dodge cup quotes from Nextel All-Star Challenge

Saturday, May 22, 2004.
Lowe's Motor Speedway.
NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge.


 


RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite  Dodge) - Finished Ninth

"It was OK. I bent the left front fender up on the restart. I got into
Ryan's right rear quarterpanel. I went to tuck in behind him and didn't
clear him and tore my left front fender up. It hurt the downforce, but
it was a decent run. We were just too loose right there at the end. We
plugged a left front shock and got the car where it wouldn't sink down
in ground and it got the car too loose on entry and exit and it hurt me.
We're bringing back a new car next week. This is a good car, too, but
we've got a new one ready to go."

 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) - Finished Second

"It was just good, clean racing. Matt and I are close friends and it was
good to see close racing that was clean. We just came up a little short
tonight. The ALLTEL Dodge was really good. Obviously with old tires we
were still holding our own. We'll take this and go into the 600. I told
him (crew chief Matt Borland) what the car was doing and what everything
felt like. He made the calls. I don't think they were the wrong calls. I
think two tires would have been better, but in hindsight I say that. If
we were the first car to come in and everybody else stayed out, we would
have been really caught. Tony is the one who kinda started everything
off out there coming in behind me.

 

"It's all for the money (All-Star race), but you can learn some things
and get some good experiences. You get laps on this Goodyear tire, and
that's pretty much it. We were here to win and we came up short, but
we'll be back here next Sunday for the same thing.

 

"I know Matt made up his mind pretty early. I'm not blaming Tony, but it
was basically him that dictated everybody else coming in. It didn't kill
us by any means. If we'd had a caution there with about 10 laps to go I
think we would have been in pretty good shape, but coulda, woulda,
shoulda.

 

"We'll probably bring the same car back next week, but I'm not sure.
We'll talk it over and decide for sure. I think we'll be in pretty good
shape either way."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished Seventh

"The wreck happened all right in front of me. I hit the brakes and my
brakes didn't slow me down good enough. I got right in the middle of it.
It tore up the front end and we worked on it from there. I think it was
mostly motor (after the wreck). The guys at the engine shop built us an
awesome piece for here and I think the engine had a lot to do with where
we finished today.

 

 "This is one of Bill's cars. He let us use it for tonight. We're
bringing our No. 1 car back for next weekend. I think we learned a lot
this weekend. We learned a lot about the setups, brakes, a lot of things
about driving this place and things we need to do to come back and win
the deal.

 

"Without that wreck, who knows? This car was flying. I think we passed
six or seven cars in four or five laps. I couldn't believe how good it
was when it went green. We're going to make a few changes and do some
things and I'm going to be better when I come back and we're going to
have a good 600." 

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

"Sometimes you dodge them here, and sometimes you don't. That's the deal
with this race. They usually wipe out a bunch of cars. I know I might
make somebody mad, but I'd rather go run and points race where it would
mean something. It's like this every year. Everybody tears up their cars
and somebody is mad. It's a wonder somebody didn't get hurt. Somebody
must have crammed somebody into the fence, made it three deep or
something. It's hard to run three deep here. We almost got through it
and somebody ran into the back of us and turned us around. I don't know
what all happened then. It was just a big wreck with a lot of smoke. We
were going to bring this car back for the 600, but we can't now.

 

"They were all two deep or three deep. It's really hard to race like
that for that short of time. Everybody was being idiots. They do it all
the time. They're going to invert the field. It's the mentality of a
25-lap dirt tracker - just knock 'em out of the way.

 

"I saw smoke as we crossed the start-finish line. Everybody started
checking up, running into each other. I thought we had it cleared and
somebody hit me in the left rear and turned me around. I was on top of
Robby Gordon and came down and hit Jeff Gordon. A lot of people are mad
when they leave. The winner's not, but I hate it for the Coors Light
team. We had a real good car, so we'll just come back next week and try
to win the 600."