Dodge Cup Quotes from Homestead

Homestead-Miami Speedway
Nov. 21, 2004
Dodge Notes, Quotes.


 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) Finished 30th, led four times for 72
laps

"Biffle had the best car. We had a really good car, one that could stay
with him if it was exactly balanced right. It was pretty embarrassing
that NASCAR didn't clean up the track when it was in that condition. The
track had a lot of debris on it all day. Before the race even started it
looked like they couldn't even blow the debris off of it. They made
mention in the drivers' meeting that they were going to keep everything
clean. It's very disappointing, but it's pretty convenient and on par
for NASCAR. We stayed seventh in the standings. We started the Chase
10th and finished seventh, but we should have done better. We're a
championship team that had a lot of bad breaks."

 

BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Dodge) - Finished 6th, top Dodge,
top rookie.

"We took a shot at fifth in the end. I didn't care about any Chase for
the Championship. I wanted a top five for Kodak. I didn't care about the
three championship guys. I drive for Kodak. I don't drive for Hendrick
or Roush. I wanted a top five for Kodak. Congratulations to Kasey Kahne.
He deserves the Raybestos Rookie of the Year championship by far. They
gave us a racecar today, and we drove the heck out of it all the way to
the end. It was nice to have something you could feel good about. I
always feel good about things. It's been a peak and valley season, but
there's one great thing about sports. It's next season already. This is
an awesome track, and we had a good time today. We were as fast as the
leaders. We just weren't faster than."

 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge) - Fininshed 26th

"We had a pretty good car. We tried to stay out of trouble, but there
were a lot of wrecks early in the back. We just got caught up in some
and it knocked my right front fender off right off the bat. I think the
repair work we did to the front might have cut the right front tire. We
had a good car. We were sitting good at one point, but it turned out to
be a long day. I'm ready for next year."

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) - Finished 7th, captured
11th place in final standings

"We had a tough time in the pits again today. That kind of got us behind
all day. We pitted at the end and I was going against what Donnie (crew
chief Wingo) said to do. I didn't think there was any way we'd get that
many cars. Tires were big at the end. I don't know what the story was
with the tires. They were like that yesterday, and we had a couple in
practice, too. I think the access roads might have had something to do
with it. I'm not sure."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished 38th

"I got loose and crashed it. It was a rough day. We were trying to fix
it and trying to get better, trying to do anything we could. We were
just tight. The front end wasn't working at all and when your front end
isn't working it's hard to drive it. Once you get loose you can't save
it. It was just a bad day.

 

"It's been a good year. We're happy about that. It was a pretty sad day
today, but other than that, we're happy about the year. It's been fun
working with these guys all year long, and we'll get better for next
year. I wish we could have ended the year better than this, but today
obviously wasn't our day. We weren't very good from the drop of the
green flag. It kept getting worse and Tommy (Team Director Baldwin) kept
trying to fix it. 

 

"We really weren't that good in practice yesterday. It looked like we
were good because I could run one fast lap and then after that we were
junk. I wasn't too surprised. I thought we would have been better than
that, but we got tight and couldn't get it fixed. 

 

"It was a tough day. We didn't start out too good and I just lost it. I
put it in the wall. It wasn't a good way to finish the year, but we'll
think about it during the off season and we'll get better over the
winter. It's disappointing we didn't win. We came close a lot of times,
but we just didn't get it done. Either way, we had a good season. The
guys did a good job and we'll be better next year for sure."

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished 35th

"I'm all right. We kept working on our Dodge. We were real tight and
thought we had something going on out there. We got to working real good
up high. Evidently we cut the right front down, but I'm not real sure
what happened. We were getting better and better before all that
happened, but we just didn't get a chance to get it exactly right. Kasey
has problems and then a lap or two later we have problems. Hopefully
we'll get all this bad luck out of the way and come back strong next
season. It was great to make The Chase, but we want to do more than just
make it next year."