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

NOTE: Kahne captured his sixth pole of the season and tied Kurt Busch for the most poles. Kahne won the tie-breaker with a 2-1 edge in second-place starts.

“I got into turn one and felt like I missed it a little bit and gave up some time. I think I made it up in three and four. A lot of cars were close on their times. I think everyone handled pretty much the same. I’d say it’s going to be that way pretty much all weekend long. Sunday should be a similar race. Everyone should be pretty close, and I just hope we can keep our Dodge Charger up front. We’ve been strong here in the past. We haven’t had the finishes we want.”

DO YOU THINK YOU’RE THE MAN TO BEAT SUNDAY? “I don’t know about the man to beat. I think Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson will be there as well. I think my teammates are going to be strong this weekend. I hope we’re one of the cars to beat. It should be exciting. I like Homestead. I like mile and a half tracks.”

COMMENT ON WINNING THE BUD POLE AWARD “To win Bud poles this year and to get that award is huge. To get that Bud Pole Award feels good. It’s a big deal, and I think our engine shop meant a lot to us getting that award. We know we have great cars on Fridays and we can win on Sundays. That’s good to see. Kenny Francis and my team give me cars that can run up front and not just on Friday but on Sundays.”

COMMENT ON YOUR SEASON “Personally I feel like I’ve run a lot better. We’ve communicated better with my team director and team and I have a much better team than I had last year. The guys are awesome. They have a very strong team and they’re very committed and dedicated. They focus hard and give me great racecars every weekend. I look forward to next year.”

WHAT DOES THIS RACE MEAN GOING INTO THE OFF SEASON? “We’ve had an awesome season. We’ve been up front just about every single weekend. Throughout the Chase we’ve had great racecars every weekend. To win the final race of the season there’s no better way to end the season.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 30 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger)

“I think I’m a fast learner. Driving the car is no big deal. Driving the car is not the most important thing. The do’s and don’ts are the hardest things here. Anyone can put it in the field. You get two clean laps and it’s all about the car. I come out of the Busch car today, and I make sure I don’t overdrive the car.”

WERE YOU NERVOUS ABOUT MAKING THE FIRST CUP RACE? “Yes, it’s stressful. You don’t get any second chances. One of the hardest things I’m getting the handle on is you go out on cold tires. It takes forever to get heat in the tires and then it’s straight down to business. It’s pretty cool.”

COMMENT ON SOME OF THE ADJUSTMENTS YOU’RE HAVING TO MAKE “When you come from open wheel, you don’t understand that the car behind you can affect the car that’s in front. We’re not used to that. In open wheel, the guy behind gets hold of your dirty air and that’s it. You always need to pay attention to your spotter to know if the car is on the outside or if the car is on the inside. You’ve got to know what the car is going to do, and when you follow somebody you always need to keep your nose clean. All that makes it really hard. I could probably have been running faster than I’ve been running, but I don’t want to make any enemies. I’ve been really cautious about how you make your moves.”

CHIP GANASSI (Car owner Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates)

“As I’ve said time and time again we’ve got about eight of 12 steps. Today was just another step. It was a big step, but it was just another step along the way. We’ve have six or eight more steps to take before we’re ready for next year. This was one. We haven’t had him on a road course yet at all. He’s going to be in road racing situations and quite frankly I think that’s going to be the most difficult for him. I think he’s going to have to learn you can’t lean on these cars road racing like you can Formula cars. Can you go quickly for a long time? That’s a different set of parameters. We’re going to be happy (Sunday) if we just run all the laps and run what I call the cycle – all the laps, all the pit stops. My expectation is for him not to be a factor in the championship. I want to make sure he’s not a factor with that. I think it’s just another step to get to next year.”

COMMENT ON MONTOYA QUALIFYING THE 30 “As stressful as this exercise was today, for him I think it will be invaluable when you look back on it. I think the experience for his learning curve will be invaluable.”

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Wells Fargo/Tire Kingdom Dodge Charger)

“I messed up on my first lap. I felt like I needed to run my second lap, but you’d already got all the good out of those Goodyear tires, so there wasn’t anything left in ‘em. I feel real good about the race. I just messed up qualifying. We came down here and tested and all we did was race stuff testing. It’s come back pretty much like it was. This is probably the most equal day qualifying they’ve had in a long time.”

CASEY MEARS (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger)

“It was way too tight. We had to pull a little of the left-right camber out before we went through tech, and I think it made it really, really tight. It was tight in race trim, too. That’s what we’re going to be fighting the most. It was horrible in qualifying. I wanted to qualify better than that.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

“We’ve got a great racecar. This is my favorite car. We were very fast in practice. The Dodge Charger is driving good, and we’re ready for a great weekend. It’s championship weekend. I’m looking forward to Monday morning and hunting season in Virginia. My guys have worked hard. I left a little bit on the table, but I’m proud of my guys. We’ve got a good car for Sunday. We’re getting better. I cannot wait for the Daytona 500 next year when we’re all on the same playing field, but we want to win this race, too. We’ll see what happens. At least I gave ‘em something to shoot at today.”

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

“We were too loose getting in. We weren’t as fast as we needed to be. It’s disappointing. We’ve always qualified well here, and this isn’t up to par for us as is most of the season. It’s one more thing to put behind us.”

SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Stanley Tools/Valvoline Dodge Charger)

“The guys made some good adjustments. I knew it wasn’t going to be the pole.There’s a lot of grip out there and the car slid around a little too much. I couldn’t use as much throttle as I needed it to. That’s a good run, and now we’ve got to get ready to have a good race. The lap was a good pickup for us. We hadn’t run nearly that fast in practice. As good as the car felt I thought we’d be easily knocked off the pole. To end up second is good for us, and I’m glad Kasey ended up with the (pole award) this year. I think my opinion of the Dodge Charger, I did a lot of testing at the beginning of the season, compared to the Monte Carlo I think the Dodge Charger felt more stable, but it did feel a little uneasy with the way it got its downforce. It felt like the wind was gusting around it all the time. We did some changes on the nose of the car and really helped the car. I think that’s where we came up with the new nose we’re running next year.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 30 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger)

“My Cup car was really tight. I got in the Busch car and it was so loose. It’s really hard to switch from one to the other. The wheelbase is different. The whole car is really different. It worked out pretty good, and I think it actually helped me. I think we did a good job today. I’m trying to earn as much respect as possible and hopefully everyone does to me.

“It’s been crazy today, going from one car to another. I finished the Cup practice and I didn’t think I was going to make the show. I knew I had to step it up a little bit. It was a good lap, but the car was really tight. We’ve got two hours of practice tomorrow and we can make it better for the race. It was cool making the race for Sunday. It’ll give me more experience. Everybody at Dodge and Ganassi has been great.

“I can run hard and stop, but I’ve been trying to stay away from that. If people don’t give me enough room, most of the time I back off because I want to try to get to the end of the races, but it’s all about that – knowing how far you can go. Running by yourself is not a problem. A lot of people in the Latin Media and people are watching me. I just want to have fun. I came here to have fun and do a good job.

“I think from what I’ve done it Busch so far I know what I need out of the car. It’s hard. The car is decent. We can run up there, especially at the end of the runs. If we can run to the end we’ll be doing pretty good. I don’t want to get in anybody’s way.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“We just made too many changes and got real loose. It was an animal. I thought it would get better the second lap, but it stayed real loose for us. We’re allowed to miss. We missed today, but we’ll be all right.”

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

“We’ve qualified well all season long. We tried again today. It’ll be tough to get it, but the engine package we brought here is very strong. The Dodge Charger is working well. We’ll see what happens, but it’s nice to see all three Evernham Dodges up front. I really didn’t think it would hold up for the pole because some pretty fast cars still hadn’t gone. I left a little in turn one. I didn’t get through there as good as I wanted. It was a strong showing today for the Evernham Dodges. I didn’t get the best lap in the world, but it was a pretty good one. We’ve got some more practice tomorrow and we’ll keep working on it. This is a track I’ve always enjoyed coming to. I haven’t had the best results in the Cup car, but I’ve always enjoyed coming here. I think we’ll be good. We’ve been one of the better cars most of the Chase. We’ve just had some bad breaks. The car has been strong at just about every track and we’ve learned a lot in The Chase that will help next year.”