KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)

HOW WAS THE CAR DURING TODAY’S FIRST PRACTICE? “It feels good. The track is real similar to last year. The car feels much better then it did last year. I felt pretty good about my first corner, it was really good. We went from there (Turn 1) to trying to adjust our Budweiser Dodge to make it better. It felt decent in qualifying trim, so it was a good session.”

WITH YOUR RECENT SUCCESS, THE CAR MUST FEEL REALLY GOOD EVERY TIME THAT YOU UNLOAD IT? “Yeah, it feels really strong every time that we unload it. Last week, we qualified great, but had an issue in the race. It’s disappointing, but that’s the way it goes. We’ll recover from it. Our cars are still really fast. So I’m looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday.”

NHMS IS CLASSIFIED A SPEEDWAY, DOES IT DRIVE LIKE A SHORT TRACK? “To me, it’s more of a short track then a speedway for sure. It’s a flat one-mile (track). You brake a lot and have to slow down a ton for the corners. To do that, it’s a short track. We just have to figure out how to keep getting it through the corner fast and come off the corner good with forward drive. So far we’ve been good with that. The car felt really balanced, but we definitely need some more practice tomorrow.”

DO YOU HAVE TO RACE THE COMPETITION LIKE IT’S A SHORT TRACK? “I’ve raced here a bunch and at times it’s bumping and banging and other times it’s normal racing. The biggest thing here is if the bottom and the top (grooves) are the same. Sometimes you have to really stick to one line, so I’m hoping that it will be pretty good this weekend. It seemed pretty fast during practice and I was able to race any lane that I chose. It seemed like our Budweiser Dodge was good in any lane.”

IS GOING TO CHICAGOLAND FOR THE FIRST TIME UNDER THE LIGHTS GOING TO BE A COMPLETE UNKNOWN? “Yeah, it’s definitely going to be an unknown. I’m kind of excited that it’s on a Saturday night. It’s something different in Chicago. It interferes with my sprint car a little bit, that’s the King’s Royal night, so I won’t be going to watching that this year. I’m looking forward to racing Saturday night.”

WHAT’S YOUR OUTLOOK FOR QUALIFYING? “We were fifth fastest in practice. We definitely have a shot at the pole depending on the adjustments that we make. (The car) was great in practice, so we’ll keep working on it.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING AT NHMS SPECIFICALLY? “It’s a flat track. It’s a faster flat track than we normally go to. You bounce a lot going into Turn 3. That’s something that you have to figure out – bouncing through there under braking, hitting the splitter on the racetrack and not locking up your front right tire. I think (Turn 3) is the most critical spot on the race track in qualifying. That could be the pole or not.”

WHAT DOES YOUR TEAM HAVE TO IMPROVE ON TO SET YOURSELF UP FOR THE CHASE? “We just need to keep doing what we are doing. We’ve improved a ton since the start of the season. We started good and we’ve gotten better. That’s our mindset, keep improving. Since Mark McArdle took over in December, it has been to improve all year long and figure out how to keep getting better and better. That’s all our focus has been. If we keep doing that, we’ll be in the Chase and win some races.”

HOW COMFORTABLE ARE YOU NINTH IN DRIVER POINT STANDINGS RIGHT NOW? “I’m really comfortable because I think that my car is as good as any in the top nine. If we just do our job, we can run in that top nine or 10 every weekend and stay right where we are at, or even gain some spots.”

HOW GOOD IS IT FOR YOU TO COME TO THE RACE TRACK RIGHT NOW AS COMPARED TO LAST APRIL? “It’s a lot better. On our first lap today, I knew that we had something to work with. Just going through one corner, I could tell that I had a good car. It’s nice when you can come to the track and know that our stuff is going to be fast. I know that we are going to compete for the pole on Friday and hopefully for a win on Sunday. It’s definitely a little different from the start of the year; it’s just a little bit easier when your cars are handling like they are right now.”

HOW HAS YOUR RECENT SUCCESS PERMEATED THROUGH GEM? “I think our 19 car is definitely getting better. The 19 is real good; he’s just has some problems with bad luck here and there. The 19 and the 9 work really well together. The 10 is improving, but they do a lot of their own stuff. I feel like the 19 and the 9 work really well together and it shows. They both run very similar every week.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Best Buy/Hancock Dodge Charger)

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RECENT SUCCESS THE GILLETT EVERNHAM MOTORSPORTS CARS HAVE SHOWN? “We’ve come a long way the last few months. We’ve been running and qualifying really well, we just need some luck to change our way a bit. We’re not hanging our heads. We’re still building new cars and feel very confident about the next few races that we are going to with our Dodges. I’ve got a good feeling about this Gillett Evernham race team. We just need to put it all together.”

WHERE HAVE YOU SEEN THE BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR RACE TEAM? “I think the biggest improvement has been our cars. We’ve made them a little bit lighter, a little faster. They’re real comfortable to drive. Anytime that you can get your car more comfortable, the driver’s are going to drive them faster and look better on the race track. We’ve come a long way in this Car of Tomorrow from last year. I think all the hard work is paying off. Kasey (Kahne) and I are very happy with our cars and setups each and every week, not only on Friday, but Sunday too. I think that we are more competitive and better in traffic. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big track or small track, we’re starting to figure out what this car wants and it definitely has shown each and every week. Now we just have to put together a whole uneventful race and try to get some luck on our side.”

HOW SIMILAR ARE THE SETUPS BETWEEN THE 9 AND 19 CARS WHEN YOU COME TO A TRACK? “The 9 and 19 are pretty much identical each and every week. We almost have the attitude of one team, two drivers. Even though we’re separated by a lot of (driver) points, if the 19 can hit on one little thing to help the 9 car, it’s going to help those guys with their Chase run. As good as they’ve (9 car) been, if they can hit on one little thing to help us, it’s going to help us improve on our position as well. We’re working very well together. Kasey (Kahne) and I are communicating really good together. Rodney (Childers, No. 19 team director) and Kenny (Francis, No. 9 team director) are communicating good together. It’s just been real fun here the last few months.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RACE AROUND NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY SUCCESSFULLY? “It’s like Phoenix or any short track, you want it (the car) to turn really good in the center of the corners and have good forward bite off (the corner). We brought a brand new car here today, it’s got a lot of lead in it and I’m excited to drive it. I can’t wait to run it this weekend. The guys have worked really hard to get ready for this race. If we can get (the car) turning good in the middle (of the corners) we should have a good day on Sunday.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT GOING BACK TO DAYTONA NEXT WEEKEND? “This has been a really fast season. It seems like that we were just in Daytona for the 500. To go back to a place where we feel like we run really well at is exciting. We’re taking the same car back (that was raced in the 500) with a little more horsepower. I’m looking forward to starting the season over again fresh. I feel like we have some really good cars lined up the next couple of weeks and I like the July race in Daytona. It the Coke Zero 400; I’ve been in the Coke family for nine years so I want to go there and run well for them.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW AMAZING IT IS TO RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS? “Indy is a big race for all of the drivers. I think that it’s the second biggest race of the year. We put a lot of emphasis on it. I was just at Kentucky (Speedway) this week – we’re building a special car for Indy that we think is going to be real good on a flat track. We went very, very fast at Kentucky…faster then the cars that we’ve tested there before. We (9, 10, 19 teams) all get three brand new cars for Indy, so hopefully we’ll be really good when we get there because we’ve put a lot of emphasis on that one race.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY AT NIGHT IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS? “It’ should be fun. Anytime it’s a night race, I think drivers are going to like it because it brings us back to our grassroots of racing. If the groove opens up a bit and we can race up top (of the racetrack) and on the bottom, I think the fans at Chicagoland are definitely going to enjoy the night race. It should be fun.”