Dodge Cup Notes from Sunday at AMS

Sunday, March 14, 2004.
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Golden Corral 500.

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished third, giving the
Raybestos Rookie Leader finishes of second, second and third in the past
three races. Kahne stands fourth in the series standings after the first
four races.

"It was a good day for the Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge. This should help us
keep our momentum going. We've got to be more consistent through the
race. The last two weeks we've dropped off during the middle of the
race. We fight back at the end and get everything going, but that's the
only thing that's going to make us better. To get that win, I think
we've got to run a little better through the middle part of the race.

 

"I wasn't part of last year. I was part of watching it and watching what
Bill and Jeremy did at the end of the year. I just jumped in a great
situation, and I've got a lot of great people to work with. Tommy
Baldwin (crew chief), I get help from Jeremy and Bill and Ray Evernham.
We have a great race team, and I just jumped into a great situation. I
can't wait until Darlington.

 

"I knew our car was better than that. We had been really, really good
all day long. We just got so loose I couldn't go to the throttle and I
couldn't race anybody. It's the same thing that happened at Vegas. We
got too loose and couldn't race anybody in the center part of the race.
I wanted to move up and race with Jeremy and Dale Jr. at the end. Tommy
Baldwin made some good choices at the end of the race and the pit crew
made a great stop. We got four spots on pit road that final stop. It was
an awesome stop.

 

"I scraped (the wall) twice, once off four early in the race and towards
the end once off turn two. I think I was between Jimmie Johnson, about
three or four of us were battling and I hit it again. I didn't hit it
too hard, luckily. I was a little nervous a few times hitting the wall.
You don't want to do that.

 

"It's really a big boost, not just my confidence but the whole team's.
We all had a lot of high expectations of things we were going to do this
year, but nobody knew if we could actually do it or not. I think it
keeps building confidence for all of us, and mine is as high as it's
ever been in stock cars.

 

"Yesterday during practice, I battled for five or six laps with Rusty
Wallace. Bill was watching from the top of the trailer, and he helped
me. He said I would have been able to pass Rusty sooner yesterday and
also today. Things happened all day long that Bill told me about
yesterday, different situations we got in that helped me pass cars. Bill
has always got something to say that if you listen it will stick in your
head.

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished second,
third straight runner-up finish for an Evernham Motorsports Dodge

"We carried over our momentum from last season. We had a lot of things
going for us at the end of last season. The team did an outstanding job
on pit road today getting me out of the pits. It seemed like as the race
went on, the tighter we got. I guess Junior and them made more
aggressive adjustments. We've had some decent runs the last couple of
weeks, but it hasn't been what we wanted. To come back and have a finish
like this is awesome. The guys are pretty pumped up. They work hard week
in and week out. To have a good run like this after the last few weeks
we've had, they'll be pumped right back up again. Finishing second will
pump them up, and that's a lot easier than having to go back up there
and try to pump 'em up. 

 

"We came back this week and didn't make any mistakes, and I feel like
we're right back where we were at the end of last season. Kasey started
off that way, well, not really started off that way because he had
trouble at Daytona, but he's had things going his way, and he's done a
great job.

 

"Tommy moved into that team as crew chief, and Kasey came in as the
driver and they've had their own adjustments to make during the winter.
I think both of them have done a great job of picking up where Bill and
Mike Ford and those guys left  off. I think they've done an awesome job.

 

"It doesn't seem any better or worse for me. It seems like we carried on
with the same balance we had last year. I think that's helped us as a
group, Evernham Motorsports in general. Some of the same setups and same
notes are still working for us. We've changed them a little bit, but not
much. It seems like it's more of a fine line. If you're tight and free
it up a little bit then you're too loose. You're back and forth. That's
what we've noticed, and I think that's what Kasey is seeing, too. Today
is seemed like for us we didn't go enough. We were kind of gun shy from
the last couple of weeks.

 

"Early in the race, Kasey got a little loose and we got a little tight.
We freed it up past midway and took off. We thought we were headed in
the right direction, and all of a 

sudden we started getting tight again. It definitely changed from run to
run, and that makes it tough when you don't have a lot of cautions and
you have a lot of green flag runs. You have to really stay up on the
wheel all day no matter what to stay on the lead lap, and that's
something we were able to do. Junior definitely had the best car at the
end, but times during the race he wasn't that good.

 

"We run hard every week, so I don't think it had anything to do with the
new rules. I think all the drivers will tell you right now that the cars
are sliding a little more. You just get up there and run on the edge or
and get up there and run in the marbles or run in the wall. There's a
lot of stuff going on out there that's a little different. The aero
rules are different, so maybe that's got something to do with it."

 

 

 

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

"The team did a great job. We just lost it on the last pit stop there.
We came in running pretty good, but we lost some time coming out. The
ALLTEL Dodge was strong. We'll get 'em next week. It was a good run for
us, especially after last week. We didn't even think about trying to
make it on fuel without stopping. We had a really fast car at the end,
no doubt, but that last pit stop got us behind and I'm not sure what
happened."x                                               

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge)

"We were on the engine shop to make more power. They made more power,
but now we're turning so many rpm's we didn't really know. These motors
haven't made a 500-mile race. There were issues. The engine guys kept
telling me to baby it before the race ever started. It was probably my
fault because I wanted to run more gear. I thought the racetrack would
slow down more than it did. That's just the way it goes. We blew a motor
up here last year. I was running 36th. It was kind of a blessing. We've
had a shot to win the last three races with the same car. We'll just go
to Darlington with the same car again and see what we can do. I was
underneath Casey (Mears) and let off the gas going into the corner and
boom. All the parts went up into the carburetor and made the throttle
stick wide open. I'd say it's done. I'd rather run well and break than
to run bad and break. It's a good racecar, and we struggled here last
year. We struggled this whole weekend until just now. I think we had one
of the best cars. This is bad, but it's not like what Dale Jr. went
through last week. I've been there. What are you going to do? There's no
point getting upset about it."

 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge)

"We didn't get a lot of points today with the finish, but we led some
laps and that felt great. I worked my way through the field, and it felt
awesome. I'm so proud of my guys. Our engine guys and Ernie Elliott are
giving us some awesome horsepower this year. Hopefully we can learn from
today and move on and continue to get better. Those guys have been
putting out some good power for us, but this was a big test. We knew
Atlanta was going to be a big test and we were running pretty high in
the rpm range. It's disappointing because we ran so good, and we had a
chance to move up in the points. I'm really looking forward to next
weekend. I don't know what happened, but for some reason the pit stop
was slow and we got behind. Other than that they did a great job all
day. They kept me in the top five or right near it. Something happened
on the left side. I didn't notice the pinched nerve until the first
caution, and my right shoulder was killing me. I loosened my belt a
little bit. It hurt the whole time, but it started feeling better when
we got out front and the race went on."

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)

"We broke a fourth gear in the transmission. I've never had a
transmission do that. The car was flying. I was just making my lap
times, running a little faster than the leader. We still have some
problems on our pit stops, but we were running in the top 10 most of the
race. We were headed for a real good finish."

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

"We tried a little bit of everything, but we just couldn't get the
handle on it. We were loose and then we were tight and we tried a lot of
things to fix it but nothing seemed to work. We'll try to figure it out
and get 'em next weekend at Darlington. I really like that track, and
it'll be interesting to see if the safety walls throw a new wrinkle into
it."