dodge cup quotes from darlington

March 18, 2004.
Carolina Dodge Dealers 400
Darlington Raceway.


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

"It was driver's error getting into pit road. I caught the cone, and it
got us down a lap. We fought back, and we had a great car. We had an
awesome car on the long runs. The ALLTEL Dodge was really awesome on the
longer runs, but we just didn't have enough laps. We came a long way,
from a lap down to 11 seconds behind back to third behind the 48 and 18.
Congratulations to Jimmie, but we'll be back to get 'em at Bristol.
Those last laps felt like the fastest laps of the race. Everybody just
hangs it all out. You don't have to save your tires. I think we had a
car capable of winning, but it just didn't work out today. We needed 15
or 20 more laps. We would have been all right without that last caution.
I don't' know if we would have ended up third or second or what, but we
were catching them pretty quick.

 

"We've got another tough racetrack next week. At Bristol you race the
track just about as much as you do here. There tends to be a little bit
more beating and banging around at Bristol.

 

"I think our car was the best on the long runs. It was just a matter of
what played out and if they had a better balance than what they had in
the past. Our car was definitely awesome on the long run, and I was
looking forward to that. We got caught for awhile behind lapped cars and
they got spread out before that last two cautions, but the guys did an
awesome job.

 

"We finally got to the top 10, and I guess that makes us vulnerable
going into Bristol. It's nothing huge it's so early in the season, but
we're happy to be where we are at this point. Compared to where we've
been in previous seasons we feel good about it. We'll take that and try
to roll on. You always want to be in the top 10. D-Day will be in the
27th race."

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished ninth

"We had a great car. We just didn't win. We ran up front all day. We
didn't put a scratch on the car until the end. We were pretty happy with
it. We just needed track position. We had long runs, and that's what we
needed, but you can't give it up when you've got it."

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) - Finished 21st

"We had problems on the front tire on the first pit stop and went from
first to 10th. Then the second time we came in we had worked our way
back up to fifth. We had a loose lugnut and had to come back in, so we
had two bad pit stops. The car was great, but we just couldn't buy a
break today."

 

 

 

 

 


STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge) - Finished 14th

"We were loose. We were tight, and we never got it right. We'll be at
our home track next week, and I'm really looking forward to running at
Bristol. We run well there, so we'll get 'em next week."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished 13th

"The tire started going down, and I got in the wall and it blew out or
whatever and I spun out. On that caution before, it went green and
everybody checked up off turn two. I went low to miss them and Tony
(Stewart) got to the outside of me and got into the back of my car. I
didn't know if he was all the way there or not. The spotter didn't say
he was so I started coming back to the wall to pass Brendan Gaughan and
I got into Tony. He let me go so he could spin me when we got to the
corner. I don't think he was too happy with me getting into him on the
straightaway. It wasn't intentional. Those guys were chopping me off all
day, too. I didn't mean to hit him. I didn't know what was going on when
I missed the pits. I didn't know where I was on the track, a lap down,
two laps down. When we spun it bent up the left front fender a little
bit. The car got tight, but I think we had the car to beat all day. Even
at the end I think we had the best car on the racetrack. I just made too
many mistakes to win the race. That was the biggest reason I was
discouraged. I knew he (Tony Stewart) wasn't very happy when he was
behind me. I ran into him a little bit, so no, I wasn't really surprised
when he ran back into me."

 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge) - Finished 15th

"After the way we started coming home 15th says a lot about this team.
They repaired the car after the fender was bent in and continued to work
on the handling. We battled back from a lap down to earn the lucky dog
and put ourselves in position to finish 15th. I'm proud of my guys and
the way they handled everything thrown at us today. If we continue to
rack up top-15 finishes, we'll give ourselves the opportunity to be in
the top 10 in points."

 

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