NASCAR Cup

Sears Point: Ford teams Saturday quotes

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus, was involved in an accident during the first practice session and will be forced to use a back-up car for tomorrow's race. MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus "I got a flat tire ...

Published: Jun 27, 2004, 3:11 PM

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Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus, was involved in an accident during the first practice session and will be forced to use a back-up car for tomorrow's race.

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus

"I got a flat tire or something because the car just went straight. It really didn't do anything funny. It either had a flat tire or something broke in the front straight because the car never turned."

Greg Biffle is in Milwaukee for this afternoon's NASCAR Busch Series race. As a result, crew chief Doug Richert will be trying to get the No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus ready for tomorrow's race without his primary driver. He spoke about his plan prior to Saturday's first practice.

DOUG RICHERT, Crew Chief - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus

WHAT IS YOUR PLAN OF ATTACK IN PREPARATION FOR TOMORROW'S RACE? "Probably our biggest plan is to really concentrate and listen to see what our other teammates are doing. How they're adjusting to the race track and where they start the first practice to where the go the second practice. We're probably gonna split our team up and actually monitor real closely each team and see how they change and at the end of the day see where everybody ends up with springs and bars and shocks. I've already talked to Greg this morning a little bit and got his thoughts on what we're gonna put in the car if we didn't have anything else to go off of. It's a little difficult right now. We're making a couple of small changes to the carburetor and we've had the transmission out of it, so I'll probably get some type of road racer - preferably one of our teammates, if they get a moment to take it out in the second practice and just shake it down to make sure I don't have something stupid going on."

HOW MUCH DID YOUR TEST SESSION HERE PREPARE YOU FOR THIS SITUATION? "That was the main reason why we did test here because we knew this was coming. We made a lot of laps and we've got a good idea of what we want in the car and that's what we're gonna put in it now. But the track changes and you want to try to keep up with that and that's the one thing we will not be able to do is keep up with the changes."

Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 88 UPS Taurus, qualified 23rd for tomorrow's NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race and he says the key to having a good day is simple - stay on the race track. He spoke about that philosophy between Saturday's two practice sessions.

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus

IT SEEMS AS THOUGH EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE FASTEST CAR, IF YOU STAY ON THE TRACK YOU CAN HAVE A PRETTY GOOD DAY. WOULD YOU AGREE? "Yeah. I think that's the main objective. There's no way if you just stay on the track that you can lose as much time as if you take a chance. I think you have to weigh what you can gain versus what you can lose by either trying too hard or trying to make your car do something that it's really not capable of or something that maybe I'm not capable of. Staying on the track is the main objective and being easy with your shifting. If you don't create any problems for yourself, you can usually come out of here with a pretty decent run."

STARTING MID-PACK AND WITH PASSING BEING HARD HERE, HOW DO YOU APPROACH THIS RACE? "You can't be too conservative. You have to run hard and you have to kind of hold your spot. I think my car and what I've been able to do in the past is if I can hang on for the first 10 or 12 laps of a run, then I seem to get a little bit better or I don't fall off as much. That's when I can start making passes and it's actually easier to pass then because when everybody has fresh tires, it's really hard to pass. If I can save a little bit until that time and then start making moves, we'll be OK. Hopefully, the pit strategy works out well for us and then you can find yourself running in the top 10."

JEFF GORDON SAID YESTERDAY THAT YOU WANT THE CAUTION TO COME OUT WHILE YOU'RE IN YOUR PIT BOX. THAT'S A GOOD THING. "Yeah, normally that's not good, but that's a perfect scenario for here. That's kind of what you hope for. Everybody has a little different strategy, but it's basically the same thing. You're gonna see very few stops under the caution - most of it is gonna be under the green - and you're gonna stick to your two-stop routine unless something is really messed up."

-ford-

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