Dodge Charger Drivers from Daytona Media Day (Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne)

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2005
Daytona International Speedway.
MEDIA DAY.


 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Charger)

COMMENT ON NEW QUALIFYING SYSTEM "We haven't done it yet, but from a
competitive standpoint we're still there to win the poles and get good
pit selections and get bonus points for leading laps. That's still the
big picture from our viewpoint. I've said before if there's a trophy
there to win, we're there to try to win it. The Bud Pole Award is one of
the bigger trophies of the season from my standpoint. From a physical
standpoint, qualifying is going to be different because there are only
so many things we can adjust on the car now. That will be the
determining factor on how we're able to qualify well and race well at
the same time. Maybe I'm old school, but I grew up where you either had
to race your way in or qualify your way in. To me, that's the way it
should be. You can't qualify without a driver and you can't qualify
without a racecar, so I guess it's about 50-50. You're limited with what
you can adjust on the car. Those things might be able to make the car
qualify good and race good and they may not. I think we can approach it
the same way we always have."

 

COMMENT ON AERODYNAMIC CHANGES FOR 2005 "It's actually a pretty big
change for us this year because the new Dodge nose is a cross between a
truck and a car nose. That's a big change from what we used to have.
With all the templates we have, there's still a good bit of room for
change and the change is in the nose itself. That nose is a distinct
change from last year. We don't have the same rules to compare apples to
apples, but we can go back and try to figure out how close it actually
is. If you look at how the templates have changed in the last two years,
I think right now you have a lot more templates on the car and a lot
less room to make changes. Go back to 1998 and it was pretty easy to
make body location changes and things like that. Now you're locked into
a lot of things."

 

DO THE OVERALL CHANGES HELP THE DODGE TEAMS? "The Dodge teams have more
changes to adjust to, but I think the ultimate thing was when NASCAR
took an inch off the rear spoiler they took the rear downforce off the
car and total downforce at the same time. If you look at it three weeks
from now, I don't think it'll make that big a difference, but there's
still plenty of room for our teams to adjust. I think you'll see the
strong teams still be the top teams and be in the top 10s this year."

 

WILL CARS BE ABLE TO RACE SIDE BY SIDE? "Let me give you a general rule
of thumb. If cars had no downforce on 'em, then they could race side by
side with no problem because they're not affected by the downforce. The
less downforce the cars have the more they're capable of doing that. The
car creating 5,000 pounds of downforce racing side by side is going to
have more effect with one car next to the other. NASCAR has the numbers
from the mid 80s when stock cars where cars were making less downforce
in front and the front tires wouldn't grip as well. When they got in the
draft, they actually made downforce because they wouldn't lift and
that's why you could race better. That's why you used to see races at
Pocono where they were lined up single file all the way down the
straightaway. I think in the long run if we could have cars that were
creating zero downforce in clean air you'd see a lot better racing."

 

COMMENT ON LAST SEASON "We didn't have good consistency last year, and
we didn't have great performance. Those two kind of go hand in hand.
Overall we struggled through the first two thirds of last year and the
last 10 races we had the dominant racecar without dominant finishes. We
led the most laps in the last 10 races and that kinda opened our eyes
for 2005, but 2005 starts off different and we have different things to
adjust to. We'll just have to go from there."

 

COMMENT ON RACING AT DAYTONA "I think it's definitely a handling
racetrack and a speed racetrack. It's difficult to go fast here and
handle at the same time. We'll see what happens. I think we've learned a
lot in the past three years and we'll have to see if we can put that
learning to use."

 

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO MAKE THE NEXT STEP? "We struggled a lot last
year. We had a lot of DNFs. Some of them were our fault and some of them
were not our fault. If we can end the season with zero DNFs, we'll have
a heck of a lot better shot at the championship and the top 10. There
are so many variables. Pit stops have grown to be so important. Pit
stops are going to be more critical than they have been in the past this
season. So many things come into play to make victory lane happen, let
alone making the championship happen. I don't think I have to adjust my
personal style. It's just everybody on the team working together and
communicating well and having the performance there."

 

COMMENT ON NEW TIRES "I think it puts more pressure on the crew and the
crew chiefs. I'm going to be out there driving the racecar and going as
fast as I can, but I have to compete against the competition. If they're
going faster than me, and I have a car capable of going faster, then I
have to go fast enough not to get lapped. I don't think you're going to
see a tire that's way softer and you're going to have to come in and pit
before we need fuel. I will say I'm not a big fan of softer tires. The
technology is out there to create a tire that will last 500 miles in
these racecars, and we should be doing that. Goodyear has got a good
strategy as far as selling more tires, but as from the safety
perspective in the long run I think a tire that will last long will be
better. We'd still have to come in and put fuel in the car. I don't
think it would take the pit crew out of it. They'd still have an
important function. I don't see a necessary need to have softer tires to
make 

the racing better. I don't think it does make the racing better. I think
we just go through more tires."

 

COMMENT ON THE CHASE "I still think the point system isn't fair to the
competitors. It might be a good marketing strategy in the long run to
create more following for NASCAR. NASCAR is eliminating competition
going into the last 10 races. If I had been 11th last year instead of
10th, I would have been a pretty upset fellow. If I had missed it by one
point or whatever. As I said last year at this time, it's the same for
everybody. We have adjusted to it, but my final answer is I don't think
it's a perfect points system."

 

COMMENT ON PROGRESS OF THE CHARGER "You can get the balance back pretty
easy, but you don't want to give up speed to do it. You don't want to
give up downforce, you don't want to give up certain things that give
you a big advantage speed wise. You can make a balanced racecar out of
the package, but it's a matter of who does it the best with the most
speed. I think we've learned a lot about it, maybe 70 percent of what we
need to learn about it. I think the other 30 percent is how it's going
to work in race conditions, and no one knows that yet. We'll have to see
how it works."

 

IF YOU COULD CHANGE THE LENGTH OF ANY RACE ON THE CIRCUIT, WHICH ONE
WOULD YOU CHANGE? "I don't think Martinsville should be 500 laps. I
think you've got it sorted out after about 250. We've seen tracks like
Atlanta and Charlotte have great races from lap one until the last lap.
It could be a thousand-mile race. It just all depends."

 

DID YOU GET TRUE TESTS AT LAS VEGAS AND CALIFORNIA BECAUSE OF THE WIND?
"It was really windy at California, and it was windy for the most part
at Las Vegas. Everybody had to work with that, and I felt that we were a
top five car at the end of both tests. It has the potential to be a
great car. Whoever works with it the best, particularly with the new
aero rules, is going to be the best for the first part of the season."

 

COMMENT ON YOUR CREW CHIEF AT LAS VEGAS "He was stressed out about me
playing cards and him not. There have been times when he's out playing
cards and I'm out doing appearances. It all works out. It's cool to have
a great relationship with a crew chief. Matt and I have had that the
past four years. I think he is the best in the business. He's low key at
times, and he's high key at others when he needs to be, and I think
that's what makes a great crew chief. There are times he settles me down
and there 

are times I settled him down. When you get along with somebody you can
do that pretty easily."

 

WHAT'S YOUR APPROACH TO SPEEDWEEKS THIS SEASON? "We're here to win.
We're still focused on doing that, but the ultimate goal is to get out
of here in one piece. That's been a challenge at times."

 

COMMENT ON RACING IN BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT "We're going to go at it and
have fun. We're going to be in the race to win. We're not going to take
any stuff off anyone. I know it's a pretty tough race, and it's going to
be a pretty cool night, so I think the cars are going to stick well.
It's going to be all about speed."

 

YOU'VE WON THE MOST POLES ON THE CIRCUIT THE PAST THREE SEASONS, SO YOU
SHOULD WIN THE RACE. "Well, it's not a one-lap race. We'll have to see.
We've never got a pole on restrictor-plate tracks. Maybe if they held it
somewhere else other than here or Talladega we'd be the favorite."

 

 

 

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

WHAT'S YOUR STRATEGY FOR THE BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT?  "We're going to go for
it. Our Dodge Charger is going to be better. I'm looking forward to it.
I think we have a great car that will be good in the Shootout and the
150s and the 500. It's going to be a fun week. I'm real excited to be
back at Daytona. I'm ready to go. We're going to do whatever it takes to
get to the front in the Shootout. We'll be running our 500 backup car in
the Shootout. We'll definitely do whatever we need to to get to the
front."

 

YOU HAD THREE MAJOR PRESEASON TESTS AT DAYTONA, LAS VEGAS AND
CALIFORNIA. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE PROGRESS? "We thought Daytona was
by far better than what we had last year, so we're excited about that. I
guess we were up and down at the Las Vegas test, and at California we
were down most of the time. It got a little better the final three hours
of the final day, so that was a bonus. It's been difficult to figure out
the new Goodyear tire and to also figure out our new Dodge Charger."

 

TALK ABOUT WHAT SAMMY JOHNS HAS MEANT TO YOUR TEAM "Sammy is real
aggressive at what he needs to do and to get information from both teams
from Bill's team, just to trade information and to get the groups
together and work hard to figure out what's going on. He does a real
good job at what he does, and he's also a real good guy to be with. I
enjoy Sammy doing the position he runs there."

 

BILL ELLIOTT SAYS YOU RUN FLAT OUT ALL THE TIME. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
THAT? "He's probably right. I always try to go as fast as I can whether
the car is loose or tight or whatever. You try to drive it as hard as it
will go. It catches up with you once in a while, but you go fast a lot,
too. Hopefully I'll be able to hang on to it and have a lot of good
races doing that."

 

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST LEARNING EXPERIENCE FROM LAST SEASON? "I think I
learned the most in practices. When you're practicing you need to relay
the right information to the crew chief and engineer when they're
looking at their data to get a good setup for Sunday because you can
only do so much to a car in six or seven pit stops on Sunday. The better
you start the race the better your day is going to go."

 

WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST CHANGES YOU MADE OVER THE WINTER? "The new Dodge
Charger is going to be a great racecar for us. That will be a good
change. We stuck with the main group we had last year. We've got a great
crew chief. Tommy Baldwin and I really get along well. We work together
well, and the engineers 

are great, too. Ray (Evernham) made some changes around the shop area
that will benefit all the teams. I think a lot of it is mainly the
people we brought in and the team sticking together."

 

TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TOMMY BALDWIN "I think our
personalities and just what we want to do have clicked. Tommy is a real
smart guy. It's easy for me to pry into him and get information from him
and be able to work with him. He will go after what he wants. I like
that in someone and Tommy feels the same way about me with my driving.
I'll do whatever it takes to get up as close to the front as I can. Our
personalities go well together."

 

COMMENT ON NEW QUALIFYING PROCEDURES "It's kinda like wait and see, but
we made one run at California similar to what you can do to the car.
There's a few more things you can do before qualifying and change back.
It wasn't too bad. You're not going to be able to run that lap with the
nose weight and be able to get the car down like you want to. You're
going to have to be careful with the tire and valance. There are things
you're going to have to think about, but we'll still be able to go for
poles."

 

DO YOU HAVE A SHOT AT THE DAYTONA 500 POLE? "I don't know. I don't
imagine we do. The guys pull together and always seem to get a little
more out of the car than when we tested. Hopefully we'll get in the top
15 or so, but I'm looking forward to the race. I'm looking forward to
drafting and the new Charger is going to be a good, fun car to run all
500 miles in and be there at the end."

 

HOW WILL YOUR SOPHOMORE SEASON BE FOR YOU PERSONALLY? "I'll just know
more about what this week is about, what happens through the week. What
happens throughout the week and the races that lead up to it. All the
craziness of the week is exciting. It's a fun week of racing. It's a
good time, and I'll have a lot more experience and be more prepared for
this weekend."

 

HAS THE CHARGER BEEN QUICKER THAN YOU INITIALLY THOUGHT? "I think it was
quicker at Daytona than I thought it would be. We've been testing since
before last season was over, so that helped a lot. We're definitely
ready. We're excited for the season to start. Everybody had to change
with the spoiler change, so we're definitely ready. That's not going to
put any team ahead of another. We should be ready when the season
starts. We're testing Monday at Lakeland, Fla. We'll do a short track
test to get ready, and we won't have to come back down here later in the
season."

 

ARE YOU READY FOR SPEEDWEEKS? "I'm ready. I'm excited to get back in a
racecar. That's the only reason I know. You're jumping at it. You want
to get in and get back to racing."

 

IS THERE ANY EXTRA MOTIVATION BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T DO WELL HERE LAST YEAR?
"It's the Daytona 500. There's a lot of motivation and excitement. You
want to race good. Everybody wants to win the Daytona 500. It's an
awesome week. Last year's race didn't go well at all, so we need to make
up for that, have a good one and get to California."

 

WHAT'S THE FIRST DAYTONA 500 YOU REMEMBER WATCHING? "The biggest one I
remember is watching Dale Earnhardt win his first one. For a lot of
people that was probably the biggest. I remember Derrike Cope winning
when Earnhardt had a flat tire. That was a long time ago."

 

ARE THE FANS DIFFERENT AT DAYTONA?  "There are a lot of fans here. So
many people are here over the week and a half time period. It's crazy
how many people you run into. You can go anywhere and run into race
fans. People come from all over the United States to this race.
Everybody wants to get rolling. You've had three months off and
everybody is jumping at it to watch a race."

 

HAVE YOU HAD ANY STRANGE EXPERIENCES WITH FANS?  "The fans will run up
on you at places you don't expect them. It's tough to get to the trailer
anymore. Fans will jump the fences at night and come knocking at your
door. I actually let a couple in one time. I was watching the Final Four
and these guys came up and were into it. I have no clue why I let 'em
in. We watched the game and then they took off. It was pretty cool, but
fans will do anything."