Dodge Daytona 500 2004 Qualifying Notes

Sunday, Feb. 8, 2004.
Ray Cooper
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona 500 qualifying.


JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) - qualified 11th

"We really thought we'd be about three tenths slower than that. That's
really the best we've run since we unloaded. I think the track slowed
down quite a bit. I can't believe how close our cars are. (Ganassi
Dodges qualified ninth, 11th and 12th with Casey Mears, McMurray and
Sterling Marlin, respectively). It seems like every speedway race we're
that close. Casey and I will be in the same 125, and it's just unreal
how close our cars qualified. I really didn't think it was that fast of
a lap. As hard as the wind was blowing on the backstretch, you can see
that flag. It was blowing right at us. I got a pretty good lift down the
frontstretch or we wouldn't have run that fast. I don't know what they
did to pick it up so much, but they found something. I think we learned
some stuff last night that will make us race better. I'm really looking
forward to the 125."

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) - qualified 16th

"I'm really happy with it believe it or not. This wind was terrible, and
I was concerned that something crazy was going to happen, but we
basically backed up what we did yesterday within a tenth, and that was
pretty good with all this wind today I thought. It's amazing how much
wind I felt on the back straightaway and then when I came down the front
straightaway the tach just took off. We've got a good starting position
in the 125, so I'm happy."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Fastest Dodge, fastest
rookie, seventh fastest overall

"That was a real good lap. We picked up a little from yesterday, and
that's good for the way the wind is blowing. It's pretty cool to qualify
for the Daytona 500. We've got some real good race cars and we're
looking for a lot of fun. Our car drove about the same. We went with a
different gear and it worked out. It's exciting. I was a lot more
nervous than I thought I'd be, but we can look forward to getting ready
for the 125 now.

 

"I think it (weather conditions) played out well for our lap. The wind
got down a little bit when we went out. We made a lot of changes from
yesterday, and it was better than I expected. We had a real good lap. To
run in the 47s it was pretty cool.

 

TOMMY BALDWIN (Crew chief No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

"We threw everything we could at it. We'll take it. It's our first race
together. We take a look at a lot of stuff when we're not racing. We
look at everybody's tire wear. Really, we watch TV. I watched the race
on TV and learned a lot there. I was probably sitting back watching just
like you guys. We had two teammates racing in the race last night
(Budweiser Shootout). Jeremy wrecked battling for the lead and Bill was
just hanging on trying to stay out of a wreck. That's our backup car for
the week.  We learned a lot. We'll work a couple more days gaining the
drivers' trust with Kasey. 

Hopefully we'll gain some momentum in the 125s and get some people that
will work with us on Sunday. That's our goal.

 

"The competition in the upper level is a lot higher. Speeds were a lot
closer. It's probably the closest top 20 speeds we've had in a long
time. Hopefully we'll get some more teams here as the year progresses.
It started getting like this at the end of the year (2003). Two or three
teams lost their sponsors and haven't been able to recover from that
since. Look at the 99 and 1. Those are two top-level teams and they
still don't have sponsors. It makes us all a little nervous.

 

"You either have to spend a lot of money to find sponsors or you've got
to spend a lot of money keeping sponsors. It's not easy. A lot of it is
connections. You've just got to keep your eyes and ears open all the
time. A lot of the top teams spend a lot of money working on sponsors
every day. It's pretty difficult."

 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak Easy Share/Eckerd Drugs Dodge) - qualified
19th

"It's about the same we did in practice, but we had a lot more wind
today. Our Dodge has been struggling in the wind, so to hit the same
number we're pretty happy. With any luck we'll be able to catch the top
20 and have a good spot for the 125. Being a Raybestos rookie it's not
like I have a lot of experience in the car, but in the truck it moves
around a lot more in the wind because of the body. You can feel when a
gust of wind hits the car. The cold weather was good for horsepower. The
Penske/Jasper engines are arguably some of the best engines in the
series. The motor was fine. Everything was fine. We thought when we came
here we were going to be a little better for qualifying. Instead, we got
it where it's going to race better. All-in-all it was a decent run. It's
qualifying for the Daytona 500, but you've still got to put a lap
together. I wanted to make Buddy Baker proud and get that perfect lap.
He's been working with me. The Dodge drove the line I think I wanted it
to. I didn't like how I went through three and four, but I don't think
it was that much of a time difference."

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge) - qualified 12th

"The wind is the same for everybody, but it's about 300 rpm's off from
the front straightaway to the back straightaway. It really hurts when
the wind blows down the back. We'll be fine for the race. After watching
the race last night, it looks like you're going to have to go with
four-tire stops in the race. We wanted to qualify on the front row or be
on the pole, but everything didn't add up. Once we went through the room
of doom, everything didn't add up."

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - qualified 18th

"Our Dodge ran good this morning, and we feel good about it. I'm proud
of these guys. They worked hard on the car and we're in pretty good
shape. We learned a lot last night. We were a little too loose and the
guys made a good call in the pits and got us out front. We had a shot to
win, and that's all you can ask for."

 

 "That was a real good lap. We picked up a little from yesterday, and
that's good for the way the wind is blowing. It's pretty cool to qualify
for the Daytona 500. We've got some real good race cars and we're
looking for a lot of fun. Our car drove about the same. We went with a
different gear and it worked out. It's exciting. I was a lot more
nervous than I thought I'd be, but we can look forward to getting ready
for the 125 now."

 

KYLE PETTY  (No. 45 Georgia Pacific/Brawny Dodge) - qualified 24th

"It worked the way it was supposed to work. It was just the luck of the
draw man. It just wasn't good. I don't know where the 16 came from with
that time. That's a little amazing when everybody else slowed down half
a second and he picked up half a second."

 

JEFF GREEN (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge) - qualified 25th

"We just want to have a fast car so the other guys will have to help us.
I think our Cheerios Dodge will be that way on Thursday and Sunday. We
thought we'd be a little bit better today, but we just came up a little
bit short. The wind hurt us like it did everybody. We sat on the pole
last year and everything was grand until Sunday. We're going to try to
reverse that this year and make it grand come Sunday. Kyle and I were
about the same, and that's these ways these Dodges have been from the
get-go. That's the way we built them, but we want to be 1-2, not
17th-18th like we are right now. Hopefully we can get in the same 125
and help each other. This won't make our season, but we want to get out
of the box good. What we thought would help us yesterday in practice
didn't help today. I thought it would help, but it didn't."

 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) - qualified 42nd

"I'm ready for Thursday. I think we've got the sticky decals on instead
of the slick decals. It is what it is. We'll try to find some more
speed, but we'll see how it drafts. We were average in the draft last
night. We weren't the fastest by far, but we weren't the slowest thing
out there, either. We were able to work our way up to the front with
strategy. We knew we weren't going to be super fast, but we didn't think
we were going to be that slow. We were 41st here last year."

 


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