NASCAR Cup

Pocono: Dodge teams qualifying quotes

Kasey Kahne Wins Pocono Pole KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) -- Immediately after qualifying "The test went well for us here. Just to come here and see the track (helped) because this is a real difficult track. I didn't think I had ...

Published: Jun 12, 2004, 8:12 PM

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Kasey Kahne Wins Pocono Pole

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) -- Immediately after qualifying

"The test went well for us here. Just to come here and see the track (helped) because this is a real difficult track. I didn't think I had run that fast, but the lap was really good. These guys do an awesome job every week giving me the best racecar they can. Tommy Baldwin and everybody here does an awesome job, and it's really fun to drive a car like that.

"I just got a clean cut at the start-finish. It was pretty hot, so I needed to get a clean cut and shut it off and I didn't coast around far enough, so we needed to get some help from these boys. They're doing a great job. I'm just surprised. There's a ton of fans out here, and this is a cool place. It's fun to come here to Pocono and race in Pennsylvania.

"I'm going to have fun (running Busch race at Nashville and Cup race at Pocono this weekend). Tyler Walker is going to do a good job today practicing it and qualifying it. I'll go out there tomorrow night and race it.

"Turns one and two felt like a track record today. The rest felt like everything was going right. It felt good. Everything was different (in qualifying). I overdrove turn one compared to what I was doing in practice and that changes your whole corner. I got in too

hard and I thought I had blown the corner. Then I picked the throttle up and it stayed right where it was. I was real surprised it went that fast.

"Practice tomorrow is going to be a big deal for us, just to get it balanced and get it where I want it. At one end it's going to be good and at the other end it's not going to be quite as good. At the other corner it's going to be all right, so you've just got to figure which corner you want to be the best in and work around it.

"I've already talked to him (Tyler Walker) once today, and I'll talk to him after qualifying. They're going to qualify later this afternoon. I'll listen and see how everything is going. Tomorrow when I get there and I'll step in the car and hope it's real good. Tyler is a heck of a racecar driver. He doesn't have a lot of stock car experience, but we'll see how it goes. It's a great opportunity for him, so hopefully it'll go well. Tyler and I talk almost every day. We're pretty good buddies. We'll definitely talk more today.

"It might (stand up for the pole). It was a pretty good lap. It can be beat, but it's a great lap. Everything went good in our car. I'd be pretty surprised to get a pole here, that's for sure, but if it happens we'll take it. I just learned how to do it (go fast for one lap) this year. In the past, I needed two laps to go fast."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Dodge)

"We picked up. The guys are working hard. Any time you can pick up half a second it's pretty good or it's just a miracle. We've been working hard to get better. I don't know where that'll put us. Hopefully half a second will keep us somewhere out of provisionals at least and we'll make the show. This is faster than we tested, but I wouldn't call it better. We've got some work left to do. This is going to be a good Dodge. We just have to find the sweet spot on it. I love this place. We have to do some massaging on this Dodge. This wasn't what we wanted, but we're not going to quit. We're going to keep on digging."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

"We picked up a little from practice, but it was still a little free. It was good, but it wasn't good enough. We didn't get the turkey. We generally run good here and at Michigan. This is going to show where we stack up. We've got some new stuff we're trying with the car. We ran race runs in practice this morning and thought we were pretty good with the race runs. I don't know how this new stuff is going to stack up, but we'll find out pretty soon. This is a good track. I enjoy racing here. There's a lot different places you can pass, and we'd really like to put the Coors Light Dodge in victory lane."

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge)

"I wouldn't say satisfied (with qualifying lap), but we made half a second improvement from practice. I don't think that was just in the racetrack. The team did a good job making changed on the ALLTEL Dodge to make it faster. I wish we could have challenged for the pole. I think we were in a couple of turns, but I just couldn't get through turn one like I wanted to. We just need to find the right balance for everything. This isn't the same Dodge we had here last year. It should be better, but it hasn't been yet. We've still got Saturday to get it ready to race."

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge)

"The water pump blew out. I went into turn one and it got real high and it was a handful the rest of the time. We just didn't run what we wanted to run. I'm not real happy with that. We got blocked on our fast lap in practice on new tires, so I felt real good about our chances in qualifying. I love this track. This is probably one of the most fun places we race all year."

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge)

"I had a really good lap going and got loose off turn the last turn coming to the checkered flag. It was a pretty good lap, and our car was real good this morning in race trim. I think we'll be good in race trim. I like going to Rockingham and Darlington and all the places that most people don't. I get tired of the mile and a half cookie cutter tracks. If your car doesn't handle here, the cool thing about this place is you can change the way you enter a corner. It's fun to set up people here early and try to drive underneath them. It's a cool place to race."

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

"The sun came out and the track got a little warmer. We had a good lap going and I got up into turn three the last corner for the first lap and ran up a little bit. I went in a little harder than I should have. It was still a pretty good lap. We knew everything was going against us. We had deer running around out there. We had the sun coming out, so that was still pretty good. I'm real proud of this whole team. Congratulations to Kasey and his team. They put together a great lap. This whole Evernham Motorsports organization has done a great job lately. We've been on a roll. I know I've got a great racecar for this track. This is probably the best car I've had since I won here last. I tested this car at Dover and it ran good. We couldn't decide which one to run at Dover so we ran our old style car and brought this one here. Everything is going great. The motors, bodies, chassis, everything is great right now and we're going to try to put this Dodge in victory lane here Sunday."

-dodge motorsports-

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