NASCAR- Dodge Charger Quotes from Bristol

April 3, 2005
Bristol Motor Speedway
Food City 500.
          

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge Charger) - Finished
eighth

"I've got to hand it to Paul Andrews. He came over here and calmed
everybody down. Everybody who works with us does a good job, but we just
haven't done anything for them in a long time. We felt like working
closer with Dodge and working closer with Ray Evernham would pay off. I
didn't know it was going to pay off on a short track. Today we just
stayed out of trouble.

 

"It didn't seem like we passed a lot of cars that weren't sitting on the
infield wrecked. A lot of people got real impatient. A lot of those
wrecks in the first 150 laps was just impatience. I don't know what
happened on the big wreck down there, but when you're old, you're out of
that thing. If you look there's a bunch of old guys in the top 10 today.

 

"One race doesn't make it, but I think it shows flashes of it. We went
to Daytona and qualified good. We came out of there with two solid runs
and came out of California with two solid runs. We struggled a little
bit at Vegas and a lot at Atlanta, but to bounce back from Atlanta says
a lot for these guys. For Jeff to come here and qualify so good after
running like junk at Atlanta and for us to come here and finish good, I
think that shows the character of the team.

 

"We were good in practice and then I went back and sat down and thought
about everything. I qualified with my typical qualifying effort, but
both cars had a good weekend up here. I hate that happened to Jeff, but
it was one of those deals.

 

"When we got up front, I thought we could outrun a bunch of those guys.
You're able to start up front and we could stay with them. I thought we
had a top 10 or 15 car, and we probably did. The way everything played
out we ended up in the top 10, but it's better to have a top 10 car than
have a top 30 car and end up in the top 25.

 

"I didn't really do a lot except ride around and keep the car out of
trouble. It goes to Paul Andrews and the guys at Evernham's. Our guys at
the fab shop build some great cars, too. I think that's part of it. This
crew kept working all week long. We weren't good when we got here, and
we kept working. We got better, and I messed up qualifying and put us in
a hole. We kept making good calls in the pits and got out of it.

 

"I said it over the winter, working with Ray Evernham and Evernham
Motorsports and working closer with Dodge was a big boost for us morale
wise over the winter. Then to go to Daytona and run good and qualify
good and California and run good and then to bounce back from two bad
races, and come back with good races, that's something we haven't been
able to do. I think Jeff Green and the Cheerios Dodge qualified well
here and the Brawny Dodge running well here was a real shot in the arm."

 

RICHARD PETTY (Owner Petty Enterprises Dodge Chargers)

"Kyle ran all day and stayed out of trouble. He made up a lap and lost
it back, but he was consistent anyway. At the end of the race when a lot
of cars had fallen out he was pretty good. He knows you've got to
survive up here. If there's a bunch of cars around, he just lets 'em go.
Once they did have enough wrecks he started to race and he was pretty
good. The 43 ran good and blew that tire. Circumstances caught him. Kyle
was patient and waited for things to come to him and he was lucky enough
to get 'em. I ain't never been patient."

 

PAUL ANDREWS (Crew chief No. 45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge Charger)

"We were happy to finish in the top 10. We had three spots at the end of
the race given to us, but we weren't that bad off all day long. We had a
pretty good car, and we kept working on it to try to make it a little
bit better. We got a little too loose there one time, and we got a lap
down twice and got it back, so we couldn't be junk. We battled back and
got a better finish than we deserved, but that's OK. When it's all said
and done, the record book will say we finished eighth, and it won't say
how we finished eighth. We had good pit stops all day long, and our
motors ran real good. We're all happy about everything. I think we're
going in the right direction. I felt that way beforehand. We just didn't
have great performances, but this will help. We needed a good run and a
good finish and that's what we had. This is Bristol. Everybody is
supposed to get mad at Bristol. If you don't get mad at Bristol you're
not working hard enough, and Kyle worked hard enough today. We
struggled, but we kept digging and had a good finish."

 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) - Finished 13th

"I had 'em covered all day long until the tire went. It just blew out.
It was a great car. It was flying all day long. It was perfect. We lost
that right front tire and lost a couple of laps. Then we had some kind
of mix-up on pit road. The 25 was sideways out there, and I was avoiding
him. I thought I had it won, I really did. We had a fast car. Stupid
stuff happens. That's about it."

 

TRAVIS KVAPIL (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Dodge Charger) - Finished 7th

"When I got lapped I knew I still had a pretty good racecar because I
could still hang with the third and fourth-place guys on the lead lap. I
just had to wait to get in position to get the Lucky Dog. We had about
200 laps to go in the race and I knew if we could get our lap back we
could finish in the top 10 and that's what we did. We ran a smart race
and we had our car running fastest at the end. We weren't real
aggressive with our camber setup, but it's pretty easy to cut a tire
here, but we didn't have any tire problems.

 

"I was racing hard with the 48. I was just going to try to follow him
through. I don't know what happened. He must have slipped getting into
three one time and he slipped up the track. He came down and I backed
off to let him gather it up and get going again. I figured he would get
through there better than I could as a rookie. I wanted to follow Jimmie
through there. We both had pretty equal cars, and by no means did I do
that on purpose. There was a hole there and I was going to poke my nose
in it.

 

"I had a blast. I was worried about 500 laps around here. I didn't know
how these guys did it, but it wasn't real hot today. I'm ready to go
another 500. Let's go right now. We knew we've had good cars. We just
haven't had the results. It's nice to get the results and prove we're a
top 15 team. We just need to go to Martinsville and do it again."

 

"It feels good to run in the top 10. It's cool to run up there with
those guys, Jimmie Johnson and those guys who win every other week. I've
got confidence in myself and the team that we can do it. We just had to
go out there and show we could do it. There was a lot of give and take
out there today. I didn't want to make any enemies. I just wanted to
have a good race and be there for the last 50 laps and get some good
results. We couldn't afford to have another race like we did in Atlanta.
We knew we had a good car, and it was cool racing with those guys, but
being a rookie you don't want to ruffle any feathers. We just wanted to
go out there and race 'em clean and get some good results."

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) - Finished 17th

"That was as good a car as I've had for a Bristol race. Unfortunately,
we had a problem with the electrical system and had to replace the
battery twice. Once we solved the problem, we were as fast as anybody on
the track. We had a top 10 car no luck."

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Charger) - Finished 11th

"We got in that big wreck and it knocked the tow out of it and knocked
the whole side of it off. The guys did a good job fixing the car. We had
some good pit stops, and I guess we finished where we needed to. We were
too tight and went the wrong way with the shocks. There was a lot of
stuff out there cutting the tires down today, but that's short track
racing. We'll get ready and do it again next week at Martinsville."

 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Charger) - Finished 30th

"I came down on Schrader, but the 08 got me loose twice. I got into the
49 and his tailpipes cut my left rear down. It was typical Bristol. Some
people were careless and some people weren't. I'm looking forward to
Martinsville. We ran good there last year, and we ran good here last
year. We'll keep going. It ain't the end of the world."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) - Finished 14th

"We had a great car. We stayed out of trouble the whole race other than
that one incident on the backstretch. Cars were everywhere and I
couldn't get it down to the bottom. We had a great car and great pit
stops. They did a good job of getting me back on the track and getting a
top 15 with a car that was pretty beat up. As much as we've struggled at
this track, it was a great day. We'll come back for the night race with
a lot of momentum and feel good about what we've got."

 

TOMMY BALDWIN (Team Director No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

"The car was good. I think we had a top eight car. We finished 14th. We
finished 42nd here last time, so it made up for California and Vegas. If
we finish good next week we're back on track. We've been working hard on
everything. We built a brand new car for here and we've got a brand new
car for next week. We're pretty pumped up."

 

SLUGGER LABBE (Crew Chief No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

"This was one of Ray's new chassis. We didn't test here. We brought it
here brand new and unloaded fast, qualified well and ran well in the
race. We had two batteries go dead and went down four laps. We made up
one of them and almost made up two of them. It was a tough day. People
don't understand how hard this team works. We never give up and neither
does Jeremy. We'll get it figured out for sure. We had a great test at
Phoenix, and we're taking that car over to Martinsville next week.
There's a lot of bright spots in this team. It was a really good car
with virtually no adjustments all day long. The driver had the right
attitude, and it was a good day."

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Autism Society of America Dodge
Charger) - Finished 24th

"I saw the replay, and it looked like two guys got together. You're
going so fast here it's hard to get out of the way and miss the wreck. I
had to go through a hole, and the guys that started the wreck started
coming back up the racetrack and you can't get out of the way. We had a
car that we felt like was definitely a top-five car. We had a tire
separate,  and I don't really know what caused that. I asked Donnie
(crew chief Wingo) if he thought it was too much camber. It was similar
to what we saw in Nashville last week.

 

"I saw some of the guys way up in points fall out early on, and I
thought it might be a day where we could run in the top five and make up
a lot of ground, but it wasn't to be. You have to be lucky at this
place. I've been very fortunate. I think 11th has been my worst finish
here. We've missed a lot of wrecks, but we weren't able to miss that one
today."

 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger) - Finished 43rd

"It was early in the race and like everybody else we were just trying to
stay out of trouble. I didn't really see what happened, but I guess the
5 kinda got into the 01. The 01 got up high and ended up getting into
the fence. I backed out of it a little bit just trying not to get into
anything, but you don't want to get run over from behind. There just
wasn't anywhere to go. It's too bad. You don't expect it at Bristol, but
if it happens you're ready for it. I don't know if we can get back out.
It was a really hard hit. If we get back out we won't be worth anything.
I don't know what it is about Bristol. I just seem to get in trouble
here every time. I don't know why. It seems like we get into stuff that
isn't our fault, and we had the best car we've ever had at Bristol. It
was really fast. We just needed to stay out of trouble, but that didn't
happen."

 

JEFF GREEN (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge Charger) - Finished 29th

"We blew a right-front tire. That set of tires was off from the get-go.
We were a lot better before we changed tires. It actually loosened the
car up after the adjustments we made. It just wouldn't turn. I guess it
blew that tire out. We got it too hot or something. I guess we were
coming up on a stop pretty soon, but we didn't want to be the caution.
My car was so tight I couldn't turn it. We had to slow it down so much
with the brakes, and that probably added to our failure. The tire got
too hot. Everything that was happening added to blowing it out. It was
going to be a good day for us, but we didn't want to be in here (behind
the wall)."