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

COMMENT ON RACING THE COT AT INFINEON “I don’t think it’ll be too bad. It should be a pretty fun race. I’ve never finished that well here, but we’ve had some good runs until late in the race. The car was handling good when we tested at the road course. The brakes and everything felt good. We’ll see what happens. I think we’ll have a good shot to have a good race. We’re just behind a little bit. We’ve been doing things that worked last year and we kept making those things better. It’s kinda hurting us now a little bit. We’ve got to take a couple of steps back and go in a different direction. That’s what we’re trying to figure out how to do now. It takes a lot of hard work. Everybody is doing a good job. It’s just a matter of figuring out the right direction to go and right now we’re off a little bit. The team and guys are trying as hard as I’m trying, so it’s nothing you can get too upset about and yell at people. Everybody is working hard. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my four years here, too. That’s the way it goes. We’ll just work together and get it back.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT RACING IN CALIFORNIA? “I think it’s a pretty good weekend. I enjoy coming out to the west coast. I went to San Francisco yesterday, went to Alcatraz and did some different things. We enjoy Sonoma and the Napa Valley. I grew up on the west coast. I’ve been all over the west coast, California, Washington and it’s nice to be out here once in awhile. I enjoy going to Washington most, but it’s nice to come to Sonoma and the Napa Valley and hang out a few days and then go back to North Carolina.”

WHAT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THE TRACK? “I’d say coming up the hill to turn two or one or whatever that first right hander is coming up the left-hand hill and having a lot of speed through that area and not overshooting any corners is probably my toughest part, but it is easy to overdrive right there.”

WHAT’S THE BIGGER CHALLENGE – SPEED OR STAYING ON THE TRACK? “I’d say probably a little bit of both, but going fast. Staying on the track is one thing, but to run lap after lap, consistently fast lap, I haven’t been able to do that quite as well. We’ve been able to stay on the track usually. We just haven’t been able to run the lap times we need to throughout the race.”

DO YOU ENJOY GOING TO THE WINERIES? “One of the best dinners I’ve ever had was at a Winery here a couple of years ago. NASCAR put on a dinner at a winery for us. It was a great dinner. We went through the winery and wine cellars and caves and stuff. I probably had a glass or two of wine and enjoyed it. I’m not really a wine guy. I enjoyed that and it was a great dinner.”

COMMENT ON SEASON “We’ve definitely been through it before. I’ve been through it before. It just takes time. Once you lose the things that were working for you, you have to go back and figure out when and why it went in that direction and maybe take a couple of steps back and go a different direction. That’s where we’re at right now, trying to figure out which direction we need to go. It’s part of racing. I’m working hard. The team is working hard. Everybody is doing a really good job. When we figure it out we’ll start going back where we need to be.”

ARE YOU DISCOVERING POSITIVE THINGS? “You find out stuff like that, but the positive thing is we’re all still working together and working with each other and not telling one person he’s doing something wrong or make him feel like he’s off. We’re all working together. We’re a team. That’s the positive. The negative is we’re running bad and it’s hard to have good days when you’re running bad for a long period of time.”

ADDITIONAL COMMENT ON COT AT INFINEON “I think it will be real similar. We did one day of testing and I felt like the down shifting, braking, the cornering, everything felt real similar to what it’s been in the past, maybe better in certain areas the way the braking and stuff went for me. The way we have our brakes set up on the car might have felt a little better, so I think it should be a good weekend. I don’t think it should be much different than what we’ve had in the past.”

DO YOU THINK DRIVERS MIGHT BE MORE CAUTIOUS HERE IN THE COT? “It’s going to be interesting to see if the speeds are the same or slower or faster. I think they could be a little bit slower. You never know. It’s a road course. These things might handle pretty good. Other than that, I think it’ll be a very similar race.”

NOTE: Dodge drivers comment on the penalties received today by the 24 and 48 cars,

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 alltel Dodge Avenger)

“I’m not sure what the infraction was, but that was a pretty prime penalty considering how important track position is here. It’ll be interesting to see if any points go along with it. They’ve always been pretty good here, the 24 more than the 48. I really wasn’t that confident going into this race last year. We’d struggled for most of the season and came here and had a really good run. I was totally uncomfortable in the car. I was hot, had a blister on my butt, a Charlie Horse and everything else and still finished second. I guess sometimes adversity pays off.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Avenger)

“If NASCAR’s intentions are to create an equal playing field for everybody with the COT and you step out of line like this you need to hands smacked I guess. DEI did it with their rear spoiler, and now you’ve got two Hendrick cars that are out of code. They really want this to be a controlled environment with the COT. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. You lose a little bit of practice time, but it’s only an hour and a half today. It’s not much. It’s going to suck with those two cars starting in the back because guys up front aren’t going to get any TV time.”

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

“I think they’ll get a good setup tomorrow and be very good on Sunday. NASCAR is being very strict on what you can and can’t do to the COT cars. You cross the line and you get stiff penalties. They’ve shown that already a couple of times.”

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge Avenger)

“You have a rule book, and we have rules. NASCAR has been adamant about the COT. For 24 months they’ve been adamant about the COT. Don’t mess with us on this. I think we’ve already seen it when a mistake was made by the 8 car. We saw how drastic they approached a mistake, so anytime you get into something they deem intentional it’s gonna be big. With what’s gone on today, they deemed it to be intentional, so it’s gonna be a little harsher. As good as those guys are, as good as Jeff it, I think it challenges Jimmie. He wants to win anyhow, so I think it just focuses him more. As good as the Hendricks’ teams have been this year, it’s not an issue. Qualifying is important here, but race strategy is just as important. Jeff probably wished he’d known it. He’d probably have spent another day at home with his wife and new baby.”