NASCAR Cup
Fontana II: Kahne press conference
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) -- Finished 2nd Note: Fifth Runner-up finish in 2004. Moved to Ninth in Series Standings. "Mark was pretty strong on the long runs, so I guess second is the best I was going to get either way. I was ...
Published: Sep 6, 2004, 6:50 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) -- Finished 2nd
Note: Fifth Runner-up finish in 2004. Moved to Ninth in Series Standings.
"Mark was pretty strong on the long runs, so I guess second is the best I was going to get either way. I was getting tired of 'em (runner-up finishes), but I guess it's a good thing. We have to keep running second until we get our win. It was exciting. I was real surprised the 38 was as good as it was. I was thinking the 6 was going to be real strong. Elliott was pretty darn good there at the end. It made for an interesting finish. I had a lot of fun. I wish we had had a couple more laps to see if we could have raced with 'em. I wish the car could have been a little looser, but that's all we had.
"We've got the same story, different week next week. Every week has been so close. Everybody has been within just a few points there. I know Jamie gained some good points there, and Mark Martin is right there. I'm there, Jeremy, Ryan Newman, we'll see what happens. It'll be exciting. It's going to be that final finish that decides the top 10.
"It was a great race. We had a great car all day. We had great pit stops. The car got better every pit stop. We just never got it quite loose enough, quite fast enough for the long runs. It took off pretty good a few times, but the last time we were a little bit tighter than I wanted it. Elliott got away there. He started coming back to us at the end, but it was a little bit too late. Elliott Sadler was really good at the end, and Mark was right there. A few more laps there would have been three cars battling for the lead.
"I was thinking that (Texas finish) on the last lap. I was thinking I was going to catch him again. At least here we weren't quite as dominant as we were in Texas. Mark had the dominant car here on the long runs for sure. We were right around with Elliott most of the race. We were the second or third quickest car and we got second so I was pretty happy with that.
"Mainly they just did air pressure and tried to free the car up some more (on final pit stop). We were trying to make it cut through the corner better. On the restart I was just hoping it would and I could get on the outside of some of those guys and pass 'em. Elliott moved up a little bit and blocked me from going on the outside, and it put me at the bottom. I couldn't do anything at the bottom. We were too tight to run down there, especially early on. He did a good job by moving up. It just killed our momentum, and he ended up winning.
"It's going to be where you finish (at Richmond) if you're going to make the cut or not. I really don't know where the points are right now. We're ninth, so that's an improvement. We did what we needed to do here today. It would have been nice to win, but second is darn good. We led some laps, got five points there. We'll go on to Richmond and keep all the fenders on it, hopefully in the top 10, and we'll have a shot at making that top 10."
-dodge motorsports-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Fontana II: Dodge teams race quotes
Next article Fontana II: Scott Riggs race report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Elliott Sadler
Elliott Sadler will make surprise NASCAR return with Kaulig and Ram at Richmond
NASCAR Truck
NASCAR Truck
Richmond
Elliott Sadler will make surprise NASCAR return with Kaulig and Ram at Richmond
Elliott Sadler's last Xfinity race will be one to remember
NASCAR O'Reilly
NASCAR O'Reilly
Elliott Sadler's last Xfinity race will be one to remember
Sadler: "Right opportunity" brings him back to Xfinity Series
NASCAR O'Reilly
NASCAR O'Reilly
Sadler: "Right opportunity" brings him back to Xfinity Series
Latest news
Ferrari downplays expectations for F1 Mexico GP despite blistering Friday
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
18 min
Ferrari downplays expectations for F1 Mexico GP despite blistering Friday
Ai Ogura explains Marc Marquez battle in Malaysia sprint, denies Aprilia team orders
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
48 min
Ai Ogura explains Marc Marquez battle in Malaysia sprint, denies Aprilia team orders
George Russell tips Frederik Vesti for F1 2027 Cadillac seat
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
1 h
George Russell tips Frederik Vesti for F1 2027 Cadillac seat
"I can do much better than this," laments Francesco Bagnaia after smashing windscreen
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
"I can do much better than this," laments Francesco Bagnaia after smashing windscreen
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe