Four Dodge drivers qualify in top 10 at Fontana

Posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 7:50 AM EDT.

Four Dodge drivers qualified in the top 10 for Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race — the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. After their qualifying runs, Dodge drivers had the following comments:

Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) Qualified 4th

“Our Budweiser Dodge has been handling well all weekend. It wasn’t the fastest car either time we’ve been on the track today, but we’ve been close. We will find out tomorrow how good our car is in race trim. We’ll keep working on it tomorrow and hopefully, Sunday night we’ll have a shot (at the win). We want to be on the track as much as we possibly can. That’s how we can make the car better, so we’ll use both practice sessions tomorrow to tune the car for a race setup.”

Patrick Carpentier (No 10 Sears Auto Center/Valvoline Dodge Charger) Qualified 5th

“It was a good lap. I was discussing the changes with the (crew) guys this morning. It was a little too loose. Last week, I got so loose in qualifying – it was my fault – we stopped qualifying (setup) too early in practice. This time we used it (practice time) all the way to the end. We made the perfect changes. The car was amazing. It really stuck well in (Turns) 3 and 4. It was a little tight in (Turns) 1 and 2, but that’s how I like it. They did a great job.”

Elliott Sadler (No. 19 McDonald’s Dodge Charger) Qualified 6th

“I really think we have something for these guys Sunday. The wind was definitely affecting the car (in qualifying). The wind affects this car more than it did the old car. This is the car we had at Indy and Michigan that we ran so well with. The guys in the shop worked very hard to turn this car around so we could bring it here. I hope it pays off for us. I’ve won here before; won the first night race here. That may be a little better than what we thought we could run. I don’t expect that to hold up. For us to go out second and run that kind of lap time, I’m ecstatic plus the car is driving great. We should have a great weekend.”

Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Qualified 9th

“I felt like we made a good change on our Miller Lite Dodge after practice to help with our tightness. The car was actually a little loose on our qualifying run. In my mind, it’s a good day when you can diagnose your problem (from practice), make an adjustment with this new car and make your car better. Making those adjustments is an area that we have really struggled with this year. Overall, it was a great lap for us and gives us a good starting spot for Sunday.”

Ryan Newman (No. 12 Kodak Dodge Charger) Qualified 17th

“That’s about right. I figured the worst 18th and the best 12th. I said that to someone before I went out. It was a decent pickup from where we were. Obviously, the track is a little quicker; we went almost a half-second quicker. It was decent run for the Kodak Dodge, but not at all where we want to be. Tomorrow is super important. The first (practice session) will be a little more difficult than the second, but either way you can see where you’re at compared to the competition. We’ve run well here, but we’ve been struggling at these (two-mile) tracks this year. The only people having fun are the 18 and 99. That’s pretty obvious.”

Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger) Qualified 23rd

“It was a pretty good lap for our Texaco/Havoline Dodge. I was a little tight coming to the green (flag) and I had to get out of the gas a bit. I probably lost a tenth or two at the green flag.

We’re making progress on the car. We came off the truck today with a completely different car from what we’ve been running, so it’s a good sign to know that we’re not too far off.”

Bobby Labonte (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker/Totino’s Dodge Charger) Qualified 24th

“We brought a new car here to Fontana and unloaded what we thought would be a good combination. It wasn’t too bad, just not fast enough for being the third car out for qualifying. We never got any speed in the car, but we made some changes to the car right before qualifying in trying to pick up a few tenths. We’ll be OK.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 7:50 AM EDT and is filed under Motorsports. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments are currently closed.