Kahne Leads Top Four Dodge Sweep; Seven Chargers in Top 10

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

“We started practice today and scuffed some tires. The tires are real hard and we’re just trying to get grip. We scuffed some tires and made two race runs and kinda figured out where we needed to be there and made two qualifying runs. We felt like we had a good car when practice was over. We knew there would be more grip when the sun went down. So we made the car turn better and better and had a pretty good lap. There are some bumps in one and two that I was able to get around and cut down the track after I got around them. It worked out good. I’m excited not to give the track record up yet. I’ve had it since ’04, so I’ll try to keep it for awhile.”

DOES THE NEW TRACK THROW EVERYTHING IN THE PAST OUT THE WINDOW? “There are parts of the track that feel similar, how you get in the corners and how you get off the corners. It just feels like Vegas, but once you get in the middle of the corner it’s something different. The tire is creating the biggest obstacle. It’s hard so we don’t blow tires, so they made a real hard tire so it slows us down and we don’t have speeds. There’s so much force in the tires, and that alone is going to make for anybody’s race on Sunday. Whoever can figure it out and stay out of trouble or whoever can figure it out how to get around the track in hot temperatures.”

HOW DID THE TRACK FEEL TODAY? “I think we started practice at 11:30. My final run there was two minutes left and that was my fastest and that was about 1 o’clock. The track was a lot more slippery. When the track temperature heats up it’s a huge difference. To me it’s not usually that big of a difference, but I think because the tires are so hard, left-side tires especially, as the track temperature heats up it makes a bigger difference. Sunday is going to be the hottest day of the weekend from what I’ve seen on the weather. That’ll create for an interesting 400 miles.”

WILL THIS BE A MARKER FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? “It’s qualifying and qualifying is cool if you’re on the pole. Other than that it doesn’t mean a whole lot on what’s going to go on Sunday. Definitely in qualifying today Dodge was the car to beat. There’s a lot of them up there. Last year there were a lot of them up there, too. Evernham Motorsports figured it out early in the year how to make the Charger to work last year and we had some poles and ran up front last year, so I think the Dodge Motorsports Dodges and all the Dodge teams are a little more equal now. They’ve figured out what we did last year and we have a new nose and that’s probably part of the reason why. Maybe the car is a little easier to figure out. I really don’t know. My car feels little more equal now. They’ve figured out what we did last year and we have a new nose and that’s probably part of the reason why. Maybe the car is a little easier to figure out. I really don’t know. My car feels just like it did on these type of tracks last year as it does now.”

COMMENT ON SMALLER FUEL CELLS AND MORE PIT STOPS “There’s going to be a lot going on in the race, I don’t that. Coming to pit road as much as we will and sliding around as much as we’re going to be sliding around… I still haven’t figured out how we’re going to get to pit road and not knock the valence off the car because of the change there from the banking to the flat. That’s going to be difficult. There will be a lot of things going on Sunday that’s just kind of up in the air and right now I think it’s anybody’s race. There will be some teams that figure out to make the tires work and cars that don’t. You may not see a lot of side by side racing as slippery as it is, and I don’t know whose fault that is. There’s just so much speed and the cars have so much downforce. It’s going to be hard to run side by side on a tire that’s stiff as a rock.”

DOES THE CAR FEEL DIFFERENT IN TRAFFIC? “Last year when we got back in traffic we struggled to get back to the front. Once you got back to the front and we got in clean air we were quick. Last week in California we fell to the back because of the way pit stops went before we had our problem and I was struggling to get back to the front. There’s more there. I think it has to do with the really soft springs and when you lose air on your car it starts flying around and it’s really hard to drive. I think all the teams have the same problem. It’s just how you manage it and how you keep yourself in position. There’s lot of time in these races, so you just take your time and you’ll eventually get to the front.”

Note: Kahne won last season’s Budweiser Pole Award with six poles, winning a tire-breaker with Kurt Busch who also won six poles. This is his 13th career pole in 111 starts and his first of the season. He qualified second fastest in the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway two weeks ago.

BOBBY LABONTE (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge Charger)

NOTE: Labonte cut a right front tire between turns one and two in qualifying and brushed the outside wall. The team will switch to a backup Charger that was tested here as the backup car in January.

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger) – 42nd

“We’re still working on it, trying to get the feel with this package and this tire, this track. We’re playing catch up, but we’ll be all right. We just need to have two good race practices tomorrow. The tires are different. The fuel cells are different, and the cars are the same. We only had a so-so test here and I think that’s a little bit less than a so-so qualifying effort, so we’ve got some work to do.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) – 10th

“I really went wild. Where did that come from? I wasn’t aware that the car was capable of that speed. I took it like I thought I needed to take it out on the track and the Miller Lite Dodge performed like it needed to. We still have a few more questions to ask ourselves on where that speed came from and then what can we do to gain speed. I’m happy with it, and we’ll go from there. It would be the ultimate (to win here). It’s like a dream as a kid when you see the track built from the ground up. Now I get a chance to race here and race for a world class organization like Penske Racing. I’m living the dream. If we could win that would solidify everything. We made wholesale changes for qualifying. It was like shopping at Sam’s Club. We bolted everything we can in it, and that gave us confidence that we might be able to fix our race setup, too. We’re fast, but we just don’t feel like we’re doing it all the time. The tires are throwing us for a loop.”

SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper/Valvoline Dodge Charger) – 6th

“We were bad when we unloaded and just kept working on it in race trim and couldn’t get anywhere. We just decided to go qualifying trim because we ran out of time. The left-side tires seem to be really sensitive. I didn’t know what we were going to do in qualifying trim, and I was so gun shy in practice I really didn’t get everything out of the car and I felt like that time I did. We need to qualify good, and we need a good finish as well, but first things first. You’ve got to qualify good to get a good qualifying spot, so I new it was a do or die situation. We were either going to get a good qualifying spot or crash trying. I knew it wasn’t good enough for the pole. The pole will be a 38 by Kasey Kahne.”

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge Charger) – 22nd

“Billy Wilburn (crew chief) and the guys made a bunch of practice before practice. It was a total team effort. We changed shocks, springs and everything. The track had something to do with it, too. It was cooler and had more grip. That complimented the changes, and I’m really happy for the guys. That was a really good lap for us.”

DAVID STREMME (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Charger) – 2nd

“Everybody on the team did a great job. We unloaded the car a lot better. My confidence is pretty good. I didn’t know if it was going to hold up or not. I think I might have left a little bit out there. I think we should have had better finishes in the first two races, but the biggest thing is not getting any DNFs the first part of the year because the points will jump around so much. It’s really close right now, so we’ve got to have some solid finishes. Everybody wants to win, but we’ve got to put in good efforts and go for wins later on.

“We put in a solid effort today, and that’s all we can ask. The track has picked up so much and you really don’t know how to drive it. You don’t want to overdrive it. Maybe it was better I was a little cautious. I knew some heavy hitters were left to go and I figured one of them would beat me. I told the guys I wanted to be in the Shootout next year, so we came close today. I think we’ll get one soon.

“Practice will be very important Saturday. I think the line will spread out in the Busch race and it’s going to be interesting to see how the strategy plays out. It would have been cool to get the pole today, but there’s still a lot of racing left.”

REED SORENSON (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger) – 7th

“That was a good solid qualifying lap. We’re solid in the top 10 and congratulations to my teammates. I thought David had the pole today, but he got in a real good lap and so did Juan. We’ll work hard Saturday and see if we can race as well Sunday as we qualified today.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger) – 4th

“One and two was pretty good. It’s all about learning. Yes, fourth is great, but when I got on the gas I knew I could have got back on it a lot earlier. The car was a little tight, but we learned a lot today. I think it’s a boost for the whole team to show the performance is coming. If I talk to you after my qualifying in Busch it might be different because I’m struggling a little bit in my Busch car, but Cup is the main deal.

“Things are getting better. All three cars qualified in the top 10 and it’s a Chrysler race and having all those Dodges in the top 10 is a big deal. This is my first time here, so I can’t tell you how it was here before. I think after the Busch race the groove is going to move up.

“I think it (win in Mexico) is a big boost. It shows we can deliver and get the job done. In a way it takes off a lot of pressure, but at the same time it puts a lot of pressure on us. In a way I have a good chance of winning a road course, but there are only two road course races against 34 ovals. You want to make sure you can be competitive on the ovals. The last race it was a lot of hard work in the race. We were really lucky on the yellows. By the end we had a good race car.

“Here we did a lot of work on testing to make sure we were comfortable with the car. I’m getting a little bit more comfortable. I need to learn to relax a little more. I think I pushed the issue a little bit in practice today, and you can’t push this car. You’ve got to work with them a little bit more instead of abusing them.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) – 3rd

“I think pit road is going to be tricky Sunday for all of us for two reasons. Curved like it is it’s going to be difficult for drivers to get in and out of their pit stalls and see the pit signs. The sun sets right there coming off turn four and coming down pit road later in the race we’re going to be looking right at the sun. Pit selection is very important for Sunday’s race. It’s a lot trickier than we’ve had. It’s really the only one curved on our schedule we have shaped like this, so it’s going to be new to all of us. The pit boxes are big enough and long enough to help us a little bit, but still facing the sun it’s going to be tough. Transitions are really deep ones. You come off turn four on green flag pit stops and you see Juan tested it out already. You can knock your valence off coming off the race track.

“I’m really proud of my guys. It’s a DaimlerChrysler race and we wanted to have a good starting spot for Sunday and a good pit road selection and we were able to do that. It was a good lap. I don’t want it back. I’m proud of my guys. It’s been a good day for us here in Vegas. I think everyone at the speedway has done a great job, not only with the surface but all the new garages. The teams have plenty of room and the fans have a lot of things they can do. It’s really brought the fans closer to the drivers. The surface has been fine. You can run up high and on the bottom. I think you guys are going to see some good two-wide racing.”