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From YourSITE.com NASCAR KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) NOTE: This was the first Cup win for the Dodge Charger (11th start) and the second straight victory for the Evernham Motorsports Dodge team at Richmond. Jeremy Mayfield won at Richmond in the No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge last fall. The Charger returned to the Cup circuit in 2005 after a long absence. Neil Bonnett recorded the last Charger victory on Nov. 20, 1977 in Ontario, Calif. Kahne, who won from the pole, scored his first career triumph in his 47th career start. He led seven times for 242 laps and scored a 1.674-second victory over Tony Stewart. Dodge drivers Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray finished third and 10th, respectively.
“This was one of our worst racetracks last year. We struggled here every race. We never crashed. We just couldn’t run good. We came out here and tested and made a few changes and the car was just awesome all night long. It was so fun racing Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch up there at the beginning of the race. To have Tony on my heels the whole race was pretty awesome to me. It was just an unbelievable feeling. I was pretty nervous. I’ve been leading races before and not won ‘em. I just got into turn one a little bit too soft and he (Stewart) got a good run on the outside. He knew I was going to the bottom. He came close. We got to turn three and I just floored it a little bit earlier than I would have on a normal lap and got position again. We were better out front. It was just a matter of getting position.
“They’ve helped me so much, Tony has, watching Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman that have done so much for USAC and Sprint Cars. It’s great to be able to race with them all night and race clean and hard.
“I think we’re on track. We’ve got two poles a first and a third the past two weeks. We’re on a roll. This was our last chance to get in the all-star race and we were able to do it. We look forward to running at Charlotte next weekend.
“Tony Stewart has helped me as much as any driver to get where I am right now. It was awesome to be able to race with him all night long and to be able to beat him was even better. He’s as good as they get in Nextel Cup and we were able to hold him off tonight. It’s an awesome win for everybody on our Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger race team. It’s the first win for the Charger, and that’s great. We’re excited to be here in victory lane.
“We waited longer than I would have thought to win. We started out last year good and had a lot of seconds and thirds and ran up front. We thought we could win races, but we weren’t able to do it. We had to wait a long time, but at least we finally won one and hopefully we’ll get more now. I was nervous on those last restarts.
“Tony went to the outside and got a great run on me on that last restart. He got a fender on me and I had to race him into turns three and four and we were able to clear him again. It’s a great feeling to be able to race Tony Stewart like that all day long.”
RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) “That was a tough race, but it was good to see a Dodge end up in victory lane. We had a really good car tonight. We ran into a few problems along the way, but we got a decent finish and gained a couple of spots in the standings.”
JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) “We were tight all night and didn’t run that well. I thought we were going to be a lot better. I’m proud of Kasey and his crew. They’ve done a great job all year and they deserve it. That’s two straight at Richmond for Evernham Motorsports and that’s great.”
JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger) “We had a top five car, but we had a little trouble on the last restart. The crew did a great job in the pits. I think it was all my pit crew tonight. We had a really good car, but we had some unreal pit stops. That got us up front, but it was a little frustrating with the 5 car there at the end. He was racing hard. It’s frustrating. He did a good job all night, but you’re always upset when you’re the victim.”
STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Charger) “We just couldn’t get any grip. The crew worked hard to pick up some spots in the pits, but it just wasn’t enough. It was a long night.”
RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Charger) “We were almost in the right place at the right time. I’ll bet Kasey is shaking inside and out right now. He’s an awesome racecar driver. Three open wheel guys finished in the top three, and that’s great. I wish we could have won for some different reasons, but Kasey did an awesome job, drove a smart race and had a really fast racecar. I don’t know what Tony was thinking. He should have let me pass him. It’s good for us as a team to run in the top five two weeks in a row. We’ve struggled to do that this year. We’ve struggled on that track. Hopefully we can keep it up.
“I told him (Tony Stewart) he is a hell of a racecar driver. Anybody else I would have knocked out of the way. We’ve got a lot of respect for each other even though we’ve beat heads once in awhile, we’ve got a lot of respect for what we do.
“From what I remember, my (first Cup) win at Loudon, you just do your best no matter what you’re doing. You don’t have a ton of experience, so you just go with the experience you’ve got and drive your racecar to the best of your ability. I’m sure Kasey will look back on this day at some point and say, ‘man, if I was only that smart back then I could have won a heck of a lot more races.’ He’s a heck of a racecar driver, really a smart kid, and this won’t be his only win.”
DOES IT SURPRISE YOU IT TOOK DODGE SO LONG TO WIN? “Not really, barring the last caution last week we would have ended that a week ago (first Dodge Charger Cup win). Dodge for sure, I won’t say we’ve struggled, but we’ve worked and worked on the balance and the new aero pieces we had to work with that the other teams basically could just carry on from last year. We had to relearn some things. I wouldn’t say we were playing catch up, but I think we were playing a game of balancing it out and working it out and a few of us have got it right.
“Kyle (Busch) no doubt can drive a racecar. He can drive a racecar fast. He’s run good here before, especially in the Busch car. He led a lot of laps and won the race. That transfers over. My first Cup race here I ran second. You can’t always judge a book by its cover.
“There’s two ways of looking at that. Kasey was a proven winner before he got to Nextel Cup. He knew what it was like to win. Some people never have that opportunity. From a confidence standpoint, you as well as your team have been working for that first win with him. They carry that momentum. They carry that mentality that they’ve done it and they can do it and they’ve proven they can get to victory lane and they’ll try to do it again.”
RAY EVERNHAM (Owner, CEO Evernham Motorsports) “Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick have done a tremendous job building what they’ve built. Hats off to them. The future, the business plan looks like you’re going to have to go to more and more cars if you’re going to be competitive. We’re trying to go to three cars right now. It allows you to have more assets, spend more money on research, development, engineering and things like that, and it gives you more chances to win when you’ve got five good cars versus two good cars. I don’t want to sit here and say it’s a David and Goliath type situation because we can beat them. That’s not being cocky. We’ve got the right things in line to beat them. We’ve got two great drivers and two great race teams and we’ve still got Bill Elliott doing all of our R&D. We’ve just got to hit our stride. It’s more special to me, this win and what it means because this will always be remembered as Kasey Kahne’s first win in the next several years. He’s really going to do big things in the sport, and some day he and Tommy will be sitting at the head table in New York and things like that we hope, but we can always look back at this and say, ‘this is where they got their first win together.’ To do that and be the first win for the new Dodge Charger, it means a lot. Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick are going to be very tough to beat this year, but if we use our stuff efficiently and do the right things, we can beat them.” TOMMY BALDWIN (Crew Chief No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) “We ran so good at the end of last year. We had some good tests in the winter and Kasey just thought because they cut the spoiler off that’s how the cars were supposed to drive. They were supposed to be that loose. We tested decent and the speeds were good, but as soon as we got around cars at Las Vegas and California we were horrible. We had to go to work. The engineering group did a good job of planning and putting together a test we went to. The 19 car went to Kentucky and we had a lot of packages to try. We hit on something and that’s what started steamrolling. Every test we went to we worked on something else and it got to last week here. We felt like when we left here we weren’t very good, and the guys just dug their heels in the ground back at the shop and they had a great plan. We unloaded and we were really good. We never made a mockup run. Our first mockup run was in qualifying. We worked on making sure our tire wear was real good on long runs. We were making the longest runs in practice yesterday. We knew we were decent. The only thing we weren’t sure of was what the track was going to do after the Busch race and a little bit hotter weather tonight, but it all paid off.”
RAY EVERNHAM (Owner, CEO Evernham Motorsports) “On the chassis side of things we’ve got to work it out. The guys have come a long way with that, but when you throw something in the mix, it’s tough to develop it. Tonight there was aero involved, but a large part of it was mechanical grip that Tommy and Josh Brown and guys that worked on springs and shocks came up here and tested. They tested back to back, one of our last year’s cars against one of our new cars and they found some things to make that car a little bit better.
“We’ve really have to throw everything away from last year and start fresh. None of the stuff we did last year was working. Some of the stuff they did tonight still makes he shake my head. It’s different from what you normally do. I think getting so open minded again, and saying the last three weeks, ‘OK, we came here last year and won, but we’re going to do something totally different.’ It’s been a building process to find that information, but it seems now we have a combination that this Charger seems to like.”
TOMMY BALDWIN (Crew Chief No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) “Basically what we did, we scuffed a set of tires yesterday to prepare for the end of the race. We had a good idea how long the tires would last in the run. We knew with 60 laps to go we were done with the pit stops. We were sticking to our plan. If the caution came out anywhere between 290 and on we were staying out the whole run. We basically knew that. That lap 353 there was no way we were coming in. We ran our fastest lap with three laps to go, so the Goodyears were really good tonight.
“We knew that on every restart if we got off two in the lead we’d probably be OK. It was pretty close there (on the last restart). Tony did everything he could do to get a fender on the right rear quarter and slow us down a little bit. He did that, but our car just turned a little bit better than three and four than his and we got the lead back. That’s all she wrote.”
ANY CONCERN ABOUT KASEY’S NERVES? “No, are you crazy? Did you see how fast he drives? I think him doing all the things he’s done in his career, growing up with the sprint car races, all the short races, that was a perfect environment, also a perfect environment for Stewart, too. That’s how he grew up. It was fun, and I’m glad we’re sitting here and not Zippy and Coach Gibbs and Stewart.
“I think the thing that hurt us most this year is when we came out of the box and didn’t run half as good as we expected. Our second-place at Martinsville was a good second place. We had two or three last year that really stunk because we gave away some races and had some dumb things happened during the race, a lot of things were out of our control. We felt the biggest thing was the beginning of the year not coming out of the box strong. This is a big weight off all of our shoulders, including Kasey’s. I know getting this first victory we can ease up on the tension and really go racing, really clear our minds out. I think it’s going to be for the better.”
“This was definitely my dad’s favorite place. The Sawyers over the last 10 years, they really took care of my dad. They sponsored his modified, and it feels good to finally get a win here, especially with Kasey. I’m come close with the other teams I’ve been associated with to win a race here and some weird things have happened. To put together a package like we did tonight feels pretty good. I really wish he (father) was here to witness it, either that or I’d get a voice mail on the phone and hear what he would say. I miss him, but I was telling Ray on the way up here this was his favorite place and it was special tonight to win.”
RAY EVERNHAM (Owner, CEO Evernham Motorsports) “I’m not really in the same position I used to be. The relationship between Tommy and Kasey is more like it used to be between Jeff and I. Now I sit up there on the box and look at ‘are we putting another set of tires on?’ and things like that. I’m really proud of the way that the overall team got together and said, ‘look we need to get back to the basics we were working with last year and start with a clean sheet. No matter how good we did last year, we’re going to give the car what it wants. It’s really turned around for them. That’s a hard thing to do, to walk away from a combination when they’ve had success with it. They trust in their engineering and testing and they move on.”
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) “I feel great. It’s been coming for awhile. This team has really worked hard, everybody at Evernham Motorsports. Ray has given us everything we need to go fast. It’s awesome to win here, win with Tommy. Everybody did such a great job tonight. They kept me out front and the car was great. We made a few small changes throughout the race and just kept up with the racetrack. To win at Richmond, a track we struggled at last year, a track that definitely wasn’t one of my favorites last year, it’s pretty cool. To do it the last chance to get in the all-star race next weekend is even better. It’s a great weekend for us. A couple of poles, a fourth and a first, that’s not too bad for Evernham Motorsports this weekend.
“I think it’s Evernham Motorsports. Last year Jeremy and his team stepped up big time at this race to go into the Chase for the Cup. They did a great job to do that, and this year we stepped up to get in the all-star challenge. We’ve been on the edge of winning races for a year and 10 races. We were able to do it tonight. Tonight was just the night. We came so close and always thought when it was our time we’d win a race. Tonight was our time, and it happens to be before the all-star race and that’s even better. It gives the pit crew another chance to perform next weekend and show their stuff. They’re pretty tight. They were great all night tonight and next week in the all-star race they’ll show their stuff again and we’ll be able to start up front in that.
“Early in the race I’d get out first and couldn’t hold off Tony or Kurt when it would go green. I was a little too tight getting in the corners. That’s what Tony worked on all night was getting it freed up getting in the corner and through the center. There at the end we could take off as good as any of them. Tony could stick with us there at the end for a lap or two and we’d slowly start creeping away. Our Dodge Charger was just great. It handled awesome at the end.
“The only reason I was concerned about seeing Tony is because I know how aggressive and how good he is. I wasn’t concerned one bit about him bumping me out of the way or anything like that. I was concerned about him driving by just because he’s that fast. That was the only thing I was concerned about, hitting my marks and doing my things right because I knew our car was good enough to win. Other than that, it was just a lot of fun racing with Tony.
“I was always real happy with running second, not when we lost by a foot or we were leading a race and spun in oil. Those times I wasn’t happy at all, but when we came home second early in the season and second at Martinsville this season to Jeff Gordon, I had nothing for Jeff Gordon. I was happy as I could be to get that many points and run that great. I would have loved to win. We only had six seconds. We could have had 15. I would have been more mad if we’d had that many.
“I definitely knew that was Tony and how good he is here. To beat Tony on my first win, and he said at the end, ‘to run second to you on your first Nextel Cup win’ he was happy to do that. I was happy to be able to beat him and someone who has helped me as much as he has to get to this point in some of the Busch stuff and some of the things that went on earlier in my career. To race with him that close all night long and then beat him is very cool.
“I was pretty relieved, just because we didn’t have to get to the traffic. The traffic was tough. It’s tough to pass good cars, especially when your tires get old. By the time you get to good cars, our tires had 30-40 laps on ‘em and they’re getting blown up and you have to kind of get aggressive and make the move. The guys are fighting to stay on the lead lap because it’s a big pack of cars. Tony was able to close up on me and move around the racetrack pretty good the first half of the race. The second half I kept in front of him that final time we got to lapped traffic and started pulling back away when I got through some of it. We had definitely got our car better, and I was getting better, kind of using the track better to help me other than letting the other cars push me around.
“Last year we struggled in Virginia and this year we’ve been first and second. It’s pretty cool to run that good. I know tonight after I won I went around the track and the crowd was going nuts. They were on their feet and yelling and stuff, and I was doing the same in the car. It was neat to see that and finally get our first win and to do it at Richmond, a track that’s so tough to do it at means a lot to me and this whole Evernham Motorsports team.
“There’s no pay back ever from Chicago. We got over that. We had a tough time last year through the middle part of the year. We’re back to where we were before that. We’re buddies, and that’s the way it is. To beat Tony Stewart just means a lot because of how good the guy is. Every single week he’s up front, no matter if his car is bad or good. He finds some way to finish in the top 10 and keep good points. Tonight he had a great car, and he was up front all night. This is one of his best tracks. To be able to race with him and beat him, it’s just awesome to beat that good of a driver.
“It was great to do that. I thought about it during the week. This was our last chance (to get in all-star race) other than winning the challenge or something like that, but during the race I didn’t think about that once. I forgot all about it, and I didn’t think about it until I think one of my interviews. One of the pit guys yelled it, and once I remembered it, it was huge to do it the week before the all-star race. I never thought about it during the race. We had a lot of other things to be thinking about.” © Copyright 2001 by YourSITE.com |