KASEY KAHNE WINS POCONO POLE

June 11, 2004
Pocono Raceway.
Pocono 500 Qualifying.

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Pole Winner's Interview

NOTE: This is Kahne's circuit-leading fourth pole of the season and his
second track record. He also set the track record when he won the pole
at Las Vegas earlier this season.

 

"The car was perfect right there. I couldn't believe it. We were a
little bit off in practice. Tommy Baldwin and everybody made a few
little changes. I actually drove a little different line, and it picked
up in one and two. The car was better. I drove a little bit better and
it's a difficult track. It takes some time to learn.

 

"We practiced here last Thursday for a full day, and I had Bill Elliott
helping. He was in the corners helping me through each end. I was just
trying to get faster through each corner, and it paid off. I ended up
crashing that car here, not bad, but it definitely needed some work. The
guys in the body shop repaired it and got it back. It's a good thing we
got it fixed. I crashed it off turn one last Thursday.

 

"Just working on it tomorrow (will help prepare for the race). We
weren't the fastest car here in race trim when we tested. We came back
with a better engine package, better racecar. We're going to obviously
be faster because of those two things, but just working on it, getting
the racecar where it drives good and drives good for a long time will be
the biggest thing and just staying out of trouble. It's going to be a
long race. Bill told me this was one of the longest races of the year
once you get going. I look forward to it. It should be a lot of fun.
Just working with the team all day long, last week at Dover we got
better every single pit stop. It seemed like everybody did a good job in
the pits. Tommy made the right calls all day long, and we just need to
keep doing something like that again where we keep getting better
through the whole 500 miles. 

 

"I spent a lot of time thinking about it (Dover). I pretty much got over
it during the days, but every time I tried to go to sleep it would come
back in my mind and made for a few long nights this week. I was
disappointed. It wasn't fun by any means. It's too bad it had to happen,
but we did everything right that day and got in some circumstances and
didn't finish the race. The team was let down because we didn't win, but
at the same time we were all happy that we were the best car there and
knew we would have won if that didn't happen so we weren't too down.

 

"I think I still have a lot to learn. Come tomorrow and Sunday it's
going to be completely different. I actually thought that I overdrove
turn one. It made my whole corner different than what I was going to
run. I just drove in further than I thought. I missed all the bumps and
went above them, and it worked out just fine. It's definitely going to
take some time. 

 

 

 

 

 "It's not going to be easy. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us
just to get some laps in and get more practice here.

 

"I probably learned more this year about these cars. If I feel the cars
getting loose, it's just not getting loose. You feel it different in
every circumstance. I just have a better idea of what it is and how to
fix it. The guys on the team teach me as I go. It's just made everything
a lot quicker. We fix it a lot quicker than I ever have in the past with
any other team.

 

"I was on sticker tires (last Thursday during test when he wrecked the
car). It was right after lunch. I drove into turn one and got wide open
again. I hit some bumps and it got loose. I had it just about saved and
got the back of the car in the exit of the turn one wall. I just got
loose and crashed. It wasn't a bad crash, but they had to do some
fixing, but it didn't hurt anything.

 

"I'm definitely surprised at the start of the year. I'm still surprised
when we do some things, at the end of last week. Sitting on the pole
today is a definite surprise. I thought we'd be somewhere around 10th
when we went out. We just put together a good lap, but a lot of things
this year have surprised me.

 

"I talked to them (Busch team) a couple of times today. I guess they
were ninth in the first practice. Tyler Walker is doing that. He's a
great driver, and I'm excited for him. I hope things go well in
qualifying tonight. It sounded like everything went great this morning.

 

"I'm not positive (if Bill Elliott is going to be here Sunday). I saw
his name on the itinerary. He might be here tomorrow. He usually comes
on practice day. He doesn't come on race day. I think he might be here
tomorrow.

 

"I'm comfortable. I'm always comfortable in these Dodge Dealer cars. I
feel like I did everything from the exit of turn one around the rest of
the track just like I wanted to. I was a little higher than I wanted to
be in turn one. I drove in a little bit harder, but I picked the
throttle up quick. It carried a lot of speed down that backstretch. I'm
definitely comfortable. It's just a matter of doing it 200 times in a
row."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Immediately after
qualifying

"The test went well for us here. Just to come here and see the track
(helped) because this is a real difficult track. I didn't think I had
run that fast, but the lap was really good. These guys do an awesome job
every week giving me the best racecar they can. Tommy Baldwin and
everybody here does an awesome job, and it's really fun to drive a car
like that.

 

"I just got a clean cut at the start-finish. It was pretty hot, so I
needed to get a clean cut and shut it off and I didn't coast around far
enough, so we needed to get some help from these boys. They're doing a
great job. I'm just surprised. There's a ton of fans out here, and this
is a cool place. It's fun to come here to Pocono and race in
Pennsylvania.

 

"I'm going to have fun (running Busch race at Nashville and Cup race at
Pocono this weekend). Tyler Walker is going to do a good job today
practicing it and qualifying it. I'll go out there tomorrow night and
race it. 

 

"Turns one and two felt like a track record today. The rest felt like
everything was going right. It felt good. Everything was different (in
qualifying). I overdrove turn one compared to what I was doing in
practice and that changes your whole corner. I got in too 

hard and I thought I had blown the corner. Then I picked the throttle up
and it stayed right where it was. I was real surprised it went that
fast.

 

"Practice tomorrow is going to be a big deal for us, just to get it
balanced and get it where I want it. At one end it's going to be good
and at the other end it's not going to be quite as good. At the other
corner it's going to be all right, so you've just got to figure which
corner you want to be the best in and work around it.

 

"I've already talked to him (Tyler Walker) once today, and I'll talk to
him after qualifying. They're going to qualify later this afternoon.
I'll listen and see how everything is going. Tomorrow when I get there
and I'll step in the car and hope it's real good. Tyler is a heck of a
racecar driver. He doesn't have a lot of stock car experience, but we'll
see how it goes. It's a great opportunity for him, so hopefully it'll go
well. Tyler and I talk almost every day. We're pretty good buddies.
We'll definitely talk more today.

 

"It might (stand up for the pole). It was a pretty good lap. It can be
beat, but it's a great lap. Everything went good in our car. I'd be
pretty surprised to get a pole here, that's for sure, but if it happens
we'll take it. I just learned how to do it (go fast for one lap) this
year. In the past, I needed two laps to go fast."

 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Dodge)

"We picked up. The guys are working hard. Any time you can pick up half
a second it's pretty good or it's just a miracle. We've been working
hard to get better. I don't know where that'll put us. Hopefully half a
second will keep us somewhere out of provisionals at least and we'll
make the show. This is faster than we tested, but I wouldn't call it
better. We've got some work left to do. This is going to be a good
Dodge. We just have to find the sweet spot on it. I love this place. We
have to do some massaging on this Dodge. This wasn't what we wanted, but
we're not going to quit. We're going to keep on digging."

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

"We picked up a little from practice, but it was still a little free. It
was good, but it wasn't good enough. We didn't get the turkey. We
generally run good here and at Michigan. This is going to show where we
stack up. We've got some new stuff we're trying with the car. We ran
race runs in practice this morning and thought we were pretty good with
the race runs. I don't know how this new stuff is going to stack up, but
we'll find out pretty soon. This is a good track. I enjoy racing here.
There's a lot different places you can pass, and we'd really like to put
the Coors Light Dodge in victory lane."

 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge)

"I wouldn't say satisfied (with qualifying lap), but we made half a
second improvement from practice. I don't think that was just in the
racetrack. The team did a good job making changed on the ALLTEL Dodge to
make it faster. I wish we could have challenged for the pole. I think we
were in a couple of turns, but I just couldn't get through turn one like
I wanted to. We just need to find the right balance for everything. This
isn't the same Dodge we had here last year. It should be better, but it
hasn't been yet. We've still got Saturday to get it ready to race."

 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge)

"The water pump blew out. I went into turn one and it got real high and
it was a handful the rest of the time. We just didn't run what we wanted
to run. I'm not real happy with that. We got blocked on our fast lap in
practice on new tires, so I felt real good about our chances in
qualifying. I love this track. This is probably one of the most fun
places we race all year."

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge)

"I had a really good lap going and got loose off turn the last turn
coming to the checkered flag. It was a pretty good lap, and our car was
real good this morning in race trim. I think we'll be good in race trim.
I like going to Rockingham and Darlington and all the places that most
people don't. I get tired of the mile and a half cookie cutter tracks.
If your car doesn't handle here, the cool thing about this place is you
can change the way you enter a corner. It's fun to set up people here
early and try to drive underneath them. It's a cool place to race."

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

"The sun came out and the track got a little warmer. We had a good lap
going and I got up into turn three the last corner for the first lap and
ran up a little bit. I went in a little harder than I should have. It
was still a pretty good lap. We knew everything was going against us. We
had deer running around out there. We had the sun coming out, so that
was still pretty good. I'm real proud of this whole team.
Congratulations to Kasey and his team. They put together a great lap.
This whole Evernham Motorsports organization has done a great job
lately. We've been on a roll. I know I've got a great racecar for this
track. This is probably the best car I've had since I won here last. I
tested this car at Dover and it ran good. We couldn't decide which one
to run at Dover so we ran our old style car and brought this one here.
Everything is going great. The motors, bodies, chassis, everything is
great right now and we're going to try to put this Dodge in victory lane
here Sunday."