NASCAR - Dodge Cup Quotes from Talladega

Talladega Superspeedway
EA Sports 500.
Sunday, Oct. 3,  2004.
 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Dodge)

NOTE: Gaughan's fourth-place finish was his career best on the NASCAR
NEXTEL circuit. He was also the top finishing Raybestos Rookie of the
Race for the second straight race.

 

"It was awesome. The Kodak guys have been working hard, and the Penske
guys as a group has built their first ever superspeedway specific team.
The guys in the back of the No. 77 Jasper shop have been building
superspeedway Dodges for the team, and it's the first time the Penske
group has ever done something like that. It's paid off with a
fourth-place finish. We went to the front a couple of times and went to
the back a couple of times. We had a good race car. The Kodak Dodge was
good, but it never stayed up there. I'm not smart enough to try to team
up with Junior to try to stay up there. I was just trying to fight for
myself. In the end, we just rolled the dice. Shane (crew chief Wilson)
and Doug Bawel, the owner of Jasper, both came on the radio and said
'we're not going to make it.' I came on and said, 'I don't care.' We're
not racing for the championship. We're 30th in points or whatever. We
have nothing to lose but to try to go for it and put it in fourth gear
and try to conserve fuel under caution. It worked. We ended up fourth
and led a couple of laps. I tried to block Kevin (Harvick), but I missed
and then just held on and tried to get back in the draft before they all
passed me."

 

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

"I'm not sure what happened to the 43. Somebody must have turned him
because he turned right in front of us. We were just sticking to our
game plan, that was to either be up front or stay in the back to the
end. That's what we were doing. What do you do? You can't really predict
what's going to happen here. We fixed our Dodge and got back out and
gained all the points we could.

 

"We've had a good year so far. We've just got to keep fighting back and
do the best we can. We knew Talladega was going to be a weird race for
us, but who knows what's going to happen. We've just got to keep
fighting. We're doing all we can do. We're just going to try to go win
races now. That's about all that's left to do."

 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge)

"The driver got a little greedy trying to do a gas and go, and that cost
us a bunch of track position. It's just stupid racing here at Talladega.
That's pretty much it. We tried to play it smart. There wasn't really a
big crash, but there were a lot of potential big crashes. The car was
all right, but you've got all of 'em running the same speed, so it was
kinda hard to pass. It was an OK points day. We needed to win, but we'll
take what we got. We finished and that's the good thing. I'm ready for
any place besides here."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

"Michael (Waltrip) blew a tire, and I blew a left rear and spun. He blew
a right front. There had to be something on the racetrack. I really
don't know why I blew a tire, if I got into someone or if there was
something on the track. Somehow it just went around in one and two. On
pit road, Tommy (Team Director Baldwin) said I had clear one lane, so I
went out one lane. He (48 car) came out, too, and we both got beat up.
That's how I went a lap down, the fender got bent in on the tire. We had
to pit later."

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge)

"There was a car out there trying to decide if it was going to pit or
not. It cut up and ran us into the wall and the 18 got into me. We were
just riding around saving fuel. I think we had the only car that could
make it on fuel, so we were headed for a good finish. It was just a dumb
move on his part. That's about all you can say."