Dodge NexCup Quotes from Siemens 300

July 25, 2004
New Hampshire International Speedway.


 

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

"I think our car was good, obviously, from the start. It paid to come up
here and test for sure, but I think our car pretty much stayed the same
and the 97 and 24 got a little bit better. Once they got track position
they were pretty tough to beat. I think what you saw at the end were the
fastest cars. That was pretty much my day.

 

"I was hoping Jeff would hit the 97 and I could blow by both of them,
but we all have our own ideas. We were actually trying to free it up in
the center, but that's something that's really tough to do here. It's
just a matter of trying a few things, and we actually went back on some
of the things we did change and made it a little bit better there that
last run. But once I lost track position it's hard to get it back.

 

"After the last few weeks we've had (first top 10 finish since his
victory at Michigan on June 20) it's not frustrating at all. To lead the
most laps and come home with a top five is good for the points, it's
good for the championship playoff perspective and we'll take it and run.
I wish we could have won, obviously. I wouldn't say we're disappointed
with finishing third. We'll do all we can to come back and be better.

 

"I was loose getting in on that run there (when Kurt Busch passed). I
got loose getting into three and he got underneath me and got a good run
off four. I knew he was going to try to wash up and take my line away
from me going into one, so I tried to cut loose underneath him and got
real loose when I did that. I got up in the marbles a little bit and
that's when the 24 car got by me. That was just a bad place, bad
timing."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished 8th, top
Raybestos rookie

"It started off pretty good. We were a little too loose and got the car
better and drove up to four or fifth I think. On the yellow I tried
following the 20 too long down pit road and didn't get into my pit stall
soon enough and slid through it when I did get to it. I lost 15 spots or
something because of that. We had a pretty good racecar, so we had to
pass 'em back, but I lost too much track position. Hopefully we gained
some points there. We need to get in the top 10, but it's hard to do. We
ran up front most of the day and had a good finish, so we're looking
forward to going back to Pocono. We ran pretty good there earlier this
season until I hit the wall, so we should be good to go back.

 

"It really seems to be pretty good being a flat track. You can pass a
lot better than I thought coming into it. It's definitely not easy to
pass. It takes lap after lap usually to get it done, but you can go
outside, inside and just try to work somebody until you finally get
'em."

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) - Finished 30th

"He (Dale Jarrett) just got into my rear end coming off turn four. I
don't know what happened, but it was just tight racing and it was
getting late in the race. I was looking in my rear view mirror and I was
getting held up by that 8 car that was two laps down. I don't know if he
was blocking for his teammate or what. We kept trying to move him out of
the way, and he wouldn't get out of the way. Michael got underneath me
and I thought I was OK there. Then the 88 got into me. That was
uncharacteristic of Dale, so I don't have a problem with that. He's a
good guy and I know he just made a mistake. Those other guys, I don't
know about that.

 

"Every single race this car is in the top 10 or top five and something
goofy happens. That's the most stupid thing I've ever seen. I like Dale
a lot. He just made a mistake. That's all there is to it. All those
restarts and that lapped 8 car was just in the way. That was
unbelievably unrespectful for him to do something like that. It was
ridiculous."  

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) - Finished 7th

"I ran third most of the day. We just got beat in the pits again. We
didn't have bad pit stops. They just weren't quite quick enough to run
up there with the leaders. We're just going to have to work on it. When
you lose two or three spots every time you pit there's not much we can
do about it. I thought we had a car fast enough to win the race, but
you've just got to have good track position. I'm not sure what kind of
points day it's going to turn out to be. It looks like everybody we're
racing is right there with us. We probably didn't gain a lot or lose a
lot. We've just got to keep digging and keep finishing."

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished 10th

"This hasn't been one of our best tracks. We came out of here today with
a top 10, and we're really happy with that. We wanted to win here, but
we'll take what we got and keep going. The track changed on us a little
bit today, and we just couldn't adjust fast enough. It kept getting
tighter and tighter and tighter, but we came home 10th and that's OK.
This is one of the places we were really concerned about, and to get a
top 10 here is a step in the right direction. I couldn't believe all
those restarts, but I'm glad we had 'em there at the end. It probably
really helped us. Our car was just too tight to do anything with it."

 

No. 9 CREW VAN HIT EN ROUTE TO NHIS - Six members of the No. 9 Dodge
Dealers/UAW team were hit from behind in the team van en route to New
Hampshire International Speedway on Sunday morning. The van was stopped
in traffic and rear-ended while stopped. The impact knocked the van into
another car, but no one was seriously injured. Jeff Seaburg, driver of
the No. 9 transport truck, was sitting in the rear of the van. He
complained of back pains later Sunday morning and was taken to a Concord
hospital for tests. He has a strained back but was released from the
hospital and returned to the track in time for the start of the race.
Seaburg, a Las Vegas native, will not drive the team transporter back
home to Statesville, N.C.

 

FERNANDEZ FINISHES SECOND IN SCCA RACE AT LIMEROCK - John Fernandez,
Director of Dodge Motorsports Operations, finished second Saturday in
the SCCA T-2 Division race in Limerock, Conn, driving a Dodge SRT-4.

 

"We had Larry Webster from Car & Driver in the second car, and he was
running really well," Fermandez said. "He qualified third and was
running third in the race after three laps and had an electrical problem
of some kind and blew the fuel line fuse and shut the fuel pump down. We
had a lot of fun. I've won three times this year in the T-2 division,
but second is the best we could do yesterday."