Catchfence

Dodge Motorsports

“It was a pretty good one today. We didn’t have a good car all day. We were pretty good starting out (the race) and then we got really loose in the middle portion and kind of ran out of things to try. We tried to get some track position (with pit strategy). We were able to hold on and took a car that was probably a 15th-place car at the end and got us up to fourth. I’m just really happy with the PPG Dodge. It was a lot of fun going out there and racing today. The closer you get up to the front, the more fun it is.”

ON PIT STRATEGY TODAY: “It worked out really well. We made some changes on the PPG Dodge that didn’t quite help us out. We got back in the pack a little bit and ran out of things to try other than getting some track position. Once we got up there, we weren’t good enough to win, but we were a top-five car. I’m just real proud of all these guys that work on the PPG Dodge and look forward to next weekend and try it again.”

IS THIS FINISH A GREAT BOOST FOR YOUR TEAM? “It sure is. We’ve had a lot of ups-and-downs this year and it kind of stays with our streak so far. I finish in the top 10 or have a bad day. We need to get a little bit of that middle ground. We took what we had today and got a little bit more out of it than what the car was worth, so that’s always good.”

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) Finished 5th

“It was good. We were in the top five all day with our Budweiser Dodge. That final restart was pretty wild. I was getting pushed and kind of blew Turn 1. I passed (Sam) Hornish and ran into (Juan Pablo) Montoya. He saved it, we kept going and the fastest car won I think.”

ANOTHER TOP-FIVE FINISH FOR YOUR BUDWEISER DODGE RACE TEAM, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU GUYS HAVE THIS CAR RUNNING REALLY WELL. “The team does an awesome job. The cars have been great. Kenny Francis (Crew Chief) and Keith Rodden (Car Engineer), everybody behind the scenes have been doing a really good job. Our pit stops are flawless. The guys do a great job…in and off pit road really quick…so thanks to them, we keep rolling and we just need to keep it up each week and get into the Chase.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 9th

“We had a nice solid run today, coming out with a top 10. Nobody gained or lost any points. I just felt like we had a car to win the race with 40 to go and we just had some untimely yellows. We didn’t get any yellows last week to get the lucky dog, but got a bunch of yellows this week to take a possible win away. We had a great car.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER (No. 44 Valvoline Dodge Charger) Finished 17th

“It’s one of those positions you sometime find yourself in, whether or not to pit when there’s a lot of cautions. It seems like every time we stayed out with the leaders, the people behind us would pit. It’s tough when that happens. Tires make such a big difference the first five laps; after that they even out, but it’s a big difference for those first few laps. It’s not what we really wanted. We thought we had a better car than that. Everybody fought hard and we’ll keep working.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger) Finished 24th

“We worked really hard today; we tried a bunch of different things. Kevin Buskirk tried everything trying to get the car to perform. We walked out of here with a decent finish. Obviously, we wanted to do better. Considering what we had to deal with today, we’ll take it and move on to Watkins Glen.”

REED SORENSON (No. 43 Air Force Dodge Charger) Finished 35th

“We had a pretty good car today. At the start, we were really fast, but got the right front damaged and that put us back in the field. We were playing pit strategy there at the end. Another car checked up and I got into him and that just killed our day. Then we got caught in that big wreck because we were back there. We had some speed today, but it’s frustrating when we don’t get to show the result of that speed.”

MARK MCARDLE (Director of Competition, Richard Petty Motorsports)

“We had all four of the Dodges from Richard Petty Motorsports running competitively. Certainly, we were positioned for top-10 and top-20 type finishes. It’s just the nature of racing, sometimes you get caught up in other people’s problems and I’m afraid that’s what happened to us today, in particular, the 43. I thought the 43 crew did a great job repairing the car to get back out there and pick up a position right at the very end of the race. We’re proud of the 9 team. They did a good job again today, running fast enough to lead the race and certainly contend for the win. They were smart enough to make sure we took the points we need in order to continue our quest to put that No. 9 in the Chase.”

KENNY FRANCIS (Crew Chief, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)

“I think they had a pretty good race here. It was pretty exciting on some of those restarts. Any time you’re running second and have the field stretched out, you want to see the race keep going and not have cautions. It is what it is. We just dealt with it the best we could. It was a good race. We were on two tires there at the end and all those guys had four…we were at a little disadvantage. The guys (No. 9 team) did a great job, Kasey did a great job and we had a good finish.”

PAT TRYSON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“We had a good car, but the way the cautions fell at the end kind of messed things up and we got a bad restart on that last restart. Otherwise, I don’t know if we could have beaten the 11, but we would have been top three. It’s disappointing, but it was a good point’s day. We’ll take it and move on.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release