Catchfence

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACING AT PHOENIX THIS WEEKEND? “Phoenix, to me, has been a track where I’ve really never run that great at. I’ve been like 15th more than up front. It’s a track that I need to get better at and we need to keep working on why I haven’t figured out how to go fast here and contend for any kind of win. That’s what we’ve been working on today. We made one qualifying run at the end of practice and had a nice lap. We’ve qualified pretty well here in the past and I think that should be decent for us here today. Tomorrow will be practice to keep working and figure out how I can go faster here for the entire race run and not just for a couple laps.”

IF YOU WERE A BETTING MAN, DO YOU BET AGAINST THE 48 TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “I think we all saw last week that things can happen and you can lose those points. As long as they finish races and run like they have for the first half of the Chase, they’re going to be pretty tough to beat. They’re a good team and Jimmie does a great job at driving. This sport, anything can happen. We’ve had four good (Chase’s) races and four bad ones. Not because we haven’t been a top-10 car or haven’t had good race cars, that’s just our luck. If Jimmie has another bad one, it’s going to be anybody’s race.”

CONSIDER MORE LAYOFFS AT RPM THIS WEEK, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TEAM’S MOOD? “It’s just back to the track for the 9 guys. Same thing that we’ve done all year when anything out of the ordinary happens there. They show up…same group of guys…and work hard and do everything they can to give me the best car they can give me. As a team, a driver, a crew chief…Kenny Francis…we can only do the things that can benefit us and help us and that’s to stay focus on doing what we enjoy doing. That’s how our whole team has been so far this weekend. It’s nice to have a group of guys like that.”

HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE YATES SHOP? DO YOU HAVE A FEEL FOR WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN? WHAT DOES KASEY KAHNE’S FUTURE LOOK LIKE FOR 2010? “From the sounds of it, talking to all the guys, everybody wants to stick together. I feel like we’re going to have the same team. I’ve been to the NASCAR R & D Center. I’ve been to the Concord Airport (facility), so I’ve driven by it and that’s it. As far as next year and testing and all that planning, I don’t know. I know that we’re trying to win races and do everything possible to win, but as of right now, that deal is not done. To me, there are still a lot of unknowns. For me to go over there…I doubt that they want me over there and I don’t know if I should be over there. I don’t drive for them yet. I don’t know how all that’s going to work. I know it’s not done. I know that I’m going to have the same team and that’s all that I can ask for is sticking with Kenny Francis and our guys that we have.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOMESTEAD NEXT WEEKEND? “I’ve always liked Homestead. That’s where I won my first Nationwide race. I’ve run well there in a Cup car. Every year, we seem to qualify good there. It’s a different track. The banking…you go into Turn 1 and it is real flat and you hit the banking and you’ve already started turning. It’s kind of similar in (Turn) 3 and (Turn) off of 4. It flattens out before the exit of the corner, so it’s different. Your car changes a lot. But it’s a pretty neat track. I like racing there. I like trying to close the year out strong. We’ve been able to do that a couple of times there. I made a couple of mistakes there, but hopefully we’ll close out the year strong and finish top 10 in points. That’s all that we can shoot for.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release