practice. The car didn’t drive that good. I was a little surprised we went as fast as we did. There’s a little more speed there if we had hit it just right. We were loose, but that’s OK. We’ve been starting these races the past few weeks a little too tight. We haven’t had good results the past two weeks. We need to stick around and be there at the end, and I think we’ve got a top 10 car if we can do that.”

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger)

“It wasn’t a smooth lap. We were actually a little too tight. I had a hard time keeping it on the bottom. We’ve struggled here at Richmond, and I think we’ve got a package that’s going to work pretty good for us. We’ve got a good car, so we’ll see how it goes.”

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

“I’m real happy with that. We did all race stuff in practice, absolutely no qualifying runs, no tape on the front. We’re concentrating on the race this time. We put some tape on it and it worked great for qualifying. I wish I had it all to do over again. I tried not to be too aggressive, but the car is awesome. It’s a brand new car, one of our in-house cars, and I think it’s going to be really good in the race.”