The Nextel: Newman qualifying press conference

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) -- Qualifies 2nd with 12.7-second stop

"I was conservative getting to pit lane for obvious reasons. They penalized two out of the four or five before me, so I was doing whatever I had to do to make sure we didn't get penalized. We had a great pit stop. I think it was 12 and a half seconds (actually 12.7 seconds) and that was phenomenal. We were pretty good on the racetrack.

"I was a little disappointed last year. We were right on pit road speed coming in and after showing a tape and reviewing pit road speeds, we were about 20 mph off. I think they cracked down on that a little bit this year, and I think it catered to guys who did pit road speed a little more.

"Knowing Rusty I'm sure he wouldn't have run quite that hard if we hadn't been on the pole. It's a great overall team effort. It shows how hard the guys back at the shop have worked on pit training. The Penske cars were 1-2 and the last time we did that was at Dover the first race last year, almost a year ago. It was a great total effort. I will say it upsets me. I'm not happy we're not No. 1, but we'll go on.

"It's just my opinion from watching what happened last year. I know I was almost 20 mph off. I know pit road speed isn't exactly measured with a radar gun, but obviously they cracked down a little bit harder. The drivers didn't get that much faster getting to pit road this year."

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