Catchfence

Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

 
“We had a great adjustment that we made on the Miller Lite Dodge after practice to pick up the speed that we did, so it felt really good. We tried to get the pole, but came up a bit short. It’s better than where we have been.

“We doing the same thing behind the scenes, just working hard trying to find a good combination to make the car run through the bumps and still have the front end get the grip that it needs. It felt like I had a solid run through (Turns) 1 & 2 and after looking at the lap tracker, Kyle had a little bit better in 1 & 2 and that enabled him to beat us by a little bit. I felt that…like Kyle did…a lot of guys were going to come up (later in qualifying) and knock us off. It feels good with the Miller Lite Dodge to be running good. We qualified fourth last week and second this week. It’s just been a long offseason scratching our heads trying to find a good direction and so far it’s paid off.”

HOW DID YOU REFLECT DURING THE OFFSEASON TO GET BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL AGAIN IN THE RACE CAR? “I looked at a lot of different areas, as many as I could dream up: handling, down force, horsepower, pit crew, communication between the race track guys and the guys back at the shop and the shock department with shock rubbers. I tired to get involved with everybody. I feel like it was a learning process of trying to understand who I needed to talk to and how I needed to make it happen and push people into offices and make them communicate harder and work more diligently. And so, it just felt like a challenge to me to just get this thing going. We did good during some of the Chase races. We finished third at Charlotte and second at Phoenix. We were really just at the race track throwing darts at the dart board trying different setups, hoping that once we decided what were good setups versus bad, then we’d start working off of those good ones this season. So far, that’s how it’s turned out. It’s just having a vision and a plan and sometimes it comes together and sometimes it doesn’t. We’ll just have to keep working harder and working smarter.”

IS LAS VEGAS AS BIG TO YOU AS INDY IS TO TONY STEWART? “You could say that. This is our hometown. Kyle and I grew up watching this place being built, grew up watching races here. It’s definitely just as prestigious for the Busch brothers here in Vegas as it would be for Tony in Indy for sure.”

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON TOMORROW? “It’s just a matter of working on the handling now for a longer run. We’re abusing the right front tire with this package at this track, just based on last year. We blew a right front with 10 laps to go. We’ve just got to work on that in race trim and make sure that our cars races the full 427 miles this time around.”

Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)

 
“The car felt good and balanced. Our Budweiser Dodge drove nice. We just need to work on how our car handles the bumps in Turns 1 and 2. Once the sun goes down, you have the mindset to drive it into the corner a little harder than normally, so you need to watch how aggressive you are.”

Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger)

“We’ve got some work to do tomorrow. We didn’t qualify the way we wanted. We were just on the front splitter too much. I’m proud of my Stanley Dodge guys. Friday was a test session for us, trying a bunch of things to get our Stanley Dodge ready for Sunday.”

Reed Sorenson (No. 43 Valvoline Dodge Charger)

“Our Valvoline Dodge was OK. We were just a little bit too tight in (turns) 1 and 2 and in 4. I think we have some things to work from based off of what we learned in practice earlier today. If we can get the back freed-up a bit, we’ll be in good shape.”

David Stremme (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger)

“Our Penske Racing Dodge was pretty good, maybe just a tad on the free side. We probably didn’t keep up with the track like we needed too. Considering last week and this being only my second time qualifying with these guys, I feel pretty good.”

DID SEEING KURT’S (BUSCH) LAP HELP YOU? “A little bit. We were good in practice and I felt that we would be good in qualifying as well. We certainly have some good data to look over heading into practice tomorrow.”

Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger)
“After our little ‘kiss’ off the wall in practice, I was really please with how our Mobil 1 Dodge handled in qualifying. To not have to go to the backup car was a big break for us. The car ended up being actually better than it was in practice. I probably left a tenth-of-a-second in Turns 1 and 2. The rest of the run felt really smooth. We’ve raced a lot better than we’ve qualified this year, so I’m really excited for Sunday.”

AJ Allmendinger (No. 44 Harrah’s Dodge Charger)

 
“I’m happy to be qualified for another race. The lap wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but beggars can’t be choosers. This is my last hurdle to get over; I had never made this race before and that feels good. We just have to working on our car. We’re just a little too tight like we were last week. We’ll be OK.”

Darnell Communications For Dodge Motorsports, Press Release