NASCAR Cup

Sears Point: Dodge teams qualifying quotes

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger) -- Qualified 4th "It was a good run for the Alltel Dodge. Kurt and Roy and those guys did a great job and laid down an excellent job. I'm just happy to be in the top five. It seems like we qualify better ...

Published: Jun 24, 2006, 7:25 PM

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RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger) -- Qualified 4th

"It was a good run for the Alltel Dodge. Kurt and Roy and those guys did a great job and laid down an excellent job. I'm just happy to be in the top five. It seems like we qualify better each time we come out here. We haven't improved on our finish since we were a rookie, which was ninth. We've got a great opportunity Sunday with the Alltel Dodge to do that. I've always been comfortable with the road racing part. Driving the cars isn't that hard. It's been in good equipment with good track position and a good pit crew and being able to maintain it throughout the entire race. Qualifying is a big part of it because of the track position. I look forward to being able to keep what we've got and make it better from a track position standpoint. Fuel mileage could be a big deal here. It always seems like it comes out on these road courses. The track is so long and you're on the gas most of the time."

***

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) -- 6th

"I know some spots that I gave up, but I thought our Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger was pretty good. That was our first qualifying run of the day. We did all race stuff in practice. I'm happy with it. I don't know where that will put us, but if the track cools down or stays the same it'll give us a top 15 and give us a good starting spot for Sunday. I was hoping we could pick up some. I feel good with that. Hopefully it'll end up in the top 15."

***

SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge Charger) -- 25th

"I cut the left foot pretty good on the bottom. I've got a piece of plastic in there. It's got a mold where it doesn't put pressure on the stitches. It puts pressure all around it. I'm wearing one of Jeremy Mayfield's old shoes (on left foot). It's about two sizes bigger, but it's wider and that's the main thing. Luckily, Boris Said taught me how to road race so I've always been a right foot braker. Thank goodness. That's a whole lot better than trying to be a left-foot braker. That'd be tough. My right toe got cut pretty good, but you don't brake with your toe. You brake with your foot. I'm going to go on this weekend like I normally do. If I can put 170 pounds on it I know I can put 100 pounds of brake pressure on it. That's all we've got to do. Bill Elliott is here just in case something happens. After practicing today in the car, I told them before we came that I thought that was a little bit of overkill, but they wanted to be safe rather than sorry. Bill is out here just to school us and tell us what we did wrong and how we can get better. We were about six tenths slower than practice, and we thought we could pick up six tenths instead of lose six tenths, so qualifying wasn't very good."

***

CASEY MEARS (No. 42 Chevron-Texaco Dodge Charger) -- 34th

"That wasn't very good. We're getting no rear grip. We keep fighting it. We keep doing things to try to get it, but we're still a good bit off. We'll have to wait and see how it goes. Hopefully some guys will mess up in qualifying and slow down. It's definitely slicker out there now than it was in practice. I think going out early isn't going to help anything. I grew up in Bakersfield where it's 110 or 112 degrees. Hot's hot, it doesn't matter where you come from, and it's pretty hot right now."

-dodge-

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