Dodge Charger NASCAS Quotes from Daytona

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005
Daytona International Speedway
Day One 2005 Testing.  

Comments on the 2005 Dodge Charger after unveiling Tuesday morning at
Daytona International Speedway.

 

RICHARD PETTY (Won three NASCAR championships and a record 37 victories
in a Charger)

 

"You know it's a Dodge by the way it's coming at you in the front
because the grille looks a whole lot like the truck grille. I think the
truck's been around long enough to distinguish the front end. We never
called it a Dodge. We called it a Charger. The Charger sounds like
racing to me. Hopefully some of the Charger tradition will rub off on
the team. I know our crew is excited. Hopefully the name will excite the
fans, too. We're like everybody going into the season. Everybody will
tell you they're looking forward to the season and everything is going
to be great. We've got a new car and the rules are a little different,
too. With the Evernham engines, we feel that's going to be a boost for
us in the future. We feel like the motor program is going to pick up
everything, but it might take it a little while to gel. 

 

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

"We feel like we've got a great team and this new Dodge Charger is going
to be a great addition to our team and we're proud to be a part of it.
We won't know a lot about the car until we run a few races, obviously,
but we know there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve. The
trick is going to be how fast we can adapt to all the changes. I think
it's going to be a good car. It looks good. It looks racy. It's going to
be cool. You've got a lot of history behind the name Charger, and that's
really the neat part. Daytona is always different for testing, but when
we get through with the tests at Las Vegas and California we'll know
more about it. We've got a smaller restrictor plate and a different car
and we've got a lot of new things going on at Daytona, but I still think
we'll be OK."

 

JOHN FERNANDEZ (Director, Dodge Motorsports Operations)

"I think we're trying to verify everything we did with it in our
development sessions in the off season with all the wind tunnel work.
Obviously when you're in the wind tunnel it's not the same as being on
the track. Obviously at places like Daytona and Talladega you need to
get the car in the draft and make sure it works well in the draft. Those
things are difficult to do in the wind tunnel. Everything we've done in
testing so far suggests we've got a car that's as good as the car we had
last year. NASCAR has done some work to slow the car down a little bit
with reducing the spoiler in the rear and for the restrictor plate races
taking a 64th out of the hole. We're looking forward to this year. I
think we're going to win a lot of races this year. The Charger name has
charisma. It takes you back to the early days of NASCAR, and we're
excited about it. Being in a Dodge Charger is a little bit different
than being in a Dodge Intrepid."