NASCAR Cup
All-Star: Winning team interview
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) Winner CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU WON THE ALL-STAR RACE? "I wouldn't have believed it until about lap 60 or so. At that point, our car was getting better and better. We were making the right ...
Published: May 20, 2008, 12:04 PM
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KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) Winner
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU WON THE ALL-STAR RACE?
"I wouldn't have believed it until about lap 60 or so. At that point, our car was getting better and better. We were making the right adjustments. In the final 50 to 75 laps we were pretty loose. We made one small adjustment with the track bar, and left the tires on it. I knew we were quick the longer the runs went. I thought if we could get by some cars, the car was good enough to win."
THE FIRST 25 LAPS YOU WENT FROM 24 TO 13TH, WAS THE CAR GOOD ALL NIGHT?
"The car was good all night. It was a little too loose early. We could have had (passed) a couple more cars there in the end on a couple of those runs in the end and kind of got held up. I didn't want to force anything with the way it was slipping around on the bottom at the end. It feels pretty special to win this race. To get voted in by the fans - they voted us in - we didn't even make our way in. The fans put us in the All-Star Race and hopefully we made them happy. Twenty-fourth to 1st, that's the best that we can do."
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PIT STRATEGY AFTER THE THIRD SESSION?
"That's what we had to do; it was our only shot at winning the race. I knew that the longer the runs went, the better our Budweiser Dodge got. I thought we were getting better and some other cars were getting worse. We did that (stop and go pit) and came out in second. Denny Hamlin got a great start and we had to battle a little bit and get back out front."
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOLDING OFF GREG BIFFLE AND DENNY HAMLIN LATE IN THE RACE?
"I knew both of them were going to be tough. I was better than Hamlin and was better than him off the corner. I was just waiting and knew we were a little bit better."
RAY EVERNHAM (Co-owner, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
YOUR THOUGHTS ON WINNING THE SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE?
"That was awesome and a really great effort put forth by Kenny Francis and all the guys on that team. I really want to thank the fans because if it wasn't for their vote, we wouldn't have been in the race. We won the race."
KENNY FRANCIS (Technical Director, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
HOW GOOD DOES THIS WIN FEEL?
"That was an awesome run for the Budweiser Dodge, and it's a lot of validation for all the hard work all those guys on this team have put into this program. We have to really thank the fans for voting us into the race- that makes it pretty special. We're really excited to win for all the fans that voted us into the race. We really didn't do anything special as far as pit strategy. We just kind of worked our way through the field."
MARK MCARDLE (VP & Managing Director of Competition- Gillett Evernham Motorsports)
"Kasey, I'm damn proud of you."
-credit: dodge motorsports
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