NASCAR NexCup - Dodge Notes from Darlington Mountain Dew Southern 500

Nov. 14, 2004
Darlington Raceway
Mountain Dew Southern 500.

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

"I don't understand it. We were good and it went bad for awhile and
stayed that way for awhile and then it got good again. We missed it
somewhere. I've never seen it happen that fast. I rode the wall a couple
of times and just couldn't get off of it. We had a good car to start
with, made a couple of adjustments and I guess we just missed it. We
went the wrong way for awhile and then we got good again. Overall we
came home 19th. As bad as we were in the middle of the race, I guess
that's pretty good. It's pretty cool out here tonight. Maybe next time
they'll start the race a little earlier."

 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge)

"We had the car to do it today. The ALLTEL Dodge was awesome. It's just
unfortunate that the motor let go. I think we had something for 'em
there. The last two laps we were the fastest car on the track. We
weren't even in clean air. We'll get 'em at Homestead. We've been
running strong these last 10 races. I look forward to going to the last
race. The track was fast. There's no other word for it other than fast.
The guys are experiencing grip they've never experienced at this place.
Obviously we're not in the hunt for the championship now, but may the
best man win."

 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Jasper/Kodak Dodge)

"We finished better than we did the last time we came to Darlington.
That's not saying much, but it's an improvement. I think I increased the
number of times I hit the wall today. It was just another struggle for
the Kodak team today. We had two stops in the 12-second range today. The
guys work so hard. To our paint shop and fab shop, sorry, but this one
is pretty flat."

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) - Finished Fourth,
Clinched 11th place

"We just took a chance. It's tough to pass here, and if four or five of
those guys behind us had stayed out it would have taken Jimmie and some
of those other guys some time to get around them. We would have been far
enough ahead. I don't know if they could have caught us or not. We had a
fourth-place car tonight and we finished fourth. It was so cool today, I
didn't really notice a big difference when the sun went down. It was a
bad time to start a race. It was miserable getting into three all day
long with the sun. It made for a long afternoon. I didn't know what
would happen staying out with the tires. At times, our car was the
fastest and other times it wasn't. I was just hoping this time it was
going to be fast. It's kind of sad to run the last Southern 500. It
would have been cool to win it. I love this racetrack. It's a race
you've read about for years. There's a lot of history here with David
Pearson and The Wood Brothers. It's certainly going to be missed. It's
too long of a race. I wish they'd shorten all of these up to 400 miles,
here, Pocono. The same guys run up front. It doesn't matter. At the end
of 400 miles the outcome wouldn't be a lot different. I'd love to see
'em short 'em up. I think we clinched 11th place today, and that's cool.
Hopefully we'll be competing for first place this time next season."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished Fifth; Third
Straight Fifth-place finish. Leads Rookie Standings by 115 points

"We had a great pit stop there at the end, stayed out and just survived.
We made it. We ended up having a good finish. The car ended up pretty
good, but it was a handful all day long. We were just trying to get
track position at the end. You never know what to do, but everybody came
down so we thought we'd stay out. It paid off with a top five. I think
if we had come in for tires we'd have been sixth, seventh or eighth,
somewhere in there. We finished fifth just because we stayed out. It was
a good call by Tommy (Baldwin). We used to be good at seconds. Now it
looks like we're good at fifths (third straight). Someday maybe we'll be
good at firsts. A top five is a pretty good finish for what we worked
with all day. I ran into the wall 15 times and these guys kept pulling
the fenders out. I agree with whatever Tommy says. Sometimes if I don't
agree I'll mention something, but more times than not he makes great
calls and it seems like we always get the car better when he's working
on it. It's good we finished in the top five with a torn up racecar.

 

"Last night it was pretty neat racing under the lights for the entire
race. Our car was really loose all day long, and we stayed out on tires
and got track position and tried to hold the guys off that were on new
tires. They were definitely better, but we got a top five out of
something that we probably shouldn't have.

 

"That was Tommy Baldwin's call to stay out. If everybody came down we
were going to stay out. If nobody came down we were going to pit and get
some tires and try to pass some cars that way. The day and the night,
the track had changed some, but I ran into the wall so many times
tonight it was tough to know how much the track changed. Every time you
hit the wall your car changes. We were loose the entire race, even at
night."