NASCAR Cup
Loudon: Ford drivers race quotes
MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Finished 3rd) HOW WAS YOUR DAY, ESPECIALLY WITH NEWMAN AT THE END? "Yeah, we were just having fun. I think we were both trying to save gas. We had a real good car all day, we just really didn't ...
Published: Jul 21, 2003, 11:08 PM
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MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Finished 3rd)
HOW WAS YOUR DAY, ESPECIALLY WITH NEWMAN AT THE END?
"Yeah, we were just having fun. I think we were both trying to save gas. We had a real good car all day, we just really didn't have great track position. Robbie and the guys knew what they were doing and got it full of gas when we needed to. On four tires I could run pretty good, we had a pretty competitive car. They gave me good pit stops. I didn't do too good of job. I overshot the pits and that cost us some positions, but those guys did a great job and we came home with a great finish."
WAS IT HARD TO PASS OUT THERE?
"It wasn't easy to pass. I mean, you could catch somebody and you could be faster than them, but if they wanted to be hard on you and really use a lot of track and run you hard, they were very difficult to pass. But if they'd give you a little extra room and give you a little break, you could run side-by-side."
A PRETTY GOOD POINTS DAY.
"Yeah, I don't know where everybody else finished, but I know we finished in front of them so that was good. I woke up this morning and really had plans that I hoped to win the race. I thought we had a really good car, but it wasn't good off the bat. I couldn't run for five or 10 laps, but in the middle runs we were pretty good. We came up a little short, but that's a great finish."
DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus (Finished 7th)
DID YOU MOVE UP ON THE TRACK OR AS A RESULT OF STRATEGY?
"A combination of both. We made the car better throughout the day and it actually drove pretty good there at the end when we had two tires on it. But I had to save fuel so much. That was really our only chance of salvaging a really good finish out of the thing - to stay out on the race track and save as much fuel as we could. I wanted to race those guys, but just couldn't do it. It worked out well. Shawn (Parker) did a really good job of calling the race and adjusting on the car. I ran out of fuel coming to get the checkered flag and by the time I got to the backstretch it had cut off, so maybe our luck is turning around a little bit."
RYR ISN'T KNOWN FOR FUEL MILEAGE, BUT YOU WENT 103 LAPS ON THAT TANK.
"That's pretty good. Certainly the cautions helped us out there and enabled us to even take the chance. Past history shows us that the there are a lot of cautions the last 120 laps of this race. I really expected there to be another one that would really have helped me out and let me race some, but it worked out well. We're not known for fuel mileage, but we had a couple of carburetors here and they had one that had a little more bottom end to it and they said this would get me off the corner better. I said that this race is more about fuel mileage than getting off the corner, so I opted for the other one and it worked out for us."
HOW WAS THE TRACK TODAY COMPARED TO PREVIOUS RACES?
"It was a much wider race track. I appreciate them going in there and re-paving it. The next time we come here it should be even better yet. It's still tough to pass, there's no doubt about that. It used to be the bottom was where you wanted to be, but now the inside is the place where it's hard to get down and make a pass. But it did enable us to race a little more side-by-side and transfer positions."
KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Rubbermaid Taurus (Finished 11th)
"We just had a loose, loose race car in happy hour and today it was tight, tight, tight. We just aren't having the luck like we were normally having. We're just chasing race tracks and chasing cars. We need to get back to something that will help us. We're unloading with the same setup that worked last year and that's the biggest problem - it's just not working this year."
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE TRACK TODAY?
"It was great. There was no problem. I would have liked the low groove to come in like it did last year, I mean the yellow-line groove, but it didn't. People just moved up and it was fine."
RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 12th)
"That's a pretty good run. I feel a little disappointed we didn't finish eighth, but, on the other hand 12th isn't bad, either. But to have to pull over to the curb and watch everybody pass you, I lost all of those positions coming from turn four to the start-finish line. I ran out going into turn one and it wasn't gonna go anymore. That was it. I knew it was gonna be close, but after I was racing Steve Park and had Dale Jarrett in front of me - coming back to me - I got the information, but it was like 15-20 laps to go about starting to save fuel. Had it been maybe a little earlier, I might have been able to save a little bit more but I didn't know. I went after Jarrett pretty hard and when I did that probably didn't help any."
HOW WAS THE CAR?
"We were pretty good. Track position is just always everything. You could have the best car like Gordon and he got stuck in the back. We were 23rd in the points, so were back there. We got up to the front because of pit strategy. When we got to the front we probably ran the slowest we did all day, but track position outweighed how well your car ran."
HOW WAS THE TRACK?
"The track was excellent - finally. Mr. Bahre has got a race track he can be proud of - it didn't tear up all day, it had two grooves and it's a great race track."
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