NASCAR Cup

Watkins Glen: Dodge teams qualifying quotes

KASEY KAHNE (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) -- 2nd "I was real happy with the run. It was real fast up the hill getting through the esses." COMMENT ON THE HIT LAST WEEK AT INDY "I hit pretty hard. I'd never hit a wall that straight in.

Edited: Aug 12, 2006, 2:37 AM

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KASEY KAHNE (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) -- 2nd

"I was real happy with the run. It was real fast up the hill getting through the esses."

COMMENT ON THE HIT LAST WEEK AT INDY "I hit pretty hard. I'd never hit a wall that straight in. It took all the air out of me. I'm just happy with the HANS device, the SAFER walls, all the things that NASCAR has done the past several years to make it a safer sport. I felt pretty good Monday considering I'd run straight into a wall the day before."

COMMENT ON THE POINTS "I'd like to think we could stay up there. Tomorrow is going to be a big, big day in practice figuring out the car, figuring out the brake setup and figuring out things for Sunday. We definitely need to run in the top 15 and leave here with a decent finish. If we don't we're in trouble."

COMMENT ON THE COMMERCIALS "I don't know, whatever they want to do. If it works, it works. It's worked so far. We've had some great Allstate commercials with some girls, and I really enjoyed it. It's been fun, so as long as NASCAR fans are laughing when they're watching TV I think that's a good thing."

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE AT THE GLEN? "Yeah, it's my third time here. We made a good lap today, and we need to make a lot more if we want to have a good finish on Sunday. Making a lot of good consistent laps and keeping the tires on the car will be the keys. We'll just try to stay on course and bring it home in one piece."

***

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger) -- 3rd

NOTE: Newman qualified fourth and finished second earlier this season at Sonoma in the same Dodge Charger.

"Kurt is coming up and I guess if you get beat by a teammate it's a good thing, but it was a good run for four Alltel Dodge. I'm just looking forward to the race. Track position means everything here throughout the entire race and when you start out with it it makes your Sunday a little bit easier. Matt (crew chief Borland) and the guys and everybody at Penske Racing has done a great job. We'll see how we stack up, but that was a good qualifying run for us. We'll see if it holds up. It's the same car we had at Sears Point, but I think I've always been a decent road racer. You guys just have never picked up on it. I finished second here my rookie year with no power steering. It's a little more difficult when you don't have power steering. I think Kurt is going to be really strong. I think Stewart and both Gordons will be really tough, but it's nice to be included in that group right now."

***

CASEY MEARS (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger)

"Most of the guys are falling off pretty bad from what they ran in practice. I don't think going out early is going to help. I think it's going to cool off quite a bit. This qualifying takes awhile. I was hoping to back up what we ran in practice, but we were five tenths slower. I'm not really happy with it. If I was sitting on the pole I would be happy, but we're not really horrible, either."

***

SCOTT PRUETT (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Charger)

"You're not satisfied unless you're first. Our racecar was pretty good this morning. We put new tires on and put tape on and it was really, really loose. We made a bunch of changes for qualifying and that's the best the car has been, but it's still really loose. We've got to make an improvement there, but we're reasonable. We're going racing, and I think our racing car is better than our qualifying car. We know what we need to work on in practice Saturday morning, so we'll see if we can tighten it up."

***

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

"I didn't know what it was going to be like in qualifying, but I thought it was going to be better than that for sure. I'm proud of all the guys on tr5he team for working hard with me and trying to teach me all they can about road course racing. I'm still trying to catch all these guys that have so much more experience. We need to have a solid day on Sunday and take care of our car and be there at the end. I think we'll have a good car in race trim. I just thought we could qualify a little better. Boris Said has been helping me the last three years, and I think he's done a good job. We've just got a little more to learn."

***

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

"That lap was ok, but it could have been a little better. It felt pretty good. It's a lot tougher to come back to a road course. You've got a lot more corners to mess up. We tested this car earlier this week at Kershaw to get a feel for it. The guys have really done a great job getting ready for this weekend. I'm just here to drive the car and maybe help bring some stability to this team. It's all about earning some owners' points and getting this team where it needs to be."

-credit: dodge motorsports

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